PowerShell Requires Chilkat v11.0.0+

Download and Save Email Attachments (POP3)

See more POP3 Examples

Downloads emails from a POP3 mailbox and saves all attachments. PowerShell

Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

#  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.
$mailman = New-Object 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.
#  FetchAll 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 = New-Object Chilkat.EmailBundle
$keepOnServer = $true
$headersOnly = $false
#  Irrelevent because we are NOT downloading headers-only
$numBodyLines = 0
$success = $mailman.FetchAll($keepOnServer,$headersOnly,$numBodyLines,$bundle)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($mailman.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  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"

$email = New-Object Chilkat.Email
$bundleIndex = 0
$numMessages = $bundle.MessageCount

while (($bundleIndex -lt $numMessages)) {
    $bundle.EmailAt($bundleIndex,$email)

    #  Save all attachments to the specified directory.
    #  The directory is automatically created if it does not yet exist.
    $success = $email.SaveAllAttachments($dirPath)
    if ($success -eq $false) {
        $($email.LastErrorText)
        exit
    }

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

    #  Setting OverwriteExisting = $false 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 = $false
    $success = $email.SaveAllAttachments($dirPath)
    if ($success -eq $false) {
        $($email.LastErrorText)
        exit
    }

    $numAttachments = $email.NumAttachments
    $attachIndex = 0
    while (($attachIndex -lt $numAttachments)) {
        #  If the attachment filename was changed to prevent overwriting,
        #  GetAttachmentFilename will return the new filename.
        $($email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $attachIndex = $attachIndex + 1
    }

    #  Attachments can also be saved individually.
    $attachIndex = 0
    while (($attachIndex -lt $numAttachments)) {

        $("Original Filename: " + $email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $success = $email.SaveAttachedFile($attachIndex,$dirPath)
        if ($success -eq $false) {
            $($email.LastErrorText)
            exit
        }

        #  If OverwriteExisting = $true, 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.
        $("Saved Filename: " + $email.GetAttachmentFilename($attachIndex))
        $attachIndex = $attachIndex + 1
    }

    $bundleIndex = $bundleIndex + 1
}