How to Save Gmail Attachments on Android

Saving Gmail attachments to your phone on Android used to be over-complicated, but since a major update to the Android app last year, it has become a whole lot easier. You no longer even need to be in the actual email thread containing the attachment to download it to your phone!

Here we’re going to show you a couple of methods for saving Gmail attachments on Android.

The modern version of the Gmail app lets you directly access email attachments from your email inbox.

Note: your “Conversation list density” will need to be on Default or Comfortable to see attachments from the inbox. To change this, tap the hamburger menu icon at the top-left corner of Gmail -> Settings -> General settings -> Conversation list density, then change it to the relevant setting.

Now, back in your Gmail inbox you can see the attachments just under the email preview.

Tap the attachment to open it, then tap the three-dot menu icon at the top-right corner and click Save (or Save to Drive).

Alternatively, you can download attachments from inside the individual email thread. Just navigate to the exact email containing the attachment you want, then press the Download icon next to the attachment.

Once you’ve downloaded the Gmail attachment to your phone, it should be in your Downloads folder (or whatever you set as the default download folder on your phone). You can access this using the default file manager app on your phone (called ‘Files’ on stock Android), then navigating to the Download folder within that.

And that’s how to do it! If you want to really master Gmail, then read our list of Gmail shortcuts or how to turn Gmail into a desktop app in Windows 10.