How can I download multiple attachments from a single mail using imaplib?
Let\'s say I have an e-mail and that e-mail contains 4 attachments. How can I download all
You may use imap_tools package: https://pypi.org/project/imap-tools/
from imap_tools import MailBox
with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('test@mail.com', 'password', 'INBOX') as mailbox:
for message in mailbox.fetch():
for att in message.attachments: # list: [Attachment objects]
att.filename # str: 'cat.jpg'
att.content_type # str: 'image/jpeg'
att.payload # bytes: b'\xff\xd8\xff\xe0\'
I reworked the code, breaking it up into functions. I use PEEK
so I don't change the UNREAD status of the email messages.
I'm posting my take on the problem, similar to @John, but I use only functions instead of classes:
import imaplib
import email
# Connect to an IMAP server
def connect(server, user, password):
m = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(server)
m.login(user, password)
m.select()
return m
# Download all attachment files for a given email
def downloaAttachmentsInEmail(m, emailid, outputdir):
resp, data = m.fetch(emailid, "(BODY.PEEK[])")
email_body = data[0][1]
mail = email.message_from_string(email_body)
if mail.get_content_maintype() != 'multipart':
return
for part in mail.walk():
if part.get_content_maintype() != 'multipart' and part.get('Content-Disposition') is not None:
open(outputdir + '/' + part.get_filename(), 'wb').write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
# Download all the attachment files for all emails in the inbox.
def downloadAllAttachmentsInInbox(server, user, password, outputdir):
m = connect(server, user, password)
resp, items = m.search(None, "(ALL)")
items = items[0].split()
for emailid in items:
downloaAttachmentsInEmail(m, emailid, outputdir)
For any future python travellers. Here is a class that downloads any attachment found for an email and saves it to a specific location.
import email
import imaplib
import os
class FetchEmail():
connection = None
error = None
def __init__(self, mail_server, username, password):
self.connection = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(mail_server)
self.connection.login(username, password)
self.connection.select(readonly=False) # so we can mark mails as read
def close_connection(self):
"""
Close the connection to the IMAP server
"""
self.connection.close()
def save_attachment(self, msg, download_folder="/tmp"):
"""
Given a message, save its attachments to the specified
download folder (default is /tmp)
return: file path to attachment
"""
att_path = "No attachment found."
for part in msg.walk():
if part.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart':
continue
if part.get('Content-Disposition') is None:
continue
filename = part.get_filename()
att_path = os.path.join(download_folder, filename)
if not os.path.isfile(att_path):
fp = open(att_path, 'wb')
fp.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
fp.close()
return att_path
def fetch_unread_messages(self):
"""
Retrieve unread messages
"""
emails = []
(result, messages) = self.connection.search(None, 'UnSeen')
if result == "OK":
for message in messages[0].split(' '):
try:
ret, data = self.connection.fetch(message,'(RFC822)')
except:
print "No new emails to read."
self.close_connection()
exit()
msg = email.message_from_bytes(data[0][1])
if isinstance(msg, str) == False:
emails.append(msg)
response, data = self.connection.store(message, '+FLAGS','\\Seen')
return emails
self.error = "Failed to retreive emails."
return emails
def parse_email_address(self, email_address):
"""
Helper function to parse out the email address from the message
return: tuple (name, address). Eg. ('John Doe', 'jdoe@example.com')
"""
return email.utils.parseaddr(email_address)
@sashoalm 's code worked for me with a minor change:
change mail = email.message_from_string(email_body)
in downloaAttachmentsInEmail
to mail = email.message_from_bytes(email_body)
I was getting an error when trying to read bytes (the attachment) as a string. Now it works perfectly for me.
Heres a full example of the code:
server = 'outlook.office365.com'
user = 'YOUR USERNAME'
password = 'YOUR PASSWORD'
outputdir = 'DIRECTORY THAT YOU WANT FILES DOWNLOADED TO'
subject = 'Data Exports' #subject line of the emails you want to download attachments from
def connect(server, user, password):
m = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(server)
m.login(user, password)
m.select()
return m
def downloaAttachmentsInEmail(m, emailid, outputdir):
resp, data = m.fetch(emailid, "(BODY.PEEK[])")
email_body = data[0][1]
mail = email.message_from_bytes(email_body)
if mail.get_content_maintype() != 'multipart':
return
for part in mail.walk():
if part.get_content_maintype() != 'multipart' and part.get('Content-Disposition') is not None:
open(outputdir + '/' + part.get_filename(), 'wb').write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
#download attachments from all emails with a specified subject line
def downloadAttachments(subject):
m = connect(server, user, password)
m.select("Inbox")
typ, msgs = m.search(None, '(SUBJECT "' + subject + '")')
msgs = msgs[0].split()
for emailid in msgs:
downloaAttachmentsInEmail(m, emailid, outputdir)
downloadAttachments(subject)
* You can try following function to get mail attachment
def create_message_attachment(self,msg_str):
count = 1
body = ''
content_id = ''
for part in msg_str.walk():
file_name_gl = None
mptype = part.get_content_maintype()
file_name_gl = part.get_filename()
if mptype == "multipart":
continue
elif mptype == "text":
if not file_name_gl: continue
elif mptype == "image":
content_id = part.get('Content-ID')
if not file_name_gl:
file_name_gl = 'image_' + str(count) + '.' + part.get_content_subtype()
count = count + 1
body = part.get_payload(decode = True)
if type(body) <> type(None) :
body = body.strip()
if body <> "":
body = base64.encodestring(body)
You code appears okay except for the return
(perhaps a typo?) right after the fp.close()
:
...
fp.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
fp.close()
return HttpResponse('check folder')
After saving the first attachment it returns from the function. Comment out that line and see if it fixes your issue.