Applescript to save mail attachments failing in Mountain Lion

I have a similar problem, and can't figure out how to implement the solution into my own script. Here's the basis of what I'm using, and it fails:

(*

Just trying to get the attachments to save to somewhere.

*)

using terms fromapplication "Mail"

onperform mail action with messagesselectedMsgs

tellapplication "Mail"

repeat with counter from 1 to (count of selectedMsgs)

setmsgtoitemcounterofselectedMsgs

set theAttachments to (count of mail attachments of msg)

say "There are " & theAttachments & " attachments."

repeatwithattach_counterfrom 1 totheAttachments

setthefilenametoSaveAttachments(nameofmail attachmentattach_counterofmsg)

--set theid to id of mail attachment attach_counter of msg--I don't think you need this.

savemail attachmentattach_counterofmsginthefilename--The full path is returned from the handler, and the file is saved.

endrepeat

endrepeat

endtell

endperform mail action with messages

endusing terms from

-------------

onSaveAttachments(x) --This creates the path to the documents folder to save the attachment, then adds the name of the file.

set dp to (path to documents folder as Unicode text) & x

returndp

endSaveAttachments

-- If run as an ordinary script, instead of directly from the Scripts

-- menu, it will call the default handler instead.

using terms fromapplication "Mail"

onrun

tell application "Mail" to set sel to selection

tellmetoperform mail action with messages (sel)

endrun

endusing terms from

I ended up using automator to do what I wanted. Downside is I have to initate the action. Upside is it works.

pfly, I can deal with that. Can you be more specific?

So what I needed to do was collect attachments sent to a specific inbox, save the attachment and combine the attachements (pdf) into one large pdf. Here's the automator process which I saved as a service.

service receives no input in mail

get selected mail mailboxes

get selected mailboxes

get attachments from mail messages

combine PDF pages

combine by appending

name single item

name single item

name: baseline only to: blahblahblah

move finder items

to: destination folder

get specified finder items

temp (the temp directory that we set up at the beginning)

move finder items to trash

This script works but i need to be able to have it rename the files a they come in and add a sequencial numbering. I can put a name in the subject line of the emails. What do I add to this script?

using terms from application "Mail"

on perform mail action with messages matching_messages

--set report_type to ":throughput"

set folder_path to "Macintosh HD:Users:jkinder:Downloads:Mail Attach" -- & report_type

set file_path to (folder_path & ":")

tell application "Mail"

set the num_messages to the count of matching_messages

-- display dialog "0. Found " & num_messages & " messages!"

repeat with i from 1 to the num_messages

set this_message to (item i of matching_messages)

tell this_message

-- display dialog "1. Processing \"" & (subject of this_message) & "\" which has " & (count of mail attachments of this_message) & " attachment(s)."

repeat with z from 1 to the (count of mail attachments of this_message)

set theAttachment to item z of (mail attachments of this_message)

-- display dialog "2. Got attachment " & (name of theAttachment)

with timeout of 10 seconds

set myname to do shell script "whoami"

-- display dialog "3.Trying to save " & (name of theAttachment) & " to the path " & (file_path & (name of theAttachment) as string) & " as user " & myname

try

save theAttachment in (file_path & name of theAttachment)

on error number errNum

display dialog "ERROR: problem saving file, ernum: " & errNum

error number -128 --User Ended error; this should stop script execution

end try

end timeout

end repeat

end tell

end repeat

end tell

end perform mail action with messages

end using terms from

Thank you, JD

JD are you using Mountain Lion and the newest version of Mail? I can't get your script to run on my machine at all - I still get the -10000 error trying to save attachments from Mail.

tellapplication "Mail"

set folder_path to "Macintosh HD:Users:richg:BigPromotions:2012 ClientProjects:SavedAtt"

setfile_pathto (folder_path & ":")

set matching_messages to item 1 of (get selection)

setthenum_messagestothecountofmatching_messages

display dialog "0. Found " & num_messages & " messages!"

repeat with i from 1 to the num_messages

setthis_messageto (itemiofmatching_messages)

tellthis_message

display dialog "1. Processing \"" & (subject of this_message) & "\" which has " & (count of mail attachments of this_message) & " attachment(s)."

repeat with z from 1 to the (count of mail attachments of this_message)

settheAttachmenttoitemzof (mail attachmentsofthis_message)

display dialog "2. Got attachment " & (name of theAttachment)

withtimeoutof 30 seconds

set myname to do shell script "whoami"

display dialog "3.Trying to save " & (name of theAttachment) & " to the path " & (file_path & (name of theAttachment) as string) & " as user " & myname

try

savetheAttachmentin (file_path & nameoftheAttachment)

on error number errnum

display dialog "ERROR: problem saving file, ernum: " & errnum

errornumber -128 --User Ended error; this should stop script execution

end try

endtimeout

endrepeat

endtell

endrepeat

endtell

How do I save the attachment "as a user"?

