retrieve/search for emails using message ID through python IMAP

Question

Is there a way to retrieve/search for emails using message ID through python IMAP programmatically.I want to extract attachments of the mail using message ID. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Answer 1

Thank you all for coming up to help me . I got it done finally. I was searching for a way to get the attachments of a mail with the given Message ID , I didn't know how to specify the search command with the message ID in the HEADER option or any other search option.

I feel it can be helpful to someone like me who is new to IMAP and wants to similar task finally, I got it through this search command :

    #message id
    mid = '<CACDWeWHLGKbEHR-jMmx8da9QzkpPxC7Dizy6T4fm2V30JoHMuw@mail.gmail.com>'

    #the search command
    typ, data = imapSession.search(None, '(HEADER Message-ID "%s")' % mid)

Answer 2

You may use imap_tools package: https://github.com/ikvk/imap_tools

If you want to find message by Message-ID:

from imap_tools import MailBox, A, H

with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('[email protected]', 'pwd', 'INBOX') as mailbox:
    for msg in mailbox.fetch(A(header=H('Message-ID', '[email protected]'))):
        print(msg.date, msg.headers['message-id'])

But often, most likely you need an "uid"

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3501#section-2.3.1.1

some examples:

with MailBox('imap.mail.com').login('[email protected]', 'pwd', 'INBOX') as mailbox:

    # COPY all messages from current folder to folder1, *by one
    for msg in mailbox.fetch():
        res = mailbox.copy(msg.uid, 'INBOX/folder1')

    # DELETE all messages from current folder
    mailbox.delete(mailbox.uids())

    # FLAG unseen messages in current folder as Answered and Flagged
    flags = (imap_tools.StandardMessageFlags.ANSWERED, imap_tools.StandardMessageFlags.FLAGGED)
    mailbox.flag(mailbox.uids(AND(seen=False)), flags, True)

Regards, imap_tools author.