Save an attachment to Drive

When someone sends you a file, you can keep it in Drive rather than in your mailbox. Attachments appear as chips above the message in the reading pane. Click one to look at it first, or save it straight to a folder of your choosing.

Look at an attachment first

1. Open the message.
2. Click the chip for the file you want.

The file opens in a preview over the message. Use the arrows at the top to step through the other attachments on the message, and press Escape to close it.

Pictures, PDFs, video and sound play in the preview. Text and code files (such as .txt, .md, .json, .yaml), contact files, forwarded messages and calendar files are shown there too: a .vcf reads as the contact cards it holds, an .eml as the message it holds and an .ics as the events it holds, not as raw text. An invitation attached to the message is a chip like any other, with the invitation card still under the message itself. Anything else shows its name and an icon, with the same buttons along the bottom. Text files over 1 MB show the file card instead.

Along the bottom of the preview are the things you can do with the file: Download, Save to Drive…, and, depending on the file, Convert to Sheet for an .xlsx spreadsheet, Convert to Document for a .docx document, Import to Contacts for a .vcf contact file, Import to Mail for an .eml message, or Import to Calendar for an .ics calendar file. On a message with more than one file the bar ends with Save all, followed by the number of files.

Save one attachment

1. Open the message.
2. Right-click the chip for the file you want. On a touch screen, press and hold it instead.
3. Choose Save to Drive….
4. In the Save to Drive dialog, browse to the folder in Drive where you want it, then click Save here.

The same menu holds every action the preview's bottom bar offers, so you can download a file, convert it, or import a contact file without opening it first. When you convert one, Eigen asks for a Drive folder first, saves the file there, and creates the converted copy beside it when you click Save and convert. The new spreadsheet or document opens straight away, so you leave your mailbox.

Save all of them at once

1. Open the message.
2. Click the down-arrow icon to the right of the chips (Save attachments).
3. Browse to the folder you want in the dialog, then click Save here.

Every attachment on the message is saved to that folder together. On a message with one attachment the button reads Save attachment instead.

Download to your computer instead

If you would rather have the file on your own machine, click Download instead in the bottom-left corner of the same dialog. The dialog closes and your browser downloads the files. Nothing is written to Drive.