Reading Outlook Emails and Saving Attachments with Python

Hello, tech enthusiasts! 👋

Every morning, the same kind of email arrives: “Daily Sales Report”, with an Excel file attached. You open the email, click the file, choose Save As, find the right folder and click Save. It takes a minute. But a minute every day, plus the days you forget, adds up.

Today we will write a Python script that reads your Outlook Inbox, finds the right emails and saves the attachments for you. We will use pywin32. It is a library that lets Python talk to Windows programs like Outlook. Think of it like a remote control: Python presses the buttons inside Outlook for you.

What you need

  • Windows with the desktop Outlook app, already signed in to your email
  • Python 3 from https://www.python.org
  • The pywin32 library
  • A folder for the files, for example C:\Reports\Attachments

Install pywin32 in the Command Prompt:

pip install pywin32

Note: this method works with the classic desktop Outlook only. It does not work with Outlook in the browser.

Step 1: Connect to Outlook and open the Inbox

Create a file called save_attachments.py:

import win32com.client

# Connect to the Outlook app that is installed on this computer
outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
namespace = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")

# 6 is the number Outlook uses for the Inbox folder
inbox = namespace.GetDefaultFolder(6)
print("Emails in Inbox:", inbox.Items.Count)

Run it with python save_attachments.py. If you see a number, Python is talking to Outlook.

MAPI is the system Outlook uses to reach your mailbox. You do not need to understand it, just use the name.

Step 2: Loop through the emails

Now we look at each email. We sort them so the newest come first:

items = inbox.Items
items.Sort("[ReceivedTime]", True)   # True = newest first

for item in items:
    # 43 means "mail item". Skip meeting invites and other items.
    if item.Class != 43:
        continue
    print(item.ReceivedTime, "|", item.Subject)

Your Inbox can also hold calendar invites and delivery reports. They do not always have the same fields, so we skip anything that is not a normal email.

Step 3: The full script with filters

Now let us filter by subject and date, and save the files. Replace the code with this full version:

import datetime
import re
from pathlib import Path

import win32com.client

SUBJECT_WORD = "Daily Sales Report"          # text to look for in the subject
DAYS_BACK = 7                                # only check the last 7 days
SAVE_FOLDER = Path(r"C:\Reports\Attachments")

SAVE_FOLDER.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
since = datetime.date.today() - datetime.timedelta(days=DAYS_BACK)

outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
inbox = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(6)

items = inbox.Items
items.Sort("[ReceivedTime]", True)  # newest first

saved = 0
for item in items:
    if item.Class != 43:             # skip non-email items
        continue

    received = item.ReceivedTime.date()
    if received < since:
        break                        # sorted newest first, so we can stop here

    if SUBJECT_WORD.lower() not in item.Subject.lower():
        continue

    for att in item.Attachments:
        # Remove characters that Windows does not allow in file names
        clean_name = re.sub(r'[\\/:*?"<>|]', "_", att.FileName)
        # Add the date so files with the same name do not overwrite each other
        target = SAVE_FOLDER / f"{received:%Y-%m-%d}_{clean_name}"
        att.SaveAsFile(str(target))  # Outlook needs a full path as text
        saved += 1
        print("Saved:", target)

print(f"Done. {saved} file(s) saved.")

Step 4: Understand the important parts

  • ReceivedTime gives the date and time the email arrived. We use .date() to compare only the day.
  • Because the list is sorted newest first, we can break when we reach an old email. This makes the script fast, even with a big Inbox.
  • att.SaveAsFile() saves one attachment. It needs a full path, like C:\Reports\Attachments\file.xlsx, as text. That is why we use str(target).
  • We add the date to the file name. Daily reports often have the same name every day, and we do not want to overwrite yesterday’s file.

Step 5: Run and check

Run python save_attachments.py. Open C:\Reports\Attachments and check the files. 🎉

This script only reads emails and saves files. It does not delete or move anything in Outlook, so it is safe to run many times.

Common problems

  • pywintypes.com_error when connecting. → Open Outlook once by hand and make sure it is signed in. Also check you are using desktop Outlook.
  • Logos and signature images are saved too. → Skip small files: add if att.Size < 10000: continue, or only keep names ending with .xlsx.
  • No emails found, but you can see them. → Maybe a rule moves them to another folder. Use inbox.Folders["Reports"] to open a subfolder of the Inbox.
  • Outlook shows a security prompt. → This protects you from unknown programs. Keep your antivirus active and allow access only for scripts you wrote yourself.

Wrap-up

You now have a script that collects your daily files without a single click. Next, combine it with the pandas cleaning from an earlier post: save the attachment, clean it, and build your report, all in one run. Happy automating!

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