Gmail Search by Size with Google Apps Script

This Google Apps Script will help you find all Gmail messages that have file attachments greater than 1 MB. Should be useful when you are running out of space in Gmail.

Also see: Sort Gmail Messages by Size

function Scanning_Gmail_Mailbox() {
  if (!UserProperties.getProperty('start')) {
    UserProperties.setProperty('start', '0');
  }

  var start = parseInt(UserProperties.getProperty('start'));
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  var row = getFirstRow();
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();

  for (;;) {
    ss.toast('Now finding all the big emails in your Gmail mailbox. Please wait..', 'Scan Started', -1);

    // Find all Gmail messages that have attachments
    var threads = GmailApp.search('has:attachment larger:1m', start, 100);

    if (threads.length == 0) {
      ss.toast('Processed ' + start + ' messages.', 'Scanning Done', -1);
      return;
    }

    for (var i = 0; i < threads.length; i++) {
      var messages = threads[i].getMessages();
      UserProperties.setProperty('start', ++start);

      for (var m = 0; m < messages.length; m++) {
        var size = getMessageSize(messages[m].getAttachments());

        // If the total size of attachments is > 1 MB, log the messages
        // You can change this value as per requirement.

        if (size >= 1) {
          sheet.getRange(row, 1).setValue(Utilities.formatDate(messages[m].getDate(), 'GMT', 'yyyy-MM-dd'));
          sheet.getRange(row, 2).setValue(messages[m].getFrom());
          sheet.getRange(row, 3).setValue(messages[m].getSubject());
          sheet.getRange(row, 4).setValue(size);
          var id = 'https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#all/' + messages[m].getId();
          sheet.getRange(row, 5).setFormula('=hyperlink("' + id + '", "View")');
          row++;
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

// Compute the size of email attachments in MB

function getMessageSize(att) {
  var size = 0;
  for (var i = 0; i < att.length; i++) {
    //size += att[i].getBytes().length;
    size += att[i].getSize(); // Better and faster than getBytes()
  }
  // Wait for a second to avoid hitting the system limit
  Utilities.sleep(1000);
  return Math.round((size * 100) / (1024 * 1024)) / 100;
}

// Clear the content of the sheet

function Clear_Canvas() {
  UserProperties.setProperty('start', '0');
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
  sheet.getRange(2, 1, sheet.getLastRow(), 5).clearContent();
  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().toast('Choose Scan Mailbox to continue..', 'Initialized', -1);
}

// Find the first empty row to start logging

function getFirstRow() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var values = sheet.getRange('A:A').getValues();
  var c = 2;
  while (values[c][0] != '') {
    c++;
  }
  return c;
}

// Add a Gmail Menu to the spreadsheet

function onOpen() {
  var menu = [
    { name: 'Reset Canvas', functionName: 'Clear_Canvas' },
    { name: 'Scan Mailbox', functionName: 'Scanning_Gmail_Mailbox' },
  ];

  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().addMenu('Gmail', menu);
}
Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

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