(VB.NET) 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 Framework Chilkat for .NET Core

' 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.
Dim mailman As New 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..
Dim bundle As Chilkat.EmailBundle = mailman.CopyMail()
If (mailman.LastMethodSuccess <> True) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(mailman.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


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

Dim success As Boolean
Dim bundleIndex As Integer = 0
Dim numMessages As Integer = bundle.MessageCount
Dim email As Chilkat.Email
While (bundleIndex < 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 <> True) Then
        Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
        Exit Sub
    End If


    ' 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 <> True) Then
        Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Dim numAttachments As Integer = email.NumAttachments
    Dim attachIndex As Integer = 0
    While (attachIndex < numAttachments)
        ' If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
        ' GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
        Debug.WriteLine(email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    End While

    ' Attachments can also be saved individually.
    attachIndex = 0
    While (attachIndex < numAttachments)

        Debug.WriteLine("Original Filename: " & email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        success = email.SaveAttachedFile(attachIndex,dirPath)
        If (success <> True) Then
            Debug.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
            Exit Sub
        End If

        ' 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.
        Debug.WriteLine("Saved Filename: " & email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    End While


    bundleIndex = bundleIndex + 1
End While