How to send email attachments?

Question

I am having problems understanding how to email an attachment using Python. I have successfully emailed simple messages with the smtplib. Could someone please e

Answer 1

Gmail version, working with Python 3.6 (note that you will need to change your Gmail settings to be able to send email via smtp from it:

import smtplib
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication
from os.path import basename


def send_mail(send_from: str, subject: str, text: str, 
send_to: list, files= None):

    send_to= default_address if not send_to else send_to

    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['From'] = send_from
    msg['To'] = ', '.join(send_to)  
    msg['Subject'] = subject

    msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

    for f in files or []:
        with open(f, "rb") as fil: 
            ext = f.split('.')[-1:]
            attachedfile = MIMEApplication(fil.read(), _subtype = ext)
            attachedfile.add_header(
                'content-disposition', 'attachment', filename=basename(f) )
        msg.attach(attachedfile)


    smtp = smtplib.SMTP(host="smtp.gmail.com", port= 587) 
    smtp.starttls()
    smtp.login(username,password)
    smtp.sendmail(send_from, send_to, msg.as_string())
    smtp.close()

Usage:

username = 'my-address@gmail.com'
password = 'top-secret'
default_address = ['my-address2@gmail.com'] 

send_mail(send_from= username,
subject="test",
text="text",
send_to= None,
files= # pass a list with the full filepaths here...
)

To use with any other email provider, just change the smtp configurations.

Answer 2

Here is the modified version from Oli for python 3

import smtplib
from pathlib import Path
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.utils import COMMASPACE, formatdate
from email import encoders


def send_mail(send_from, send_to, subject, message, files=[],
              server="localhost", port=587, username='', password='',
              use_tls=True):
    """Compose and send email with provided info and attachments.

    Args:
        send_from (str): from name
        send_to (list[str]): to name(s)
        subject (str): message title
        message (str): message body
        files (list[str]): list of file paths to be attached to email
        server (str): mail server host name
        port (int): port number
        username (str): server auth username
        password (str): server auth password
        use_tls (bool): use TLS mode
    """
    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['From'] = send_from
    msg['To'] = COMMASPACE.join(send_to)
    msg['Date'] = formatdate(localtime=True)
    msg['Subject'] = subject

    msg.attach(MIMEText(message))

    for path in files:
        part = MIMEBase('application', "octet-stream")
        with open(path, 'rb') as file:
            part.set_payload(file.read())
        encoders.encode_base64(part)
        part.add_header('Content-Disposition',
                        'attachment; filename="{}"'.format(Path(path).name))
        msg.attach(part)

    smtp = smtplib.SMTP(server, port)
    if use_tls:
        smtp.starttls()
    smtp.login(username, password)
    smtp.sendmail(send_from, send_to, msg.as_string())
    smtp.quit()

Answer 3

Another way with python 3 (If someone is searching):

import smtplib
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email import encoders

fromaddr = "sender mail address"
toaddr = "receiver mail address"

msg = MIMEMultipart()

msg['From'] = fromaddr
msg['To'] = toaddr
msg['Subject'] = "SUBJECT OF THE EMAIL"

body = "TEXT YOU WANT TO SEND"

msg.attach(MIMEText(body, 'plain'))

filename = "fileName"
attachment = open("path of file", "rb")

part = MIMEBase('application', 'octet-stream')
part.set_payload((attachment).read())
encoders.encode_base64(part)
part.add_header('Content-Disposition', "attachment; filename= %s" % filename)

msg.attach(part)

server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)
server.starttls()
server.login(fromaddr, "sender mail password")
text = msg.as_string()
server.sendmail(fromaddr, toaddr, text)
server.quit()

Make sure to allow “less secure apps” on your Gmail account

Answer 4

from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.image import MIMEImage
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
import smtplib

msg = MIMEMultipart()

password = "password"
msg['From'] = "from_address"
msg['To'] = "to_address"
msg['Subject'] = "Attached Photo"
msg.attach(MIMEImage(file("abc.jpg").read()))
file = "file path"
fp = open(file, 'rb')
img = MIMEImage(fp.read())
fp.close()
msg.attach(img)
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com: 587')
server.starttls()
server.login(msg['From'], password)
server.sendmail(msg['From'], msg['To'], msg.as_string())
server.quit()

Answer 5

Below is combination of what I've found from SoccerPlayer's post Here and the following link that made it easier for me to attach an xlsx file. Found Here

file = 'File.xlsx'
username=''
password=''
send_from = ''
send_to = 'recipient1 , recipient2'
Cc = 'recipient'
msg = MIMEMultipart()
msg['From'] = send_from
msg['To'] = send_to
msg['Cc'] = Cc
msg['Date'] = formatdate(localtime = True)
msg['Subject'] = ''
server = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com')
port = '587'
fp = open(file, 'rb')
part = MIMEBase('application','vnd.ms-excel')
part.set_payload(fp.read())
fp.close()
encoders.encode_base64(part)
part.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment', filename='Name File Here')
msg.attach(part)
smtp = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com')
smtp.ehlo()
smtp.starttls()
smtp.login(username,password)
smtp.sendmail(send_from, send_to.split(',') + msg['Cc'].split(','), msg.as_string())
smtp.quit()

Answer 6

Other answers are excellent, though I still wanted to share a different approach in case someone is looking for alternatives.

Main difference here is that using this approach you can use HTML/CSS to format your message, so you can get creative and give some styling to your email. Though you aren't enforced to use HTML, you can also still use only plain text.

Notice that this function accepts sending the email to multiple recipients and also allows to attach multiple files.

I've only tried this on Python 2, but I think it should work fine on 3 as well:

import os.path
import smtplib
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.mime.application import MIMEApplication

def send_email(subject, message, from_email, to_email=[], attachment=[]):
    """
    :param subject: email subject
    :param message: Body content of the email (string), can be HTML/CSS or plain text
    :param from_email: Email address from where the email is sent
    :param to_email: List of email recipients, example: ["a@a.com", "b@b.com"]
    :param attachment: List of attachments, exmaple: ["file1.txt", "file2.txt"]
    """
    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['Subject'] = subject
    msg['From'] = from_email
    msg['To'] = ", ".join(to_email)
    msg.attach(MIMEText(message, 'html'))

    for f in attachment:
        with open(f, 'rb') as a_file:
            basename = os.path.basename(f)
            part = MIMEApplication(a_file.read(), Name=basename)

        part['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename="%s"' % basename
        msg.attach(part)

    email = smtplib.SMTP('your-smtp-host-name.com')
    email.sendmail(from_email, to_email, msg.as_string())

I hope this helps! :-)