Remove attachments from messages

Last reviewed on October 22, 2012

This question from Outlook user wanted to know how to remove several attachments from a message in one step.

I want to keep sent messages but not the attachments. Is there an easier method than clicking on the attachment to delete it? Better yet, can I select several sent messages and remove the attachments from all of the messages?

Outlook doesn't have this functionality built in so you'll need to use an add-in or VBA, but yes, it can be done.

See Attachment Management Tools for Outlook for add-ins or More Information for additional macros, including code samples that can save the attachments to the hard drive before deleting them from the message.

This code will work with sent or received messages, in any folder. To use, add the code to the VBA editor, select the messages that you want to delete the attachment from and run it.

Sub DeleteAllAttachmentsFromSelectedMessages()
    Dim myAttachment        As Attachment
    Dim myAttachments       As Attachments
    Dim selItems            As Selection
    Dim myItem              As Object
    Dim lngAttachmentCount  As Long
    
    ' Set reference to the Selection.
    Set selItems = ActiveExplorer.Selection
    
    '  Loop though each item in the selection. 
    For Each myItem In selItems
        Set myAttachments = myItem.Attachments
        
        lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.Count
        
    ' Loop through attachments until attachment count = 0. 
        While lngAttachmentCount > 0
            myAttachments(1).Delete
            lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.Count
        Wend
        
        myItem.Save
    Next
    
    MsgBox "All Done. Attachments were removed.", vbOKOnly, "Message"
    
    Set myAttachment = Nothing
    Set myAttachments = Nothing
    Set selItems = Nothing
    Set myItem = Nothing
End Sub

Written by

Diane Poremsky
A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999 and involved in IT support since 1985, Diane is the author of several books and video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.