How to Download All Attachments from Gmail at Once

TL;DR: Gmail downloads attachments one message at a time: open the email, hover over the attachment and click download, or Add to Drive to copy it into Google Drive. Nothing downloads the attachments from a search result or a label. For many messages, the routes are Google Takeout (the whole mailbox as an MBOX file), an add-on such as Save Emails and Attachments or cloudHQ, a Google Apps Script, or Workspace Studio for new mail on a business plan. The Drive AI's Historical Sync imports up to 180 days of attachments and a workflow files them, which gets the backlog out and into the right folders in one pass.

Downloading the attachments from one email is a click. From a hundred emails it is the problem: twelve months of invoices in twelve messages, every receipt a vendor ever sent, the contracts in a label before an account closes. Gmail's controls stop at one message, so this guide covers what works beyond it, in order of effort.

Disclosure: The Drive AI publishes this guide and is one of the options compared. Google's details come from Google's help pages and prices from the vendors' own pages, checked November 2, 2026.

How do you download all attachments from one Gmail message?

Open the message, hover over an attachment at the bottom and click the download icon; repeat for each file, or click Add to Drive to copy it into Google Drive without downloading. (Google: download attachments in Gmail)

That is all Google documents for a computer: one attachment per click, from one message. Two things to know:

• Add to Drive puts the file in My Drive, not a folder you choose, and some attachment types cannot be added to Drive.
• A file over Gmail's 25 MB personal limit was never attached: Gmail replaced it with a Google Drive link, so there is only a file to open in Drive. (Google: attachment limits)

If a file will not download, see Gmail attachments not downloading.

How do you download Gmail attachments on Android and iPhone?

On Android, open the email and tap Download under the attachment, or Save to Drive. On iPhone and iPad, open the email, tap the attachment, then tap Download at the bottom, or Save to Drive in the top right. (Google: Android, Google: iPhone and iPad)

Neither mobile app downloads every attachment in a message at once, and neither reaches across messages. For more than a handful of files, use a computer.

Can you download attachments from multiple Gmail messages at once?

Not with Gmail's own controls. Selecting several messages gives you actions on the messages; nothing in that toolbar touches attachments, and Gmail filters cannot save files either.

Every route below starts with finding the right messages. Gmail's search takes has:attachment, filename:pdf, from:, larger:5M and older_than:1y, and they combine. (Google: search operators) The email attachment search builder writes the string; more in how to find emails with attachments.

Which route gets attachments out of many Gmail messages?

Takeout hands you a mailbox file rather than files; the add-ons and a script leave you a folder of Scan_0001.pdf. Only the first row reads the document to name and file it.

How do you export every Gmail attachment with Google Takeout?

Takeout exports the whole mailbox as an MBOX file, with each message's labels kept in an X-Gmail-Labels header; the attachments are inside it, not alongside it. (Google: download your data)

1. Open Google Takeout, deselect every product and select only Mail. The Takeout page itself names the format: messages and attachments in MBOX.
2. Pick delivery and size. Takeout emails a download link or adds the archive to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box; an archive size up to 50 GB keeps a large mailbox in one file.
3. Create the export and wait. Google says a few minutes to a few days. Archives expire after about seven days and can be downloaded up to five times.
4. Open the MBOX file in an email client that imports it, or with a script, to pull the attachments out as files.

Google does not support timeframe exports for Gmail, so it is the whole mailbox or nothing, and the output is a mailbox rather than a folder of documents. For "the twelve invoices from Northwind" it is the longest road.

Can an add-on save old Gmail attachments to Google Drive?

Yes. Two Google Workspace Marketplace add-ons do this across many messages, old mail included.

Save Emails and Attachments, from Digital Inspiration, runs hourly against rules by sender, subject or size, saves attachments and optionally a PDF of the message into a Google Drive folder, and can be pointed at old mail, for $79.95 or $99.95 a year depending on the edition. (Digital Inspiration)

cloudHQ Save Emails to Google Drive saves the attachments from every message under a label you choose, free for 50 emails and then $19.99 per user a month. (cloudHQ pricing)

Both keep the original filename, put everything in one folder, and need read access to the mailbox.

How do you download Gmail attachments with Apps Script?

