(PowerShell) Download and Save Email Attachments (POP3)

See more POP3 Examples

Downloads emails from a POP3 mailbox and saves all attachments.

Chilkat .NET Downloads Chilkat .NET Assemblies

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-9.5.0-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

# This example assumes the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

# The mailman object is used for receiving (POP3) 
# and sending (SMTP) email.
$mailman = New-Object Chilkat.MailMan

# Set the POP3 server's hostname
$mailman.MailHost = "pop.yourserver.com"

# Set the POP3 login/password.
$mailman.PopUsername = "***"
$mailman.PopPassword = "***"

# Copy the all email from the user's POP3 mailbox 
# into a bundle object.  The email remains on the server.
# CopyMail is a reasonable choice for POP3 maildrops that don't have too many
# emails. For larger mail drops, one might download emails one at a time..
$bundle = $mailman.CopyMail()
if ($mailman.LastMethodSuccess -ne $true) {
    $($mailman.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

# The directory path can be relative or absolute.
# This shows a Windows style directory path.  On other operating systems, the path
# would be different..
$dirPath = "c:/myAttachments"

$bundleIndex = 0
$numMessages = $bundle.MessageCount

while (($bundleIndex -lt $numMessages)) {
    $email = $bundle.GetEmail($bundleIndex)

    # Save all attachments to the specified directory.
    # The directory is automatically created if it does not yet exist.
    $success = $email.SaveAllAttachments($dirPath)
    if ($success -ne $true) {
        $($email.LastErrorText)
        exit
    }

    # The OverwriteExisting property controls whether already-existing files
    # are automatically overwritten.  By default, it is set to $true so that existing
    # files will be overwritten.

    # Setting OverwriteExisting = $false will cause the attachment-saving methods to generate
    # unique filenames if a file with the same name already exists.  The actual filename(s)
    # saved will be present by calling GetAttachmentFilename for each attachment *after*
    # saving.
    # For example...
    $email.OverwriteExisting = $false
    $success = $email.SaveAllAttachments($dirPath)
    if ($success -ne $true) {
        $($email.LastErrorText)
        exit
    }

    $numAttachments = $email.NumAttachments
    $attachIndex = 0
    while (($attachIndex -lt $numAttachments)) {
        # If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
        # GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
        $($email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $attachIndex = $attachIndex + 1
    }

    # Attachments can also be saved individually.
    $attachIndex = 0
    while (($attachIndex -lt $numAttachments)) {

        $("Original Filename: " + $email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $success = $email.SaveAttachedFile($attachIndex,$dirPath)
        if ($success -ne $true) {
            $($email.LastErrorText)
            exit
        }

        # If OverwriteExisting = $true, the saved filename will always equal the original filename,
        # unless there are characters present in the filename that are not allowed by Windows,
        # such as * ? < > | etc.  In those cases the illegal characters are either removed or replaced
        # with underscore characters to allow the file to be saved.
        $("Saved Filename: " + $email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $attachIndex = $attachIndex + 1
    }

    $bundleIndex = $bundleIndex + 1
}