How to: Save Attachments from Outlook E-Mail Items

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Outlook 2003 Outlook 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

This example saves e-mail attachments to a specified folder.

Example

Private Sub ThisAddIn_NewMail() Handles Application.NewMail
    Dim inBox As Outlook.MAPIFolder = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer() _
        .Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook. _
        OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox)
    Dim inBoxItems As Outlook.Items = inBox.Items
    Dim newEmail As Outlook.MailItem
    inBoxItems = inBoxItems.Restrict("[Unread] = true")
    Try 
        For Each collectionItem As Object In inBoxItems
            newEmail = TryCast(collectionItem, Outlook.MailItem)
            If newEmail IsNot Nothing Then 
                If newEmail.Attachments.Count > 0 Then 
                    For i As Integer = 1 To newEmail.Attachments.Count
                        Dim saveAttachment As Outlook.Attachment = _
                            newEmail.Attachments(i)
                        newEmail.Attachments(i).SaveAsFile _
                            ("C:\TestFileSave\" & (newEmail _
                            .Attachments(i).FileName))
                    Next i
                End If 
            End If 
        Next collectionItem
    Catch ex As Exception
        If Left(ex.Message, 11) = "Cannot save" Then
            MessageBox.Show("Create Folder C:\TestFileSave")
        End If 
    End Try 
End Sub

private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    this.Application.NewMail += new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
        .ApplicationEvents_11_NewMailEventHandler(ThisApplication_NewMail);
}

private void ThisApplication_NewMail()
{
    Outlook.MAPIFolder inBox = this.Application.ActiveExplorer()
        .Session.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook
        .OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
    Outlook.Items inBoxItems = inBox.Items;
    Outlook.MailItem newEmail = null;
    inBoxItems = inBoxItems.Restrict("[Unread] = true");
    try
    {
        foreach (object collectionItem in inBoxItems)
        {
            newEmail = collectionItem as Outlook.MailItem;
            if (newEmail != null)
            {
                if (newEmail.Attachments.Count > 0)
                {
                    for (int i = 1; i <= newEmail
                       .Attachments.Count; i+)
                    {
                        newEmail.Attachments[i].SaveAsFile
                            (@"C:\TestFileSave\" +
                            newEmail.Attachments[i].FileName);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        string errorInfo = (string)ex.Message
            .Substring(0, 11);
        if (errorInfo == "Cannot save")
        {
            MessageBox.Show(@"Create Folder C:\TestFileSave");
        }
    }
}

Compiling the Code

This example requires:

• A folder named TestFileSave at the root of the C directory.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Retrieve a Folder by Name

How to: Perform Actions When an E-Mail Message Is Received

How to: Search Within a Specific Folder

Concepts

Working with Mail Items