Store Attachments Outside the Client [Outlook]

I am looking to create a message rule in Outlook to move attachments to a folder OUTSIDE of Outlook, for example:

If an email from <sender> has an attachment, save/move the attachment to "C:\<directory> "

Can this be done in Outlook?

 

Thank you, Arie!

 

Actually, there is at least one way to do this using a VBA Macro in Outlook. This 10-Minute Solution shows you how to set up Outlook to do this task for you.

To begin with, go to Tools > Macro > Macros, type a new name for your macro in the Macro Name field, and click Create.

Outlook will load the Visual Basic editor for you and start your new macro with the proper name, like so:

Code:

Sub ReportSave()
End Sub

Now just set up the objects you'll need to make this work:

Code:

Dim oApp As Application
Dim oNS As NameSpace
Dim oMsg As Object
Dim oAttachments As Outlook.Attachments

Set oApp = New Outlook.Application
Set oNS = oApp.GetNamespace( "MAPI ")

This gets your macro read to work with items. Be sure you're working with the Inbox, so set the current folder to the Inbox like so:

Code:

Set oFolder = oNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

How the Program Works
Outlook looks at each item in the Inbox and determines which of them to auto-process. In most cases, the FROM address is the same for your automated report messages, so you can use that address as the criterion to check:

Code:

For Each oMsg In oFolder.Items

This tells Outlook to cycle through each item...

Code:

With oMsg

and with each item it is to...

Code:

If .SenderName =  "Report Generator" Then

Check to see if the SenderName is "Report Generator." SenderName is the display name of the person who sent you the message. If it is from the specified sender, then it is to...

Code:

oMsg.Attachments.Item(1).SaveAsFile  "C:\reports\in\" & 
myAttachments.Item(1).DisplayName

Use the SaveAsFile method to save the file to the C:\Reports\in\ directory using the filename that the sender gave it. If you'd rather assign your own filename to the item, you can do so by substituting your own filename, in quotes, for the "myAttachments.Item(1).DisplayName" part, like this:

Code:

oMsg.Attachments.Item(1).SaveAsFile  "C:\reports\in\" &  "report.txt "

After you're done saving the file, you probably want to delete the message it came in because you don't need it once the file is saved. You can use this...

Code:

.Delete

to do that. Remember that you started with a "With Each oMsg in oFolder.Items" so you can simply use the .Delete method to delete the current message.

Knowing Whether You Got a Report
By having the program automatically save the file and delete the message, you may not know (without looking) whether you received your automatic report or not. To solve this, you can give yourself a notification with a message box by adding this line after the .Delete:

Code:

MsgBox  "The report has been processed "

At this point, if you receive a report that is processed, the message box will pop up with that message and you'll acknowledge it by clicking OK.
That's the basics of the application. You'll need an "End If" statement to close your IF procedure that checks for SenderName, an "End With" statement to finish the "With Each oMsg… ", and a "Next" statement, like this:

Code:

                   End If
           End With
       Next
End Sub

Now you're done!

Keeping Old Reports
One flaw in this program is that if you have more than one report waiting from the same auto-report generator (say, if you've been away for a day or two and haven't logged in), it's going to cycle through and save each one with the same filename—overwriting the first ones saved with the later ones, so that you end up with just one report.

To prevent this auto-deletion, have the program assign a unique number to the beginning of each filename. Go back to where you defined your variables and define a string like so:

Code:

DIM StrControl

Assign it a value by adding this line beneath where you set your oFolder to the Inbox:

Code:

StrControl = 0
Then add this: 
StrControl = StrControl + 1

Beneath the "If" statement that checks for SenderName to increment the value by one each time a message from the report generator is discovered.
Finally, change the line that saves the file by adding that StrControl value to the beginning of the filename, like this:

Code:

oMsg.Attachments.Item(1).SaveAsFile  "C:\reports\in\" & strControl 
&  "report.txt "

The Final Script
When you're all done, the completed macro should look something like this:

Code:

Sub Reportave()
    Dim oApp As Application
    Dim oNS As NameSpace
    Dim oMsg As Object
    Dim oAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
    Dim strControl
            
    Set oApp = New Outlook.Application
    Set oNS = oApp.GetNamespace( "MAPI ")
    Set oFolder = oNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)
    strControl = 0
    
    For Each oMsg In oFolder.Items
        With oMsg
            If .SenderName =  "Report Generator" Then
                strControl = strControl + 1
                oMsg.Attachments.Item(1).SaveAsFile  "C:\reports\in\" 
				& strControl &  "report.txt "
                    .Delete
            End If
        End With
    Next
End Sub

Thanks to Ben M. Schorr