The following vb.net example codes demonstrate how to retrieve email from Gmail IMAP4 server.
Gmail POP3 and IMAP4 Setting
Gmail POP3 server address is pop.gmail.com
. It requires SSL connection on 995
port, and you should use your Gmail email address as the user name for user authentication.
Gmail IMAP4 server address is imap.gmail.com
. It requires SSL connection on 993
port, and you should use your Gmail email address as the user name for user authentication.
For example: your email is gmailid@gmail.com
, and then the user name should be
gmailid@gmail.com
.
To retrieve email from Gmail account, you need to enable POP3 or IMAP4 access in your gmail account settings.
Because Gmail POP3 server doesn’t work like normal POP3 server, it hides old emails automatically even the email was not deleted, so we suggest that you use IMAP4 protocol.
Server | Port | SSL | Protocol |
pop.gmail.com | 995 | SSL required | Pop3 |
imap.gmail.com | 993 | SSL required | Imap4 (recommended) |
To help keep your account secure, starting May 30, 2022, Google will no longer support the use of third-party apps or devices which ask you to sign in to your Google Account using only your username and password.
Therefore, you should sign in using App Passwords.
An App Password
is a 16-digit passcode that gives a less secure app or device permission
to access your Google Account. App Passwords
can only be used with accounts that have 2-Step Verification turned on.
You need to use App Password
instead of the user password for user authentication.
Another solution is Gmail OAUH, please see Gmail IMAP OAUTH section.
Last update: Google has disabled App password, you have to switch to Gmail IMAP OAUTH. If you don’t want to change your code, you can have a try with EA Oauth Service.
Before you can use the following sample codes, you should download the EAGetMail Installer and install it on your machine at first. Full sample projects are included in this installer.
Install from NuGet
You can also install the run-time assembly by NuGet. Run the following command in the NuGet Package Manager Console:
Install-Package EAGetMail
Note
If you install it by NuGet, no sample projects are installed, only .NET assembly is installed.
To use EAGetMail POP3 & IMAP Component in your project, the first step is “Add reference
of EAGetMail to your project”. Please create or open your project with Visual Studio,
then go to menu
-> Project
-> Add Reference
-> .NET
-> Browse...
, and
select Installation path\Lib\[netversion]\EAGetMail.dll
, click Open
-> OK
, the reference
will be added to the project, you can start to use it to
retrieve email and parse email in your project.
Because EAGetMail has separate builds for .Net Framework, please refer to the following table and choose the correct dll.
Separate builds of run-time assembly for .Net Framework 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6.1, 4.7.2, 4.8.1, .NET 6.0, NET 7.0, .NET 8.0, .NET Standard 2.0 and .Net Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5.
File | .NET Framework Version |
Lib\[net20|40|45|461|472|481]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Framework 2.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.6.1, 4.7.2, 4.8.1
It requires .NET Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version. |
Lib\[net5.0|6.0|7.0|8.0]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET 5.0, .NET 6.0, .NET 7.0, .NET 8.0
It requires .NET 5.0 or later version. |
Lib\netstandard2.0\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Standard 2.0
It requires .NET Standard 2.0 or later version. |
Lib\[net20-cf|net35-cf]\EAGetMail.dll |
Built with .NET Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5
It requires .NET Compact Framework 2.0, 3.5 or later version. |
The following example codes demonstrate how to use EAGetMail POP3 component to download email from Gmail IMAP server.
In order to run it correctly, please change email server
, user
, password
, folder
, file name
value to yours.
Note
To get full sample projects, please download and install EAGetMail on your machine.
Because Gmail POP3 server doesn’t work like normal POP3 server, it hides old emails automatically even the email was not deleted, so we suggest that you use IMAP4 protocol.
IImports System.Globalization
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports EAGetMail 'imports EAGetMail namespace
Module Module1
Function _generateFileName(ByVal sequence As Integer) As String
Dim currentDateTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Return String.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", New CultureInfo("en-US")),
currentDateTime.Millisecond,
sequence)
End Function
Sub Main()
Try
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
Dim localInbox As String = String.Format("{0}\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
' If the folder is not existed, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(localInbox) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox)
End If
' Create app password in Google account
' https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
' Gmail IMAP server is "imap.gmail.com"
Dim oServer As New MailServer("imap.gmail.com",
"gmailid@gmail.com",
"your app password",
ServerProtocol.Imap4)
' Enable SSL/TLS connection, most modern email server require SSL/TLS connection by default.
oServer.SSLConnection = True
' Set 993 IMAP SSL Port
oServer.Port = 993
Console.WriteLine("Connecting server ...")
