Mac – Stop Mail from downloading attachments automatically

You will want to make a new mailbox with storage only on the Mac or use the Archive function in Mail to archive an entire folder/mailbox.

The built in help will guide you through the Archive path.

I just make folders "On My Mac" with the year, and then make Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 folders inside to keep each relatively small - you might only need one folder per year or one folder.

Once you move the message and are comfortable that it's on your mac with attachments intact, delete the original message from IMAP and your quotas will be happier.

Try this.

   using terms from application "Mail"
    on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
        -- The folder to save the attachments in (must already exist)


        -- Save in a sub-folder based on the name of the rule in Mail

        set subFolder to name of theRule
        tell application "Finder"
            set attachmentsFolder to ((path to home folder as text) & "Dropbox:Attachments") as text
            if not (exists folder subFolder of folder attachmentsFolder) then
                make new folder at attachmentsFolder with properties {name:subFolder}
            end if
        end tell
        tell application "Mail"

            repeat with eachMessage in theMessages

                set {year:y, month:m, day:d, hours:h, minutes:min} to eachMessage's date sent
                set timeStamp to ("" & y & "-" & my pad(m as integer) & "-" & my pad(d) & "-" & my pad(h) & "-" & my pad(min))

                try
                    -- Save the attachment
                    repeat with theAttachment in eachMessage's mail attachments

                        set originalName to name of theAttachment
                        set savePath to attachmentsFolder & ":" & subFolder & ":" & timeStamp & " " & originalName
                        try
                            save theAttachment in file (savePath)
                        end try
                    end repeat

                    display dialog subFolder
                end try
            end repeat

        end tell
    end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

-- Adds leading zeros to date components
on pad(n)
    return text -2 thru -1 of ("00" & n)
end pad

I have posted a more general Automatically Save Attachments in Mail.app on my blog