VBA Script – Bulk Remove Attachments Emails in Outlook and Save to Folder

The following VBA script shows how to remove attachments from emails in Outlook and save them to your local machine.

The script will also note in the email body that the attachment has been removed in the email body.

This can help reducing the size of your mailbox, or removing potentially confidential or sensitive attachments.

Pre-requisites:

• Microsoft Outlook installed on your computer.
• Familiarity with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).

Steps:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. Open the VBA Editor by Pressing Alt + F11 
3. Right-click on ‘Project1’ (or similar), and select Insert -> Module
4. 
5. Copy the VBA script below and paste it into the module window.

6. Sub RemoveAttachments()
       Dim objItem As Object
       Dim objAtt As Outlook.Attachment
       Dim strFolder As String
       Dim strFile As String
       Dim strMsg As String
       Dim strSep As String
   ' Change the folder path as per your requirement
   strFolder = "C:\Temp\"
   
   For Each objItem In Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection
       If objItem.Attachments.Count > 0 Then
           strMsg = "========================================" & vbCrLf
           strMsg = strMsg & "Attachments removed on " & Format(Now, "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss") & vbCrLf
           strMsg = strMsg & "========================================" & vbCrLf
           strMsg = strMsg & "The following attachment(s) were removed:" & vbCrLf
           For Each objAtt In objItem.Attachments
               ' Use the email's date/time stamp as the unique identifier
               strFile = Format(objItem.ReceivedTime, "yyyy-mm-dd_hhmmss_") & objAtt.FileName
               objAtt.SaveAsFile strFolder & strFile
               strMsg = strMsg & vbCrLf & objAtt.FileName
               objAtt.Delete
           Next objAtt
           strMsg = strMsg & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
           strSep = String(40, "=")
           objItem.Body = objItem.Body & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & strSep & vbCrLf & strMsg & strSep
           objItem.Save
       End If
   Next objItem
   End Sub
   

7. Run the Script: Press F5 or click on the Run button to execute the script.
8. Select the emails you wish to process, the script will loop through each selected email, remove the attachments, save them to the specified folder (C:\Temp\), and append a message in the email body documenting the action.

How the Script Works:

• Variable Declaration: Variables are declared to hold objects and string values used in the script.
• Folder Path Setting: strFolder is set to “C:\Temp\”, change this to your desired directory.
• Outer Loop (Email Selection): Iterates through each selected email item in Outlook.
• Attachment Check: Checks if the current email item has any attachments.
• Inner Loop (Attachment Processing): Iterates through each attachment, saves it to the specified folder, and then removes it from the email.
• Message Construction and Email Update: Constructs a message, appends it to the email body, and saves the email item.