Save attachments to a folder and rename them

Question

I'm trying to get a VBA macro in Outlook that will save an email's attachment to a specific folder and add the date received to the file name.

My googling has gotten me this far:

Public Sub saveAttachtoDisk (itm As Outlook.MailItem) 
    Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment 
    Dim saveFolder As String
    Dim dateFormat As String
    saveFolder = "C:\Temp\"
    dateFormat = Format(Now, "yyyy-mm-dd H-mm")

    For Each objAtt In itm.Attachments
        objAtt.SaveAsFile saveFolder & "\" & dateFormat & objAtt.DisplayName
        Set objAtt = Nothing
    Next 
End Sub

The first obvious thing is that it's applying the current time to the file name instead of the received time, but I can't seem to change it. My theory is that the Outlook.Attachment doesn't have a ReceivedTime and that the email itself has to be referenced.

Secondly, this doesn't seem to work at all, ha! It worked the first day I started tinkering but after that it stopped saving files.

Stuart Stuart · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-20T18:10:46

This is my Save Attachments script. You select all the messages that you want the attachments saved from, and it will save a copy there. It also adds text to the message body indicating where the attachment is saved. You could easily change the folder name to include the date, but you would need to make sure the folder existed before starting to save files.

Public Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

' Get the path to your My Documents folder
strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
On Error Resume Next

' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

' Get the collection of selected objects.
Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection

' Set the Attachment folder.
strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\Attachments\"

' Check each selected item for attachments. If attachments exist,
' save them to the strFolderPath folder and strip them from the item.
For Each objMsg In objSelection

    ' This code only strips attachments from mail items.
    ' If objMsg.class=olMail Then
    ' Get the Attachments collection of the item.
    Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
    strDeletedFiles = ""

    If lngCount > 0 Then

        ' We need to use a count down loop for removing items
        ' from a collection. Otherwise, the loop counter gets
        ' confused and only every other item is removed.

        For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

            ' Save attachment before deleting from item.
            ' Get the file name.
            strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

            ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
            strFile = strFolderpath & strFile

            ' Save the attachment as a file.
            objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile

            ' Delete the attachment.
            objAttachments.Item(i).Delete

            'write the save as path to a string to add to the message
            'check for html and use html tags in link
            If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
                strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & vbCrLf & "<file://" & strFile & ">"
            Else
                strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & "<br>" & "<a href='file://" & _
                strFile & "'>" & strFile & "</a>"
            End If

            'Use the MsgBox command to troubleshoot. Remove it from the final code.
            'MsgBox strDeletedFiles

        Next i

        ' Adds the filename string to the message body and save it
        ' Check for HTML body
        If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
            objMsg.Body = vbCrLf & "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles & vbCrLf & objMsg.Body
        Else
            objMsg.HTMLBody = "<p>" & "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles & "</p>" & objMsg.HTMLBody
        End If
        objMsg.Save
    End If
Next

ExitSub:

Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub

Save attachments to a folder and rename them

6 Answers