Search code examples
pythonpython-3.xsmtpimaplib

Reading unread emails using python script

I am trying to read all the unread emails from the gmail account. The above code is able to make connection but is unable to fetch the emails.

I want to print the content of each email.

I am getting the error as can't concat int to bytes.

code:

import smtplib
import time
import imaplib
import email

def read_email_from_gmail():
        mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com')
        mail.login('my_mail','my_pwd')
        mail.select('inbox')

        result, data = mail.search(None, 'ALL')
        mail_ids = data[0]

        id_list = mail_ids.split()   
        first_email_id = int(id_list[0])
        latest_email_id = int(id_list[-1])


        for i in range(latest_email_id,first_email_id, -1):
            result, data = mail.fetch(i, '(RFC822)' )

            for response_part in data:
                if isinstance(response_part, tuple):
                    msg = email.message_from_string(response_part[1])
                    email_subject = msg['subject']
                    email_from = msg['from']
                    print ('From : ' + email_from + '\n')
                    print ('Subject : ' + email_subject + '\n')



print(read_email_from_gmail())

error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:/Users/devda/Desktop/Internship/access_email.py", line 32, in <module>
    print(read_email_from_gmail())
  File "C:/Users/devda/Desktop/Internship/access_email.py", line 20, in read_email_from_gmail
    result, data = mail.fetch(i, '(RFC822)' )
  File "C:\Users\devda\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\imaplib.py", line 529, in fetch
    typ, dat = self._simple_command(name, message_set, message_parts)
  File "C:\Users\devda\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\imaplib.py", line 1191, in _simple_command
    return self._command_complete(name, self._command(name, *args))
  File "C:\Users\devda\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\lib\imaplib.py", line 956, in _command
    data = data + b' ' + arg
TypeError: can't concat int to bytes
>>>

I followed the tutorial from here

What I want to do is to extract content from email which is shown in image Email

Solution

  • I had to make a few changes to your code in order to get it to work on Python 3.5.1. I have inlined comments below.

    # no need to import smtplib for this code
# no need to import time for this code
import imaplib
import email


def read_email_from_gmail():
        mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL('imap.gmail.com')
        mail.login('my_mail','my_pwd')
        mail.select('inbox')

        result, data = mail.search(None, 'ALL')
        mail_ids = data[0]

        id_list = mail_ids.split()   
        first_email_id = int(id_list[0])
        latest_email_id = int(id_list[-1])

        for i in range(latest_email_id,first_email_id, -1):
            # need str(i)
            result, data = mail.fetch(str(i), '(RFC822)' )

            for response_part in data:
                if isinstance(response_part, tuple):
                    # from_bytes, not from_string
                    msg = email.message_from_bytes(response_part[1])
                    email_subject = msg['subject']
                    email_from = msg['from']
                    print ('From : ' + email_from + '\n')
                    print ('Subject : ' + email_subject + '\n')

# nothing to print here
read_email_from_gmail()

    Maybe submit a bug report to the author of that blog.