Open & download attachments in Gmail

When you get an email with an attachment, you can download the attachment to your device.

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Download attachments

Save to your phone's photo gallery

Download a photo attachment

  1. Make sure you've downloaded the Gmail app.
  2. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Gmail app .
  3. Open the email message.
  4. Tap the attachment to open it.
  5. Tap the attachment again.
  6. In the top right, tap Share Share.
  7. Tap Save Image.

I can't download the photo

Photos that are inside the message can’t be saved to your Photo Gallery. The photo has to be an attachment for you to save it.

My photo won't save

Your photos may not save to your Photo Gallery if you haven’t allowed Gmail to access your photos. To fix this:

  1. Open your device's Settings app.
  2. Tap Privacy and then Photos.
  3. Switch on Gmail.
Save to Google Drive
  1. Make sure you've downloaded the Gmail app.
  2. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Gmail app .
  3. Open the email message.
  4. Tap the attachment to open it.
  5. In the top right, tap Save to Drive Add to My Drive.
  6. When the message is saved, you'll see "Saved to Drive" on your screen.

Learn about suspicious attachments

To protect your account from potential viruses and harmful software, Gmail notifies you about suspicious attachments in the email. An attachment may be suspicious because:

  • The attachment allows unverified scripts: We can't confirm that the message's attachments are safe to open. If you open the attachments, there's a chance malicious software will run on your computer or device.
  • The attachment is encrypted: Some attachments, like documents that require a password to open, are encrypted and can't be scanned for viruses.
  • The attachment includes emails (.eml): While we check the message and .eml attachments for spam and viruses, we can't confirm that the sender in the .eml files actually sent those emails. Learn more about authentication.

If the email looks suspicious, don't reply and don't download the attachment. You can:

If the email is from someone you know and trust, ignore the warning.

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