How to download all attachments from Gmail at once

Updated October 2026

Gmail has no button that downloads every attachment in your inbox. It can only zip the attachments of one email at a time. To get the files from many emails at once, use Google Takeout (one big mailbox archive), a Google Apps Script (copies files to Drive), or a tool that searches your inbox and downloads every matching file as one ZIP.

Which way should you use?

• Files from one email: Gmail's own Download all button (way 1).
• A full backup of everything: Google Takeout (way 2).
• Files kept in Google Drive automatically: an Apps Script (way 3).
• Files from many emails, picked by sender, date or type: AttachmentDownloader (way 4).

1. Download all attachments in one email

Open the email and scroll to the attachments at the bottom. When there are two or more, hover over them and click Download all. Gmail saves them as one ZIP. This only covers that single email.

2. Export your whole mailbox with Google Takeout

1. Go to takeout.google.com and click Deselect all.
2. Tick Mail. To export only some emails, click All Mail data included and pick labels.
3. Click Next step, choose how to receive the export, and click Create export.

Takeout can take hours or days, and you get one large .mbox file, not separate attachments. You then need an email program such as Thunderbird, or a script, to pull the files out.

3. Save attachments to Google Drive with Apps Script

A short Google Apps Script can search Gmail and copy each attachment into a Drive folder, and run on a timer. It's free and good for ongoing automation, but you write and maintain the code yourself. Scripts also hit Google's daily time limits on big mailboxes.

4. Download every matching attachment as one ZIP

AttachmentDownloader searches your Gmail and lists every attachment that matches, so you can download all of them, or just the ones you pick, in one go.

1. Open AttachmentDownloader and sign in with Google. It asks for read-only access, so it can't send, change or delete email.
2. Narrow the search: sender, label, date range, minimum size or file type (PDFs, images, documents and more). You can also type any Gmail search.
3. Click Find attachments. Each file is listed with its sender, subject, date and size.
4. Click Select all, or tick the files you want, then Download ZIP.

Files download straight from Gmail to your browser, and the ZIP is built on your device. One search covers up to 25,000 emails or 10,000 attachments; narrow it down for bigger mailboxes.

Questions

Can I download attachments from a specific sender only?

Yes. See how to download all attachments from one sender.

Will downloading attachments delete my emails?

No. Downloading only copies files; your emails and attachments stay in Gmail.

Why won't a Gmail attachment download at all?

Usually a blocked file type, a browser extension or a cookie problem. See 8 fixes for Gmail attachments not downloading.