Hi, Yes i am on Mountain Lion and have been working on setting this up. The script works on my computer but it saves all the attachments as the same name so it overright the last image. How do I tell it to rename the image with what is in the subject line and add the date and time stamp? Here is the script again:

using terms from application "Mail"

on perform mail action with messages matching_messages

--set report_type to ":throughput"

set folder_path to "Macintosh HD:Users:jkinder:Downloads:Mail Attach" -- & report_type

set file_path to (folder_path & ":")

tell application "Mail"

set the num_messages to the count of matching_messages

-- display dialog "0. Found " & num_messages & " messages!"

repeat with i from 1 to the num_messages

set this_message to (item i of matching_messages)

tell this_message

-- display dialog "1. Processing \"" & (subject of this_message) & "\" which has " & (count of mail attachments of this_message) & " attachment(s)."

repeat with z from 1 to the (count of mail attachments of this_message)

set theAttachment to item z of (mail attachments of this_message)

-- display dialog "2. Got attachment " & (name of theAttachment)

with timeout of 10 seconds

set myname to do shell script "whoami"

-- display dialog "3.Trying to save " & (name of theAttachment) & " to the path " & (file_path & (name of theAttachment) as string) & " as user " & myname

try

save theAttachment in (file_path & name of theAttachment)

on error number errNum

display dialog "ERROR: problem saving file, ernum: " & errNum

error number -128 --User Ended error; this should stop script execution

end try

end timeout

end repeat

end tell

end repeat

end tell

end perform mail action with messages

end using terms from

thanks

I think you're hitting the same wall as people are describing in this other thread, where I also posted the result of my debugging: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4186119?answerId=19501549022#19501549022

In short: there seems to be a bug in 10.8 Mail.app. The Applescript rules get incoming POP messages in an invisible "incoming messages" mailbox, but when Applescript tries to iterate over the mailbox messages, the mailbox is empty. And that's because the mail is already in your inbox, not in the "incoming mesages" mailbox.

Feel free to post a bug report to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Not sure if this is significant, but I was actually running my script off of an Exchange server.

I've since moved on and am using some Exchange server side rules combined with an Automator script to do what I want. It's not quite as elegant, but it takes care of my needs.

Thanks for the other thread link.

I could really use some help here. I have no idea how to use applescript but I could really use this to download attachments. I've tried everything I can find to build an applescript to download messages but nothing works. I have Mountain Lion and I can't get any script at all to do anything. All I want to do is download attachments to a specific folder.

Does anyone have a complete applescript that does that?

Thanks

Short answer: it cannot be done in Mountain Lion, because the Applescript support in Mail is broken.

It can be done with Mountain Lion. It is just more restrictive and not 100% reliable. I'll post what I have later when I have more time, hopefully later today.

The script works for me. Just needs to be saved to correct spot in library and you can save your files ONLY to Downloads folder (whatever subfolder you want to create must be in Downloads) it will not save it into documents.

just make sure you create new folder in Downloads and replace insertYourFolder name

the script must be saved in Library > Application Scripts > com.apple.mail. Then it works flawlesly

on perform_mail_action(ruleData)

-- The folder to save the attachments in (must already exist)

set attachmentsFolder to ((path to home folder as text) & "Downloads:InsertYourFolder") as text

-- Save in a sub-folder based on the name of the rule in Mail

--set subFolder to name of |Rule| of ruleData as text

set subFolder to "Production Sheets" as text

tell application "Finder"

if not (existsfoldersubFolder of folderattachmentsFolder) then

makenewfolderatattachmentsFolderwith properties {name:subFolder}

end if

end tell

-- Get incoming messages that match the rule

tell application "Mail"

set selectedMessages to |SelectedMessages| of ruleData

repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages

-- Get the date the message was sent

set {year:y, month:m, day:d, hours:h, minutes:min} to theMessage's date sent

set timeStamp to ("" & y & "-" & my pad(m as integer) & "-" & my pad(d) & "-" & my pad(h) & "-" & my pad(min))

-- Save the attachment

repeat with theAttachment in theMessage's mail attachments

set originalName to name of theAttachment

set savePath to attachmentsFolder & ":" & subFolder & ":" & timeStamp & " " & originalName

end repeat

end repeat

end tell

end perform_mail_action

this works for me just fine. No issues whatsoever. Hope that helps

This one works for me as well - probably easier

using terms from application "Mail"

on perform mail action with messagestheselectedMessages

set attachmentsFolder to "Macintosh HD:Users:YourUserName:Downloads:YourNew Folder"

tell application "Mail"

repeat with theMessage in theselectedMessages

-- get the sender's name

set senderName to extract name fromtheMessage's sender

repeat with theAttachment in theMessage's mail attachments

set originalName to name of theAttachment

-- name the file with the sender's name as well as the attachment name

set savePath to attachmentsFolder & ":" & senderName & "-" & originalName

try

-- Save the attachment

-- ** the code seems to get this far and then doesn't actually save the

-- ** file in the location indicated

savetheAttachmentinsavePath

end try

end repeat

end repeat

end tell

end perform mail action with messages

end using terms from

It saves to one folder I specify in Downloads - that's functionality I want, it does not create subfolders

Hope that helps.

jbublik, are you sure you're running Mountain Lion / OS X 10.8?

The on perform_mail_action(ruleData) syntax in your first example is deprecated in 10.8 Mail and does nothing; in effect the perform_mail_action handler is never executed.

Your second example uses the current on perform mail action with messages syntax, but fails on 10.8 just the way I described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4186119?answerId=19501549022#19501549022