How to save attachments in Claws Mail by default outside the message?

[SilenceIsG0lden]

I'm probably not using the right technical terms -- which may also be the reason why I can't find the answer to my problem. So I'll just describe it.

In Windows, I was using The Bat! since the very first version came out in 1998. Claws Mail was the closest I could find in the Linux world, when I came over 2 1/2 years ago. Linux Mint was overwhelming at first, but easing into Claws was seamless, once I'd set it up.

I apparently completely missed to consider how Claws would deal with attachments, and I have to admit shamefully that I didn't check on it until recently. (I'm fine with the way Claws deals with attachments generally, as I always thought the introduction of HTML to (private) email just unnecessarily increased the volume of data having to be shuffled through the pipes.)

In the Bat I had the choice between saving the attachments inside the same folder as the email or in a general folder for the whole account, called "attachments," with the former being the default. I must have assumed Claws would work the same way, considering it was so similar to the Bat.

It never occurred to me that any email program would want to save the attachment inline, inside the email, as it seems to be the default in Claws. This seems also a bit counter to their philosophy, as this means you could never retrieve the email and attachments outside of Claws, whereas you can simply view the text of any email, as it's a simple, numbered, plain text file.

I find it very difficult to get help for anything related to Claws Mail, and I don't have the time to download and dig though years of archived mailing lists, which seems to be the only support option TPTB at CM offer, so if anyone can help me, I'd be very grateful. If anyone knows of any help resource for Claws, beside their own website and mailing lists, I'd also be extremely grateful.

(I did find the plug-in to DELETE all attachments, but that's not very helpful, as, clearly, that would delete not save them.)

[kyphi]

An incoming message will list its components on the right side of the claws mail screen which includes any attachments. Using a right mouse click there will give you the option to "Save".

You are in the right place to get advice on the functioning of claws mail - there are many users here.

[SilenceIsG0lden]

An incoming message will list its components on the right side of the claws mail screen which includes any attachments. Using a right mouse click there will give you the option to "Save".

Thank you, kyphi, for your response and the assurance that I may find a solution here.

Meanwhile I used the darned Google in my desperation (I typically use DuckDuckGo, i.e. Bing) and found that it apparently also searches within the Claws Mail mailing list archives. I discovered a thread from 19 (!) years ago, where someone had my exact same issue. (I don't understand why it's so rare.)

It's here:
https://narkive.com/Lzggw2AR:5.737.10
and the OP was misunderstood, as I am, which I expected: I do know how to save attachments from within a single email. What I'm looking for is a solution that will by default, always save the attachments seperate from the email. Either alongside, with their respective file endings clearly shown, or in a dedicated attachments folder, if that's the only way to do it.

Sadly, I don't understand the solution that was suggested in the above mentioned thread. (I wish the person who offered it had turned it into a plugin):

Q: Is there any way/tool available that will parse the MH mailbox and save all the attachments to a local folder, deleting or marking the successfully parsed email as read. I'm not a programmer so any help in this will be greatly appreciated.

A: Well, there's always MH (or nmh) itself. The "mhn -store" (MH) or "mhstore" (nmh) commands will parse MIME messages and save all the attachments into appropriately named files. Like most of (n)MH, this is highly customizable.

I don't even know if this 19-yr-old info is still valid. (19 yrs ago I might have still been able to get this, but I'm too far removed from anything related to programming now.)

Then I was led to the actions page
https://www.claws-mail.org/faq/index.php/Actions
There is a section about saving attachments, but again this seems to be a rare thing you manual initiate once in a while, whereas I just want it to happen all the time, by default.

Then I came across this tool:
https://pldaniels.com/ripmime/
but its last update was 11 yrs ago...

Finally, I wonder if what I want isn't available at all, anymore, just like this person seems to have encountered, who wanted to have something to replace the outdated Eudora...
https://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/inde ... eparately/

Thoughts, anyone?

[miyageorge44]

An incoming message will list its components on the right side of the claws mail screen which includes any attachments. Using a right mouse click there will give you the option to "Save".

[SilenceIsG0lden]

An incoming message will list its components on the right side of the claws mail screen which includes any attachments. Using a right mouse click there will give you the option to "Save".

Umm... did you want to quote kyphi's message? Or are you one and the same? Or why are you repeating exactly what kyphi wrote -- despite my insistence that I very well know how to save attachments in each message and that I am looking for an automatic way to save ALL attachments, on their arrival, separately?

Sorry, but I'm getting annoyed whenever someone takes the time to respond after not taking the time to actually read. That just increases the number of responses while not getting anywhere - and topics with lots of responses tend to get skipped by people who may have a solution. (My decades-long experience as a moderator.)