Downloading multiple attachments using imaplib

Question

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 of those attachments? The code below only downloads a single attachment from an e-mail.

detach_dir = 'c:/downloads'
m = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.gmail.com")
m.login('[email protected]','3323434')
m.select("[Gmail]/All Mail")

resp, items = m.search(None, "(UNSEEN)")
items = items[0].split()

for emailid in items:
    resp, data = m.fetch(emailid, "(RFC822)") 
    email_body = data[0][1] 
    mail = email.message_from_string(email_body) 
    temp = m.store(emailid,'+FLAGS', '\\Seen')
    m.expunge()

    if mail.get_content_maintype() != 'multipart':
        continue

    print "["+mail["From"]+"] :" + mail["Subject"]

    for part in mail.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(detach_dir, filename)

        if not os.path.isfile(att_path) :
            fp = open(att_path, 'wb')
            fp.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
            fp.close()
            return HttpResponse('check folder')

Answer 1

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', '[email protected]')         """         return email.utils.parseaddr(email_address) 

Answer 2

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) 

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

You may use imap_tools package: https://pypi.org/project/imap-tools/

from imap_tools import MailBox
with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('[email protected]', '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\'