Very simple Python script to dump all emails in an IMAP folder to files.

gmail_imap_dump_eml.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# Very simple Python script to dump all emails in an IMAP folder to files.  
# This code is released into the public domain.
#
# RKI Nov 2013
#
import sys
import imaplib
import getpass

IMAP_SERVER = 'imap.gmail.com'
EMAIL_ACCOUNT = "notatallawhistleblowerIswear@gmail.com"
EMAIL_FOLDER = "Top Secret/PRISM Documents"
OUTPUT_DIRECTORY = 'C:/src/tmp'

PASSWORD = getpass.getpass()


def process_mailbox(M):
    """
    Dump all emails in the folder to files in output directory.
    """

    rv, data = M.search(None, "ALL")
    if rv != 'OK':
        print "No messages found!"
        return

    for num in data[0].split():
        rv, data = M.fetch(num, '(RFC822)')
        if rv != 'OK':
            print "ERROR getting message", num
            return
        print "Writing message ", num
        f = open('%s/%s.eml' %(OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, num), 'wb')
        f.write(data[0][1])
        f.close()

def main():
    M = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(IMAP_SERVER)
    M.login(EMAIL_ACCOUNT, PASSWORD)
    rv, data = M.select(EMAIL_FOLDER)
    if rv == 'OK':
        print "Processing mailbox: ", EMAIL_FOLDER
        process_mailbox(M)
        M.close()
    else:
        print "ERROR: Unable to open mailbox ", rv
    M.logout()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Very useful, thank you. Only had to add parentheses to print()'s for 3.4 compatibility.

Getting "ERROR: Unable to open mailbox " . Why is it unable to open mailbox?

How to check Unseen messages only

Use the UNSEEN search tag.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.imap-search.php
https://gist.github.com/PandaWhoCodes/f7adce3bff9bb1f508b3ab42db05a6bf

I have updated it to Python3 and extended it to support an UPLOAD mode.
Check https://gist.github.com/paloha/a5dc2843a342b1f8b814c92a098ca2a2

I have updated it to Python3 and extended it to support an UPLOAD mode.
Check https://gist.github.com/paloha/a5dc2843a342b1f8b814c92a098ca2a2

can u give me tutorial for use ur script? i got error because

@kingsalman99 what tutorial would you like to have? You just need to create a tmp folder, set your credentials at the beginning of the script and run it with python. What error did you get? Also be sure you refer to your IMAP folders correctly. I had a structure INBOX.FolderToBeDownloaded or INBOX.FolderToUpload, this might be different in your case. You should be able to list the folders with imaplib. This answer might help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44230855/python-imaplib-selecting-folders

solved thanks

How do you get the emails out of the folder? I can specify a folder with "M.select('folder-name')" but I don't know how to iterate over emails in that folder. Thanks very much

@julkhami - you do it with search. See line 25:

rv, data = M.search(None, "ALL")

hi,

I had issues with Python3 and I've got help :-) https://gist.github.com/KevinHonka/616d723dbc88cb466470b3f3cf79dca0

@robulouski thank you very much for the script !