Dim oClient As New MailClient("TryIt")
oClient.Connect(oServer)
Dim infos As MailInfo() = oClient.GetMailInfos()
Console.WriteLine("Total {0} email(s)", infos.Length)
For i As Integer = 0 To infos.Length - 1
Dim info As MailInfo = infos(i)
Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL)
' Retrieve email from IMAP server
Dim oMail As Mail = oClient.GetMail(info)
Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}" & vbCr & vbLf, oMail.Subject)
' Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
Dim fileName As String = _generateFileName(i + 1)
Dim fullPath As String = String.Format("{0}\{1}", localInbox, fileName)
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, True)
' Mark email as deleted from IMAP server.
oClient.Delete(info)
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from IMAP server.
oClient.Quit()
Console.WriteLine("Completed!")
Catch ep As Exception
Console.WriteLine(ep.Message)
End Try
End Sub
End Module
By default, you can generate an App Passwords, and use this app password instead of the user password for IMAP4 authentication.
However, Google will disable traditional user authentication in the future, switching to Google OAuth is strongly recommended now.
Because IMAP/EWS/WebDAV support read mail flag, with this feature, we can also retrieve unread/new email only from Gmail like this
Imports System.Globalization
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports EAGetMail 'imports EAGetMail namespace
Module Module1
Function _generateFileName(ByVal sequence As Integer) As String
Dim currentDateTime As DateTime = DateTime.Now
Return String.Format("{0}-{1:000}-{2:000}.eml",
currentDateTime.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss", New CultureInfo("en-US")),
currentDateTime.Millisecond,
sequence)
End Function
Sub Main()
Try
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
Dim localInbox As String = String.Format("{0}\inbox", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
' If the folder is not existed, create it.
If Not Directory.Exists(localInbox) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(localInbox)
End If
' Create app password in Google account
' https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
' Gmail IMAP server is "imap.gmail.com"
Dim oServer As New MailServer("imap.gmail.com",
"gmailid@gmail.com",
"your app password",
ServerProtocol.Imap4)
' Enable SSL/TLS connection, most modern email server require SSL/TLS connection by default.
oServer.SSLConnection = True
' Set 993 IMAP SSL Port
oServer.Port = 993
Console.WriteLine("Connecting server ...")
Dim oClient As New MailClient("TryIt")
oClient.Connect(oServer)
' retrieve unread/new email only
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.Reset()
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfosOptionType.NewOnly
Dim infos As MailInfo() = oClient.GetMailInfos()
Console.WriteLine("Total {0} unread email(s)", infos.Length)
For i As Integer = 0 To infos.Length - 1
Dim info As MailInfo = infos(i)
Console.WriteLine("Index: {0}; Size: {1}; UIDL: {2}",
info.Index, info.Size, info.UIDL)
' Retrieve email from IMAP server
Dim oMail As Mail = oClient.GetMail(info)
Console.WriteLine("From: {0}", oMail.From.ToString())
Console.WriteLine("Subject: {0}" & vbCr & vbLf, oMail.Subject)
' Generate an unqiue email file name based on date time.
Dim fileName As String = _generateFileName(i + 1)
Dim fullPath As String = String.Format("{0}\{1}", localInbox, fileName)
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs(fullPath, True)
' mark unread email as read, next time this email won't be retrieved again
If Not info.Read Then
oClient.MarkAsRead(info, True)
End If
' if you don't want to leave a copy on server, please use
' oClient.Delete(info)
' instead of MarkAsRead
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from IMAP server.
oClient.Quit()
Console.WriteLine("Completed!")
Catch ep As Exception
Console.WriteLine(ep.Message)
End Try
End Sub
End Module
TLS is the successor of SSL, more and more SMTP servers require TLS 1.2
encryption now.
If your operating system is Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 2003/2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2
, you need to
enable TLS 1.2 protocol in your operating system like this:
Enable TLS 1.2 on Windows XP/Vista/7/10/Windows 2008/2008 R2/2012
Appendix
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