Written by Jennifer Walsh. Reviewed for technical accuracy by Shubham Dixit, Independent Expert in Email Forensics and Data File Conversion. Updated 22 October 2026.
Shubham is an independent external reviewer and not an employee of PCDOTS.
Quick summary. You extract attachments from Evolution mail free for one email at a time. Click the down-arrow next to an attachment and select Save As, or use the Save All button to save every file in that message. Evolution can’t pull attachments from many emails at once, so for a bulk job you export the folder to mbox and let a converter extract them all.
On this page
How do you extract attachments from Evolution mail?
You extract attachments from Evolution mail free when it’s one email, because GNOME Evolution has a built-in save. Open the message and save a single file or every file in it with a couple of clicks.
Bulk is the catch. Evolution can save the attachments inside one message, but it won’t pull files from many emails at once. For that job you export the mail to mbox and hand it to a converter that extracts the lot.
Here’s the free save for a single email, the reason bulk needs a different route and the step by step for pulling attachments out of hundreds of Evolution emails together.
Match how many emails you have to the method, one file to Save As, several to Save All, many emails to an mbox export and extract.
“Evolution is fine when you want the files from one email, the Save All button does that in a click. People hit the wall when they want attachments from a year of mail, because GNOME’s own help says Evolution can’t save files from every message in one go. So I stop fighting the client. Export the folder to mbox, point a converter at it and the attachments come out of every message at once with the folder names kept. Save a small batch first and open a few files to be sure they match.” Shubham Dixit, Data File reviewer (draft, pending approval)
How to save attachments from one Evolution email
Evolution puts the controls right on the open message, so a single email is quick. Save one file on its own or every file together.
For a single attachment, follow these three steps.
- Open the Evolution email that holds the attachment.
- Click the down-arrow next to the attachment icon.
- Select Save As, choose a folder, then Save.
Got several files in the one message? Between the header and the body Evolution shows a Save All button with the attachment count. Select it, choose a folder and every attachment from that message saves together.
Why Evolution won’t save attachments from every email
Here’s the part worth knowing before you start clicking. GNOME’s own help states Evolution can’t save the attachments of all messages into one folder at once. So there’s no native button for a mailbox-wide pull.
Opening a year of email and saving files message by message eats an afternoon. For anything past a handful of emails, exporting to mbox and extracting in bulk is the sane route.
How to extract attachments from multiple Evolution emails
Want the files from many emails in one go? Export the mail to an mbox file first, then let a converter read it and pull every attachment out together.
Here are the five steps.
- In Evolution, open the folder and select the messages, or press Ctrl and A to select all.
- Select File, then Save as mbox and save the file somewhere handy.
- Open PCDOTS MBOX Converter and load that mbox file.
- Select the emails in the preview, then choose Extract, then Attachments.
- Choose a destination folder and Save. The converter pulls attachments from every message at once.
PCDOTS MBOX Converter reads the Evolution mbox on Windows and saves the attachments with the folder names kept, which suits an archive or an e-discovery export. For a single email, Evolution’s own Save All is free and faster.
Comfortable in the terminal? On Linux a free utility like ripmime, or a short Python script, reads an exported mbox and writes out the attachments with no paid software. It wants some command-line know-how, so most people lean on the converter above.
The bulk route in five beats, select the folder, save it as mbox, load the mbox in the converter, then extract the attachments from every message.
Which route fits your job?
Match how many emails you have to the method. Here’s the quick version.
| Method | Best for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Save As | One attachment | Free, the down-arrow next to the file |
| Save All button | Every file in one email | Free, saves that message’s attachments |
| Export to mbox and convert | Attachments across many emails | Evolution has no native bulk save |
Key takeaways
- Extract attachments from Evolution mail free for one email with Save As or Save All.
- Evolution can’t save attachments from many emails at once, GNOME confirms the limit.
- For bulk, select the folder, use File, Save as mbox, then extract from the mbox.
- A converter pulls attachments from every message in the mbox and keeps the folder names.
Frequently asked questions
How do I save an attachment in Evolution?
Open the email, click the down-arrow next to the attachment, then select Save As and choose a folder. That saves the single file to your computer.
How do I save all attachments from one email?
Open the message and select the Save All button that sits between the header and the body. Choose a folder and Evolution saves every attachment from that email together.
Can Evolution extract attachments from multiple emails at once?
No. GNOME’s help confirms Evolution can’t save attachments from all messages in one go. Export the folder to mbox, then a converter pulls the attachments from every message together.
How do I export Evolution mail to mbox?
Select the messages, or press Ctrl and A to select all in a folder, then choose File, Save as mbox and save the file. That mbox feeds a converter for bulk extraction.
Where does Evolution store my emails?
Evolution keeps local mail under ~/.local/share/evolution/mail on Linux, in mbox or Maildir depending on the account. Export to mbox gives you a single file to work from.
Can I extract attachments without opening every email?
Not inside Evolution. Export the mail to mbox and a converter reads every message, so the attachments come out without you opening them one by one.
Getting your Evolution files out, fast
Extracting attachments from Evolution mail splits cleanly by size. For one email, the down-arrow and Save As or the Save All button do it free in seconds. For many emails, Evolution hits its own limit, so export the folder with File, Save as mbox and let a converter pull the attachments from every message at once. Export a small batch first and open a few files, then scale up once you see it holds.
