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Is there a way do download every attachment within a label? I want every PDF invoice I get to be put in my file system. So I figured I'd need Google Drive. But I only did find some Chrome extensions that make it easier to save them manually.

Any ideas?

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  • You'll not be able to do that with the Gmail web client. Filters there can only act on messages by responding to them, applying labels, etc. You'll need a third-party tool like a desktop e-mail client, but even then you'll probably need another tool added to that.
    – ale
    Sep 28, 2012 at 14:04

4 Answers 4

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Try Zapier. Looks like this Zap will let you save attachments to Google Drive based on a specific label you label your emails with.

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  • I think this applies to only new incoming mail with that label? Sep 11, 2018 at 17:54
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You can install the Send to Google Drive script and it will automatically download all Gmail attachments that have the label GoogleDrive to your Drive folder.

Assuming that you are logged in to your Google account, create a copy of this sheet in your Google Drive. Open the sheet and you should see a new Gmail menu – click Initialize and grant the necessary permissions. Next go the Gmail menu again and select Run.

The script runs in the background and will watch your "GoogleDrive" label for any new messages to process.

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  • FYI the google sheet now points to a freemium chrome extension. That blog post links to the relevant google apps script here. As a side note, labnol.org has been a great resource. Thanks Amit!
    – Jay
    Jan 20, 2016 at 20:51
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I noticed the other answers describe how to do this to Google Drive, but you said you wanted them downloaded to your (I presume local) file system.

Check the description here for a detailed guide to using Thunderbird for this purpose.

With a simple modification, you can download only the attachments you want (in Step 3, just choose the appropriate folder/label or other subset).

EDIT:

Since writing the above, I have discovered a much simpler & easier to use solution. The tool Mail Attachment Downloader from GearMage does exactly what you requested and also provides a great deal of flexibility. I've started using it myself and I am very pleased with the results. It also works with Yahoo, Hotmail and almost any other mail server that supports POP3 or IMAP.

I am adding the following in case you decide to go with my pre-edit answer, so that all parts of this answer can "stand on their own":

  1. Download and install Thunderbird
  2. To Thunderbird add the AttachmentExtractor extension from here
  3. Once it's been added you can right-click and choose "Extract Selected Attachments to..." from the menu

Want more detailed instructions? You can try that link above.

Personally, I now recommend using the standalone, dedicated tool by GearMage. Good luck.

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Gmail doesn't offer a built-in feature to download the attachment of several emails "at the same", but there are several ways to achieve the desaired result.

  1. Use a third-party service. You could ask about recomendations on https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com
  2. Use Google Apps Script to send the attachments to Google Drive, then use the Google Drive desktop client to automatically download the attachments to your computer's desktop.

    • There are at least one answer about this on this question.
  3. Use a POP / IMAP desktop email client that includes a feature that automatically add the attachments to local folder

    • An old version of Eudora put all the email messages attachments in a local folder. I don't know if there are a version that works with modern operative system versions, but this reference could help you to further research and find what you are looking for.
    • Some email desktop clients could be extendend by using add-ons or even by using a programming language like Microsoft Outlook