In previous section, I introduced how to retrieve email over SSL connection. In this section, I will introduce how to download email from your Gmail account in VB 6.0.
Sections:
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.
Note
Remarks: All of examples in this section are based on first section: A simple VB 6.0 project. To compile and run the following example codes successfully, please click here to learn how to create the test project and add reference to your project.
The following example codes demonstrate how to download email from Gmail account using IMAP4 protocol.
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.
Note
To get the full sample projects, please refer to Samples section.
Option Explicit
Const MailServerPop3 = 0
Const MailServerImap4 = 1
Const MailServerEWS = 2
Const MailServerDAV = 3
Const MailServerMsGraph = 4
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim curpath As String
Dim mailbox As String
Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
curpath = App.Path
mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
oTools.CreateFolder mailbox
Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
' Gmail IMAP server address
oServer.Server = "imap.gmail.com"
oServer.User = "gmailid@gmail.com"
' Create app password in Google account
' https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
oServer.Password = "your app password"
oServer.Protocol = MailServerImap4
' Enable SSL Connection
oServer.SSLConnection = True
' Set 993 SSL Port
oServer.Port = 993
On Error GoTo ErrorHandle:
Dim oClient As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailClient
oClient.LicenseCode = "TryIt"
oClient.Connect oServer
MsgBox "Connected"
Dim infos As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfoCollection
Set infos = oClient.GetMailInfoList()
MsgBox infos.Count & " emails"
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To infos.Count - 1
Dim info As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfo
Set info = infos.Item(i)
MsgBox "Index: " & info.Index & "; Size: " & info.Size & _
"; UIDL: " & info.UIDL
' Receive email from Gmail server
Dim oMail As EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
Set oMail = oClient.GetMail(info)
MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address & _
vbCrLf & "Subject: " & oMail.Subject
Dim fileName As String
' Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
' You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
fileName = mailbox & "\" & oTools.GenFileName(i) & ".eml"
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs fileName, True
' Mark email as deleted from Gmail server.
oClient.Delete info
Next
' Quit and expunge emails marked as deleted from Gmail server.
oClient.Quit
Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub
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
Option Explicit
Const MailServerPop3 = 0
Const MailServerImap4 = 1
Const MailServerEWS = 2
Const MailServerDAV = 3
Const MailServerMsGraph = 4
Const GetMailInfos_All = 1
Const GetMailInfos_NewOnly = 2
Const GetMailInfos_ReadOnly = 4
Const GetMailInfos_SeqRange = 8
Const GetMailInfos_UIDRange = 16
Const GetMailInfos_PR_ENTRYID = 32
Const GetMailInfos_DateRange = 64
Const GetMailInfos_OrderByDateTime = 128
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim curpath As String
Dim mailbox As String
Dim oTools As New EAGetMailObjLib.Tools
' Create a folder named "inbox" under current directory
' to save the email retrieved.
curpath = App.Path
mailbox = curpath & "\inbox"
oTools.CreateFolder mailbox
Dim oServer As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailServer
' Gmail IMAP server address
oServer.Server = "imap.gmail.com"
oServer.User = "gmailid@gmail.com"
' Create app password in Google account
' https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en
oServer.Password = "your app password"
oServer.Protocol = MailServerImap4
' Enable SSL Connection
oServer.SSLConnection = True
' Set 993 SSL Port
oServer.Port = 993
On Error GoTo ErrorHandle:
Dim oClient As New EAGetMailObjLib.MailClient
oClient.LicenseCode = "TryIt"
oClient.Connect oServer
MsgBox "Connected"
' retrieve unread/new email only
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.Reset
oClient.GetMailInfosParam.GetMailInfosOptions = GetMailInfos_NewOnly
Dim infos As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfoCollection
Set infos = oClient.GetMailInfoList()
MsgBox infos.Count & " unread emails"
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To infos.Count - 1
Dim info As EAGetMailObjLib.MailInfo
Set info = infos.Item(i)
MsgBox "Index: " & info.Index & "; Size: " & info.Size & _
"; UIDL: " & info.UIDL
' Receive email from Gmail server
Dim oMail As EAGetMailObjLib.Mail
Set oMail = oClient.GetMail(info)
MsgBox "From: " & oMail.From.Address & _
vbCrLf & "Subject: " & oMail.Subject
Dim fileName As String
' Generate a random file name by current local datetime,
' You can use your method to generate the filename if you do not like it
fileName = mailbox & "\" & oTools.GenFileName(i) & ".eml"
' Save email to local disk
oMail.SaveAs fileName, 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 Gmail server.
oClient.Quit
Exit Sub
ErrorHandle:
MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub
TLS is the successor of SSL, more and more Email 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
,
and you got connection error with SSL/TLS connection,
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
Next Section
At next section I will introduce how to download emails from Yahoo account.
Appendix
Comments
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