As noted by automation experts on Medium , using pywin32 allows you to bypass complex IMAP configurations if your organization uses Outlook with strict security policies. The Python Script
For security, providers like Gmail require you to generate an "App Password" rather than using your standard login password. automatically download email attachment with python
import imaplib import email import os # Configuration host = '://gmail.com' username = 'your_email@gmail.com' password = 'your_app_password' download_folder = './attachments' if not os.path.exists(download_folder): os.makedirs(download_folder) # Connect to the server mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(host) mail.login(username, password) mail.select("inbox") # Search for all emails status, messages = mail.search(None, 'ALL') for num in messages[0].split(): # Fetch the email data status, data = mail.fetch(num, '(RFC822)') raw_email = data[0][1] # Parse the email content msg = email.message_from_bytes(raw_email) for part in msg.walk(): if part.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart': continue if part.get('Content-Disposition') is None: continue filename = part.get_filename() if filename: filepath = os.path.join(download_folder, filename) with open(filepath, 'wb') as f: f.write(part.get_payload(decode=True)) print(f"Downloaded: {filename}") mail.logout() Use code with caution. 2. The Outlook Desktop Way: Using pywin32 As noted by automation experts on Medium ,
The imaplib library is part of Python’s standard library, meaning you don't need to install anything extra. This method works by connecting directly to your email provider's server. Prerequisites Prerequisites