The following code saves the attachments from selected messages but does not delete the attachments from the message(s). This VBA code is based on the code sample from my Outlook book: Save and Delete Attachments. Use it if you want to save the attachment, add a link to the saved file, and delete the attachment from the message.

Would you prefer to use a utility? See Attachment Management Tools for Outlook

Instructions to add the macro to a toolbar button or ribbon command are at the end of the page.

Save Attachments to the hard drive

Copy and paste the code from this page into your ThisOutlookSession project.

In Outlook, press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor and expand Microsoft Outlook Objects then double click on ThisOutlookSession to open it in the editing pane and Ctrl+V to paste the code.

To use it you must first create a folder under your My Documents named OLAttachments (the code will not create it for you). Then select one or more messages and run the macro to save the attachments. You'll need to set macro security to warn before enabling macros or sign the macro. You can change the folder name or path where the attachments are saved by editing the code.

Public Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

    ' Get the path to your My Documents folder
    strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    On Error Resume Next

    ' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
    Set objOL = Application

    ' Get the collection of selected objects.
    Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection

' The attachment folder needs to exist
' You can change this to another folder name of your choice

    ' Set the Attachment folder.
    strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"

    ' Check each selected item for attachments. 
    For Each objMsg In objSelection

    Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
        
    If lngCount > 0 Then
    
    ' Use a count down loop for removing items
    ' from a collection. Otherwise, the loop counter gets
    ' confused and only every other item is removed.
    
    For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
    
    ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
    
    ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
    
    ' Save the attachment as a file.
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
    
    Next i
    End If
    
    Next
    
ExitSub:

Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub

Use an ItemAdd to Save Attachments on Arrival

This macro runs (automatically) on messages as they are added to the Inbox. Put it in ThisOutlookSession.

Option Explicit

Private WithEvents olInboxItems As Items
 
Private Sub Application_Startup()
  Dim objNS As NameSpace
  Set objNS = Application.Session
  ' instantiate objects declared WithEvents
  Set olInboxItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items
  Set objNS = Nothing
End Sub
 
Private Sub olInboxItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
  On Error Resume Next
If Item.Attachments.Count > 0 Then
 
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim sFileType As String
Dim i as long

Set objAttachments = Item.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
 For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

' Get the file name.
 strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

 ' Get the path to your My Documents folder
    strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"

' Combine with the path to the folder.
 strFile = strFolderpath & strFile

' Save the attachment as a file.
 objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile

 Next i
End If

End Sub

Run a Script Rule to Save Attachments

This version of the macro works with Rules, saving all attachments in messages that meet the condition of the rule to a folder under the user's documents folder.

To learn more about run a script rules, see Outlook's Rules and Alerts: Run a Script.

Public Sub SaveAttachments(Item As Outlook.MailItem)

If Item.Attachments.Count > 0 Then
 
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim sFileType As String
Dim i As Long

Set objAttachments = Item.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
 For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

' Get the file name.
 strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

 ' Get the path to your My Documents folder
    strfolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    strfolderpath = strfolderpath & "\Attachments\"

' Combine with the path to the folder.
 strFile = strfolderpath & strFile

' Save the attachment as a file.
 objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile

 Next i
End If

End Sub

Add the message date to the filename

If you want to add the message date to the file, you'll need to get the date from the SentOn or ReceivedDate fields then format it as a string before adding it to the file name. It's a total of 4 new lines and one edited line.

First, Dim the two new variables at the top of the macro:

Dim dtDate As Date
Dim sName As String

If lngCount > 0 Then

       dtDate = objMsg.SentOn

         sName = Format(dtDate, "yyyymmdd", vbUseSystemDayOfWeek, vbUseSystem) & Format(dtDate, "hhnnss", vbUseSystemDayOfWeek, vbUseSystem) & "-"

   For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

    ' Get the file name.
       strFile = sName & objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

Use the Subject and remove illegal characters

If you use the email subject in the file name, you will need to remove illegal characters that are not supported in Windows file system.

You can do that using the ReplaceCharsForFileName function (below). As written, the illegal characters are replaced with a dash (-) but you can change the word seperator.

Use this to get the subject and remove the illegal characters.

If lngCount > 0 Then

    sSubject = objMsg.Subject
' change the seperator if desired 
    sSubject = ReplaceCharsForFileName sSubject, "-"

   For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

    ' Get the file name.
       strFile = sSubject & objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

To trim long subjects, use the Left function to get the first characters. This snippet uses the first 25 characters of the subject.
sSubject = left(objMsg.Subject, 25)

To use the date and subject, use this code:

If lngCount > 0 Then

    sSubject = objMsg.Subject
    sSubject = ReplaceCharsForFileName sSubject, "-"
    
    dtDate = objMsg.SentOn
    sName = Format(dtDate, "yyyymmdd", vbUseSystemDayOfWeek, vbUseSystem) & Format(dtDate, "hhnnss", vbUseSystemDayOfWeek, vbUseSystem) & "-"

   For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
 strFile = sSubject & sName & objAttachments.Item(i).FileName

Public Sub ReplaceCharsForFileName(sSubject As String, _
sChr As String _
)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "'", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "*", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "/", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "\", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, ":", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "?", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, Chr(34), sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "<", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, ">", sChr)
  sSubject = Replace(sSubject, "|", sChr)
End Sub

Don't save images in signatures

This macro saves all attachments, including images embedded in signatures (they are attachments after all). To avoid saving signature images, you have two options: don't save image files, or don't save smaller files. You could even do both and save only larger images files.

Replace the code between For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1 / Next i lines with the following to filter out files smaller than 5KB. This should catch most signature images (and many text files).

If the attachments you need to save are always over 5 KB, you can increase the file size. (For reference, a blank Word document is over 10KB.)

