Summary: – There are a large number of users who want to delete attachments present in Outlook profile emails. But the problem is that they have no way to do this. So, here in this article, we will talk about the best strategies to download attachments from Outlook emails. Let’s start reading.
Outlook email attachments are files that are attached to emails of email profiles configured in Outlook. These files may also contain other information related to the email.
For example, imagine that you are a trader in the stock market. You have bought/sold a share and received an email from your stock broker. This email shows you a brief description of the brokerage, and other information related to it will be in the document that is attached to that email.
Attachments can be any type of file such as a document, spreadsheet, image, video, etc. These attachments can also be attached to Outlook items other than emails, such as contacts, calendars, tasks, journals, etc.
There is also a list of several Outlook users who prefer to extract attachments from emails and save them as separate files.
Also Read: – How to Extract email address from Outlook PST/OST files?
Reasons to Extract Attachments from Outlook Email: –
- Backup and Archive: – You can extract attachments from emails and save them in a different location in your Drive. This ensures that even if your important attachments go missing from the email for some reason, you still have a copy of the attached files.
- File Management: – Extracting attachments and keeping them in a different location will help you organize and manage these attachments better. You can store attachments separately making it easier to find and access specific files when needed.
- Independent access: – To access Outlook email attachments, users must first open Outlook, then the email, and finally, they will be able to open the attachment. On either side, saving attachments as individual files allows users to directly open attachments with a single click.
Best Ways to Download Attachments from Outlook Email
There are 2 different ways to extract Outlook email attachments. The first is to use the methods offered by Outlook and the second is to use third-party software for bulk email attachment extraction
Method 1: – Download Email Attachments from Outlook Manually
Outlook itself offers three different strategies for users to save attachments out of emails to the user drive.
#1 Save Attachments Manually
- Open the MS Outlook application.
- Find and open the email containing attachments.
- Look for the attachment in the email and Right-click on it.
- Select the attachment save/download option (as per your need): –
- Save As: – To save only the select attachment of the email.
- Save All Attachments: – using this option download all the attachments available in the email.
- Choose a location for saving downloaded attachments and click on the Save button.
#2 Drag and Drop Attachments
- Launch Outlook and open the email holding attachments.
- Select the attachment from the email and drop it to a specific folder on your computer.
#3 Open and Save attachments individually
- Run MS Outlook and open your email profile.
- Open the email and double-click on the attachment.
- Open the attachment to their compatible application. (i.e. doc files with MS Word, xlsx files with MS Excel).
- Try the available method to save the files and save them separately on your drive.
Limitation of Manual Method
- A long process to be done with every single email which takes a lot of time.
- There is a possibility of many types of mistakes being made by the users.
- These methods are capable of extracting attachments from a single email at a time.
Method 2: – Automatedly Extract Outlook Email Attachments in Bulk
eSoftTools Outlook Attachment Extractor software is a one-stop solution for quick and automatic extraction of attachments from multiple Outlook emails at once.
It enables to extraction of attachments from Outlook data files like- PST, OST and NST. Using this the user can download attachments from one as well as multiple data files in a single operation.
Not only emails but it also extracts attachments from contacts, calendars and other items. Without the need for MS Outlook, it completes attachment extraction and provides great results to users.
Steps to Extract/Download Outlook Email Attachments
- Download and launch eSoftTools Outlook Attachment Extractor tool.
- Press the Select PST button and choose a mode of adding Outlook data files.
- Select Single File Conversion, or Bulk File Conversion and click on Next.
- Add files into the software and press the Start Scanning button.
- Load all mail folders that are available in data files and view them in the preview panel.
- Open and read each Outlook item and check their associated attachments.
- Select the required folders and click on the Extract Attachments button.
- Apply Extraction mode, Extension filter, and mail filter options.
- Choose a location for saving resultant files and hit the Save button.
Start the process of Outlook email attachment extraction and easily save all the extracted attachments to your chosen location.
Conclusion
Extracting attachments from Outlook emails is essential for backup, file management, and easy access. You can do this manually through Outlook’s built-in methods, such as saving attachments individually or through drag-and-drop. However, manual methods can be time-consuming and prone to errors, especially for bulk extraction.
Therefore, the best available alternative solution is to use third-party software like eSoftTools Outlook Attachment Extractor software. This is a viable option for efficient bulk extraction from multiple emails at once.