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Guide | Updated 17 October 2026

How to save attachments from many emails at once in Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free, capable email program, but saving attachments from dozens of messages is slow: you open each email and save its files one by one. Here are three ways to do it, from the built-in method to saving a whole folder's attachments in one go.

Method 1: Thunderbird's built-in Save All

  1. Open the message.
  2. In the attachment area at the bottom of the message, choose Save All.
  3. Pick a folder and confirm.

This works well for a few messages. For fifty, it means fifty rounds of open, save and choose a folder, and every file lands in the same place with its original name, so two attachments called CV.pdf will clash.

Method 2: An export add-on

Thunderbird add-ons such as ImportExportTools NG can export messages and their attachments from several selected messages at once. You install it from Thunderbird's add-ons manager, select the messages, and use its export options. This is a good general-purpose choice when you want everything out of a folder. Like the built-in option, it doesn't know which files belong to which person, so you still sort them afterwards.

Method 3: Save attachments into folders by sender with Applicant Packager

If the emails are job applications, Applicant Packager is a free Windows app that reads your Thunderbird mailbox directly and saves attachments in an organized way:

  1. Close Thunderbird, so the mailbox isn't being changed while it's read.
  2. Open Applicant Packager and choose the Thunderbird mailbox as the source. It finds your Inbox automatically, or you can browse to another mail folder file in your Thunderbird profile.
  3. Enter the role and keywords you're looking for, then scan. Matching emails are listed newest first.
  4. Select the emails you want and download. Attachments are saved into Search name \ Role \ Applicant folders, so every person's files stay together and nothing is overwritten.

It opens the mailbox read-only and never changes your messages. For accounts Thunderbird syncs over IMAP, such as Outlook.com, keep Synchronization & Storage set to store messages on this computer so the full messages are available.

Download Applicant Packager free

Where Thunderbird keeps your mail

On Windows, Thunderbird stores mail in your profile folder, usually C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\. Inside, ImapMail holds accounts synced over IMAP and Mail holds local folders. Each mail folder is a single file (for example INBOX) with a matching .msf index file. Don't edit or move these files while Thunderbird is running.

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