Jump to a step (6)
When you need files from old emails, you end up searching your mailbox and saving attachments one at a time. With thousands of emails that is not practical, and Outlook has no built-in way to save all attachments from a folder.
A free macro from The Techie Guy website does the work. You turn on the Developer tab in Outlook, import the macro file into the Visual Basic editor, and run it on the folder you choose.
The macro saves every attachment into an Email Attachments folder in your Documents folder. In the video it pulled 5,382 files from the Inbox and 652 from Sent Items.
What you need
- Classic Outlook for Windows
- The free GetEmailAttachments.bas macro file from The Techie Guy website
- Enough disk space for all your attachments
Step by step
0 of 6 done-
01
Turn on the Developer tab
In Outlook, select File > Options > Customize Ribbon. Tick Developer (it is off by default) and select OK. A Developer tab appears on the ribbon.
-
02
Download the macro
Go to The Techie Guy website (linked in the video description) and download the free attachment macro. Unzip the downloaded file.
-
03
Import the macro into Outlook
On the Developer tab, select Visual Basic. In the editor, select File > Import File, open the unzipped folder and select
GetEmailAttachments.bas. Then select File > Close and Return to Microsoft Outlook. -
04
Run the macro on your Inbox
On the Developer tab, select Macros > Macros, choose
GetAttachmentsand select Run. When asked which folder to use, select Inbox and select OK.It can take a while with a large mailbox. When it finishes, it tells you how many files it saved.
-
05
Find the saved attachments
Open your Documents folder. The macro creates an
Email Attachmentsfolder there with every attachment from the folder you chose. -
06
Repeat for Sent Items
The macro always saves into the same
Email Attachmentsfolder. To keep folders separate, rename the first one first, for example toEmail Attachments Inbox.Then run the macro again and choose Sent Items. A new
Email Attachmentsfolder is created with the files from your sent emails.
Tips and common problems
- Rename the Email Attachments folder before running the macro on another Outlook folder, or the files from both runs end up mixed together.
- A large mailbox can take several minutes. Wait for the completion message before closing Outlook.
- If the macro will not run, check your macro settings under File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Macro Settings.
- This needs classic Outlook for Windows. New Outlook does not support VBA macros.
Questions
How do I download all attachments from Outlook at once?
Outlook has no built-in option for this. A free VBA macro, run from the Developer tab in classic Outlook, saves every attachment from a chosen folder into one folder on your computer.
Where does the macro save the attachments?
It creates an Email Attachments folder inside your Documents folder.
Can I save attachments from Sent Items too?
Yes. Run the macro again and select Sent Items when it asks for a folder. Rename the first Email Attachments folder beforehand so the two sets stay separate.