    For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
       If objAttachments.Item(i).Size > 5200 Then

    ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).filename
     
    ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
     
    ' Save the attachment as a file.
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
     End If
     
    Next i

Save by File type

If you want to skip or save only a specific file type, use If LCase(Right(strFile, 4)) <> ".ext" format, where .ext is the extension. Add it after the first line strFile = line (and don't forget to add the End if before the Next i). You can use it to exclude a file type or use an equal (=) sign to save only a specific file type. (For 4-character extensions, use only the characters, don't include the dot.)

To work with a longer list of file types, use a Select Case statement. In this example, we're looking for image attachments, and if less than approx 5KB, we skip them. Larger image attachments will be saved.

 For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
     
    ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).filename
     
' This code looks at the last 4 characters in a filename
      sFileType = LCase$(Right$(strFile, 4))
 
      Select Case sFileType
 ' Add additional file types below
       Case ".jpg", ".png", ".gif"
        If objAttachments.Item(i).Size < 5200 Then
     GoTo nexti
        End If
      End Select
   
    ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
     
    ' Save the attachment as a file.
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
    
nexti:
    Next i

Add a number to each attachment

This macro merges the first macro on this page with the macro at Write the last used value to the registry sample to add a number to each saved attachment, incrementing as attachments are saved. Because the last used value is in the registry, the count will persist because restarts.

Get the complete macro, ready to use: AttachmentIndex

 ' HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Outlook\Index
    sAppName = "Outlook"
    sSection = "Index"
    sKey = "Last Index Number"
 ' The default starting number.
     iDefault = 101 ' adjust as needed
  
 ' Get stored registry value, if any.
     lRegValue = GetSetting(sAppName, sSection, sKey, iDefault)
  
 ' If the result is 0, set to default value.
     If lRegValue = 0 Then lRegValue = iDefault
 
' Put the save attachment code here 
    strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    On Error Resume Next
 
    Set objOL = Application
    Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection
    strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"
 
    For Each objMsg In objSelection
    Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
         
    If lngCount > 0 Then
    For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
    
 ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).fileName
    
    lcount = InStrRev(strFile, ".") - 1
    pre = Left(strFile, lcount)
    ext = Right(strFile, Len(strFile) - lcount)
 
    ' Combine with the path to make the final path
    strFile = strFolderpath & pre & "_" & lRegValue & ext
  
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile

' add 1 to the index  
    lRegValue = lRegValue + 1
        Err.Clear
    Next
    
   ' update the registry at the end
     SaveSetting sAppName, sSection, sKey, lRegValue

Save Attachments in Subfolders

To save the attachments in subfolders, you need to use the File Scripting Object to create the folder if it does not exist.

A complete, ready-to-use sample macro is here.

For Each objMsg In objSelection
 
  ' Set the Attachment folder.
    strFolder = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"  
    Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
' put it together with the sender name  
 strFolder = strFolder & objMsg.SenderName & "\"
    
 ' if the sender's folder doesn't exist, create it
 If Not FSO.FolderExists(strFolder) Then
 FSO.CreateFolder (strFolder)
 End If
 
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count        
    If lngCount > 0 Then
      For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
    strFile = strFolder & strFile
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile

Use Macro with Different Folders

This version of the macro save the attachments on the selected message to a subfolder. By using a "stub macro" to set the name of the subfolder, you can don't need ot repeat the long macro multiple times to use it with different pre-defined folders.

In this example, I'm either saving the attachment to From Bob or From Jim folder in my Documents folder.
C:\Users\username\Documents\From Bob\
C:\Users\username\Documents\From Jim\

Create buttons on the ribbon for the stub macros. Select the message then click the appropriate button.

Dim strFolder As String
Public Sub SaveToFolderBob()
    strFolder = "From Bob"
    SaveAttachments
End Sub

Public Sub SaveToFolderJim()
    strFolder = "From Jim"
    SaveAttachments
End Sub

Private Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

    ' Get the path to your My Documents folder
    strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    Debug.Print strFolderpath
    On Error Resume Next

' The attachment folder needs to exist
' You can change this to another folder name of your choice

    ' Set the Attachment folder.
    strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\" & strFolder & "\"
    Debug.Print strFolderpath

    Set objOL = Outlook.Application
    Set objMsg = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

    Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
    lngCount = objAttachments.Count
        
    If lngCount > 0 Then
    
    ' Use a count down loop for removing items
    ' from a collection. Otherwise, the loop counter gets
    ' confused and only every other item is removed.
    
    For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
    
    ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
    
    ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
    
    ' Save the attachment as a file.
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
    
    Next i
    End If
        
ExitSub:

Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub

Assign the macro to a button

In Outlook 2007 and older, you can create a toolbar button to run the macro. In Outlook 2010, you'll need to customize the ribbon.

More information is at Customize the Outlook Toolbar, Ribbon or QAT and at Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).

Run the macro using a ribbon or QAT shortcut

Step 1: To create a button to run a macro in Outlook 2010, go to File, Options, and choose Customize Ribbon. (If you want a button on the QAT, choose Quick Access Toolbar instead.)

Step 2: Choose Macro from the Choose Commands From menu and select the macro you want to add to the ribbon or QAT.

Step 3: Select the Group you want to add the macro to. If it doesn't exist yet, use the New Group buttons to create the group.

Step 4: Use the Rename button to give the macro a friendly name and change the icon. You are limited to the icons in the dialog (unless you want to program a ribbon command).

Run the macro from a toolbar button

To create a toolbar button for it, go to View, Toolbar, Customize, Commands tab. In the Categories pane, type M to jump to Macros. On the Commands side, drag the macro you created to the toolbar. Right click on the button to rename it and assign a new icon.