Sharepoint Attachment Download

Question

I have a sharepoint list in Sharepoint 365 and it can have as many as 50 attachments per list item and most of the attachments will be in word documents and pdf formats. I would like to download all of the attachments from the list item at the same time so I do not have to waste time clicking them one by one, is there a way to achieve this?

Answer 1

Hi @Woodward, Austin P - DHS1 ,

In this case you can download attachments from list item(s) using PowerShell instead of clicking them one by one on UI.

PowerShell to download attachments from a List Item:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"  
   
Function Download-ListItemAttachments()  
{  
    param  
    (  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $ListName,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $ListItemID,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $DownloadPath  
    )     
   Try {  
        #Setup Credentials to connect  
        $Cred = Get-Credential  
        $Cred = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)  
       
        #Setup the context  
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)  
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Cred  
   
        #Get the List Item  
        $List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)  
        $ListItem= $List.GetItemByID($ListItemID)  
       
        #Get All attachments from the List Item  
        $AttachmentsColl = $ListItem.AttachmentFiles  
        $Ctx.Load($AttachmentsColl)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
       
        #Get each attachment  
        ForEach($Attachment in $AttachmentsColl)  
        {  
            #Download attachment  
            $FileContent = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File]::OpenBinaryDirect($Ctx, $Attachment.ServerRelativeUrl)  
            $FileStream = [System.IO.File]::Create($DownloadPath+$Attachment.FileName)  
            $FileContent.Stream.CopyTo($FileStream)  
            $FileStream.Close()  
       }  
   
        write-host  -f Green "Total List Attachments Downloaded : $($AttachmentsColl.count)"  
    }  
    Catch {  
        write-host -f Red "Error Downloading List Item Attachments!" $_.Exception.Message  
    }  
}  
   
#Set Parameters  
$SiteURL= "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/"  
$ListName="Projects"  
$ListItemID="1"  
$DownloadPath="C:\Temp\"  
   
#Call the function to copy list items  
Download-ListItemAttachments -SiteURL $SiteURL -ListName $ListName -ListItemID $ListItemID -DownloadPath $DownloadPath  

Download Attachments from All Items in the List using PowerShell:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"  
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"  
   
Function Download-ListAttachments()  
{  
    param  
    (  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $SiteURL,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $ListName,  
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $DownloadDirectory  
    )     
   Try {  
        #Setup Credentials to connect  
        $Cred = Get-Credential  
        $Cred = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)  
       
        #Setup the context  
        $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)  
        $Ctx.Credentials = $Cred  
   
        #Get All Items from the List  
        $List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)  
        $ListItems = $List.GetItems([Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery]::CreateAllItemsQuery())  
        $Ctx.Load($ListItems)  
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
           
        #Create download directory if it doesn't exist  
        If (!(Test-Path -path $DownloadDirectory))         
        {             
            New-Item $DownloadDirectory -type directory           
        }  
           
        #Iterate through each list item  
        Foreach($Item in $ListItems)  
        {  
            #Get All attachments from the List Item  
            $AttachmentsColl = $Item.AttachmentFiles  
            $Ctx.Load($AttachmentsColl)  
            $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()  
   
            #Get attachment for each list item  
            ForEach($Attachment in $AttachmentsColl)  
            {  
                #Download attachment  
                $FileContent = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File]::OpenBinaryDirect($Ctx, $Attachment.ServerRelativeUrl)  
                $FileName= $DownloadDirectory+$Item.id.ToString()+"_"+$Attachment.FileName  
                $FileStream = [System.IO.File]::Create($FileName)  
                $FileContent.Stream.CopyTo($FileStream)  
                $FileStream.Close()  
           }  
        }  
   
        write-host  -f Green "List Attachments Downloaded Successfully!"  
    }  
    Catch {  
        write-host -f Red "Error Downloading List Attachments!" $_.Exception.Message  
    }  
}  
   
#Set Parameters  
$SiteURL= "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/"  
$ListName="Projects"  
$DownloadDirectory="C:\Temp\"  
   
#Call the function to copy list items  
Download-ListAttachments -SiteURL $SiteURL -ListName $ListName -DownloadDirectory $DownloadDirectory  

Download Attachment from SharePoint Online List using PnP PowerShell

#Set Parameters  
$SiteURL = "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Projects"  
$ListName = "Project Docs"  
$DownloadPath = "C:\Temp\"  
   
#Connect to SharePoint Online site  
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive  
   
#Get all List Items  
$Listitems = Get-PnPListItem -List $ListName -PageSize 500  
   
#Iterate through List Items  
ForEach($Item in $Listitems)  
{  
    #Get Attachments from List Item  
    $Attachments = Get-PnPProperty -ClientObject $Item -Property "AttachmentFiles"  
   
    #Download All Attachments from List item  
    Write-host "Downloading Attachments from List item '$($Item.ID)', Attachments Found: $($Attachments.Count)"  
   
    #Create directory for each list item  
    $DownloadLocation = $DownloadPath+$Item.ID  
    If (!(Test-Path -path $DownloadLocation)) { New-Item $DownloadLocation -type Directory | Out-Null }  
   
    $Attachments | ForEach-Object {  
        Get-PnPFile -Url $_.ServerRelativeUrl -FileName $_.FileName -Path $DownloadLocation -AsFile -Force  
    }  
}  

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