Is there a way I can easily see all my attachments in macOS Mail.app?

[Spaghetti292]

I'm looking for a very specific family photo sent to me years ago via email. The problem is I literally have 20,000 emails in the Mail app going back over 15 years--and thousands of them have photo attachments.

I know I can search for image attachments in the Mail app, but still that leaves me with over 3000 emails with attached photos.

So, does the Mail app, or any app for macOS, have a way of downloading all my Mail attachments to one folder so I could just go through the attachments in that folder instead of having to open up and scroll through thousands of old email messages?

Any help is really appreciated!

 

[Longkeg]

I’m pretty sure, I’m sure someone will chime in if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that if you drag a folder into Photos (the MAC photo app) it will automatically identify and import any photos in that folder into Photos. If you can figure out where all your emails are stored (it will be in a folder hiding inside the system somewhere) and drag that folder onto the Photos icon you may be pleasantly surprised. BTW: importing that many photos may take a while. Be patient.

 

[chown33]

First, it would help us give you more cogent advice if you identify the exact OS version you're using.

Second, I'd probably start by defining a Smart Mailbox. That should give you a smaller set of emails you need to scan.

See here for very basic info:
https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-smart-mailboxes-mlhlp1190/mac

See here for more details on what criteria you can use to decide which emails end up in the Smart Mailbox:
https://blog.macsales.com/41849-tech-101-smart-mailboxes-in-apple-mail-for-mac

If you know who it's from (or a small number of people it might be from), you can add that as a criterion.

If you know a range of dates it would have been sent, you can add those. For example, if you know the date of the photo, then you know it can't have been sent any earlier than the date the photo was taken.

You should also add the "Attachment type" criterion, and choose images or image formats.

The resulting Smart Mailbox should contain fewer than 20,000 emails, and likely fewer than 3000. Depending on the actual number of emails, it might be feasible to step through them and manually look at the photos. QuickLook may be useful; I haven't used it on email or attachments, so try it and see what happens.


FWIW, I found both linked articles by searching for:
macos mail smart mailbox rules

You can try that search yourself and see if there are articles with more info.

 

[McScooby]

Just use spotlight, it searches everything on your Mac, especially if the pic had something identifiable in the scene?