(VBScript) Download and Save Email Attachments (POP3)

See more POP3 Examples

Downloads emails from a POP3 mailbox and saves all attachments.

Chilkat ActiveX Downloads ActiveX for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows

Dim fso, outFile
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
'Create a Unicode (utf-16) output text file.
Set outFile = fso.CreateTextFile("output.txt", True, True)

' 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.
' For versions of Chilkat < 10.0.0, use CreateObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.MailMan")
set mailman = CreateObject("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 is a Chilkat.EmailBundle
Set bundle = mailman.CopyMail()
If (mailman.LastMethodSuccess <> 1) Then
    outFile.WriteLine(mailman.LastErrorText)
    WScript.Quit
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..
dirPath = "c:/myAttachments"

bundleIndex = 0
numMessages = bundle.MessageCount

Do While (bundleIndex < numMessages)
    ' email is a Chilkat.Email
    Set 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 <> 1) Then
        outFile.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
        WScript.Quit
    End If

    ' The OverwriteExisting property controls whether already-existing files
    ' are automatically overwritten.  By default, it is set to 1 so that existing
    ' files will be overwritten.

    ' Setting OverwriteExisting = 0 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 = 0
    success = email.SaveAllAttachments(dirPath)
    If (success <> 1) Then
        outFile.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
        WScript.Quit
    End If

    numAttachments = email.NumAttachments
    attachIndex = 0
    Do While (attachIndex < numAttachments)
        ' If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
        ' GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
        outFile.WriteLine(email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    Loop

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

        outFile.WriteLine("Original Filename: " & email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        success = email.SaveAttachedFile(attachIndex,dirPath)
        If (success <> 1) Then
            outFile.WriteLine(email.LastErrorText)
            WScript.Quit
        End If

        ' If OverwriteExisting = 1, 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.
        outFile.WriteLine("Saved Filename: " & email.GetAttachmentFilename(attachIndex))
        attachIndex = attachIndex + 1
    Loop

    bundleIndex = bundleIndex + 1
Loop


outFile.Close