Apps Script's Gmail service searches a mailbox and returns each message's attachments, and the Drive service writes them into a folder: the most flexible free route. (Apps Script: Gmail service reference)

The script is three calls: GmailApp.search() with a Gmail query, getAttachments() on each message, and a Drive call that creates a file from each attachment under any name you build. The costs: you maintain it, Google caps email reads and writes from scripts at 20,000 a day on a consumer account and 50,000 on a Workspace account (Apps Script quotas), and the script knows the filename and the sender, not what the document is.

Can Workspace Studio download Gmail attachments automatically?

For new mail, on Google Workspace business plans. A Workspace Studio flow saves attachments from incoming messages to one Google Drive folder, with up to 25 flows of 20 steps each and no rename step. (Google: Workspace Studio) It does nothing for mail already in the inbox.

How does The Drive AI get the backlog out and filed?

Every route above leaves a folder of files named by whoever sent them. Historical Sync plus a workflow ends with them filed.

1. Connect Gmail in Settings, then Integrations. Google asks for permission to read email and attachments; The Drive AI cannot send, change or delete anything.
2. Run Historical Sync from the account's menu, for the last 30, 90 or 180 days, with sent mail if you want. One import runs per account at a time and can be cancelled.
3. Let the attachments land at the top level of your workspace, as they are. Images, calendar invitations, blocked senders, files an earlier import already brought in and malware are skipped.
4. File them with a workflow. Imported files do not start the Email Attachment trigger, so set up a workflow that watches uploads to The Drive AI and describe the filing in a sentence: "Whenever a file lands here, read it and file it by what it is, named by the vendor or client and the date on the document." Each file is read, scanned PDFs included, renamed and moved into the folder your instructions name; Ask a Person to Approve holds anything you want to see first.
5. Keep it on for new mail with an Email Attachment workflow on the same account, as in how to save Gmail attachments to Google Drive automatically.

Honest limits: Historical Sync reaches back 180 days on Gmail, so Takeout remains the answer for a seven-year archive, and images are skipped, so photos stay in Gmail. Connecting email needs the Max plan on a personal workspace or any Team plan; workflows on files you upload work on every plan. The connection details are on the save Gmail attachments page, and the pattern across inboxes and destinations is in how to save email attachments to folders.

What should you do with the attachments after downloading them?

Decide where they live before they land, or the mess moves to a Downloads folder. Name by content, not by sender: 2026-10-14 Northwind Invoice 88213.pdf can be found by anyone. Once a file is filed, the email copy is only taking up storage; see how to delete large email attachments. And pick one home, with a tool that saves there without you, from the roundup of email attachment management software.

If your other mailbox is Microsoft's, the equivalent routes, including VBA and Power Automate, are in how to download all attachments from Outlook.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I download all attachments from Gmail at once?

From one message, hover over each attachment and click download. Across messages, use Google Takeout for the whole mailbox, an add-on for a label or sender, an Apps Script for a search, or The Drive AI's Historical Sync for the last 180 days filed by content.

How do I save all Gmail attachments to Google Drive?

Per message, click Add to Drive under the attachment. Across messages, Save Emails and Attachments or cloudHQ copy matching attachments into a Drive folder, an Apps Script does the same with your own naming, and Workspace Studio does it for new mail on business plans.

Does Google Takeout include email attachments?

Yes. The Mail export is one MBOX file with every message and its attachments inside; an email client that imports MBOX, or a script, extracts the files. There is no date range for Gmail exports.

How do I download all attachments from Gmail on Android or iPhone?

One at a time. On Android, open the email and tap Download or Save to Drive. On iPhone, tap the attachment, then Download at the bottom or Save to Drive at the top right.

Can The Drive AI download attachments from Gmail?

It imports them. Historical Sync brings the attachments from the last 30, 90 or 180 days of a connected Gmail account into your workspace, skipping images and calendar files, and a workflow files them by what each document says. The mailbox itself is never changed.

Get the backlog out once, then stop collecting one

Download the single message by hand, export the archive with Takeout if you need all of it, and for the last six months run Historical Sync and describe the filing in one sentence. Start with the backlog, or see how file workflows handle what arrives next.