old email accounts

[phaz0rz]

Does everyone else here still routinely login to their old email accounts (from when maintaining a dozen or more stealth accounts was easy) to keep them from going dormant and being deleted?


I do. Who knows.. they might be worth something someday

[rsot]

I do as well - check in on the old email accounts

[dsdominators]

I do. Since eBay no longer auto-release payouts from MC'ed accounts...

[sax4]

I get 100's of emails saying 'your account is being deleted' as the email accounts are forwarded to my main email addresses. I wouldn't be able to log into the emails anyway because of 2fa bull****

[Automasters]

Yep, have a ton all forwarded to me, some I can't log into anymore, but keep a few I check...

[james_112233]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

Does everyone else here still routinely login to their old email accounts (from when maintaining a dozen or more stealth accounts was easy) to keep them from going dormant and being deleted?


I do. Who knows.. they might be worth something someday

Not only emails but I even have my PayPal's with my bank accounts attached pre eBay managed payments.

Not sure what I should do with them.

[agent006140]

Originally Posted by james_112233

Not only emails but I even have my PayPal's with my bank accounts attached pre eBay managed payments.

Not sure what I should do with them.

Then you would have problem using those bank accounts for your other Paypal account.

[rsot]

PP with bank accounts attached and working can still be used for other business.

[ebayfocker]

I do, but it is becoming burdensome when you have over 50. Takes a lot of time to go through all of them. There needs to be some automation solution.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by ebayfocker

I do, but it is becoming burdensome when you have over 50. Takes a lot of time to go through all of them. There needs to be some automation solution.

You could have AI make you a python script that'll cycle through all your accounts. I know it works with Gmail and could probably be done with other email providers too. Google has a feature called app passwords that you can use to give custom scripts backend access to your Gmail accounts. You'd have to run through all 50 of your accounts to enable the feature but things would be much easier for you afterwards.

I set one up a few months ago to back all of my emails up to timestamped text files on my computer, and now I run it every few days.

I made another one that cycles through a list of eBay listings. It opens Chrome then spends ten seconds on each listing before cycling to the next.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

You could have AI make you a python script that'll cycle through all your accounts. I know it works with Gmail and could probably be done with other email providers too. Google has a feature called app passwords that you can use to give custom scripts backend access to your Gmail accounts. You'd have to run through all 50 of your accounts to enable the feature but things would be much easier for you afterwards.

I set one up a few months ago to back all of my emails up to timestamped text files on my computer, and now I run it every few days.

I made another one that cycles through a list of eBay listings. It opens Chrome then spends ten seconds on each listing before cycling to the next.

Nice AI use phaz

[ebayfocker]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

You could have AI make you a python script that'll cycle through all your accounts. I know it works with Gmail and could probably be done with other email providers too. Google has a feature called app passwords that you can use to give custom scripts backend access to your Gmail accounts. You'd have to run through all 50 of your accounts to enable the feature but things would be much easier for you afterwards.

I set one up a few months ago to back all of my emails up to timestamped text files on my computer, and now I run it every few days.

I made another one that cycles through a list of eBay listings. It opens Chrome then spends ten seconds on each listing before cycling to the next.

That is quite interesting. Do you separate each ebay/email login into different browser profiles or containers, or just do all of it in the same browser session? Because doing it in the same one would tie them all together.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

I set one up a few months ago to back all of my emails up to timestamped text files on my computer, and now I run it every few days.

Maybe something you share personally...or market?

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by ebayfocker

That is quite interesting. Do you separate each ebay/email login into different browser profiles or containers, or just do all of it in the same browser session? Because doing it in the same one would tie them all together.

I can't really give you an answer on that since I never took it that far. The script I had the superbot make for me just checks for new emails on the gmail account, then saves a local copy if there are any.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by rsot

Maybe something you share personally...or market?

import imaplib
import email
from email.header import decode_header
import os
from datetime import date
import getpass

# --- CONFIGURATION ---
IMAP_SERVER = "imap.gmail.com"
EMAIL_ACCOUNT = "youraccount@gmail.com" # Replace with your email
# Use the 16-character App Password
EMAIL_PASSWORD = "your 16 digit gmail app password" 
DOWNLOAD_PATH = os.path.join(os.path.expanduser("~"), "Downloads") # Default to User Downloads folder

def clean_text(text):
    """Clean filename characters"""
    return "".join([c for c in text if c.isalpha() or c.isdigit() or c in ' -_']).rstrip()

def main():
    print("Connecting to Gmail...")
    
    try:
        # Connect to the Gmail IMAP server
        mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(IMAP_SERVER)
        mail.login(EMAIL_ACCOUNT, EMAIL_PASSWORD)
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error logging in: {e}")
        return

    # Select INBOX folder
    mail.select("INBOX")

    # Search for UNSEEN (unread) emails
    status, messages = mail.search(None, 'UNSEEN')
    
    if status != "OK":
        print("No new messages found.")
        mail.logout()
        return

    # Get email IDs
    email_ids = messages[0].split()
    total_emails = len(email_ids)
    print(f"Found {total_emails} new emails to process...")

    for e_id in email_ids:
        # Fetch the email body (RFC822)
        status, msg_data = mail.fetch(e_id, '(RFC822)')
        
        if status != "OK":
            continue

        raw_email = msg_data[0][1]
        msg = email.message_from_bytes(raw_email)

        # Decode Subject
        subject, encoding = decode_header(msg.get("Subject"))[0]
        if isinstance(subject, bytes):
            subject = subject.decode(encoding if encoding else 'utf-8')
        
        from_sender = email.utils.parseaddr(msg.get("From"))[1]
        print(f"Processing: {subject} from {from_sender}")

        # Create a safe folder name based on date and subject
        today_str = date.today().strftime("%Y_%m_%d")
        safe_subject = clean_text(subject)
        folder_name = f"{today_str}_{safe_subject}"
        
        # Create subfolder in Downloads if content is complex
        file_save_path = os.path.join(DOWNLOAD_PATH, folder_name)
        os.makedirs(file_save_path, exist_ok=True)

        # --- 1. Save the Email Body (Text/HTML) ---
        body_file_path = os.path.join(file_save_path, "email_content.txt")
        
        with open(body_file_path, "w", encoding='utf-8') as f:
            f.write(f"From: {from_sender}\n")
            f.write(f"Subject: {subject}\n")
            f.write(f"Date: {msg.get('Date')}\n\n")
            f.write("--- EMAIL BODY ---\n")

            # Walk through the email parts
            if msg.is_multipart():
                for part in msg.walk():
                    content_type = part.get_content_type()
                    content_disposition = str(part.get("Content-Disposition"))
                    
                    # Save text/plain or text/html content
                    if content_type == "text/plain" and "attachment" not in content_disposition:
                        charset = part.get_content_charset() or 'utf-8'
                        try:
                            body = part.get_payload(decode=True).decode(charset)
                            f.write(body)
                        except Exception as ex:
                            print(f"Error decoding body: {ex}")
            else:
                # Non-multipart (plain text only)
                charset = msg.get_content_charset() or 'utf-8'
                try:
                    body = msg.get_payload(decode=True).decode(charset)
                    f.write(body)
                except Exception as ex:
                    print(f"Error decoding body: {ex}")

        print(f"  -> Saved email content to {folder_name}")

        # --- 2. Download Attachments ---
        attachments_downloaded = 0
        for part in msg.walk():
            if part.get_content_maintype() == 'multipart':
                continue
            
            filename = part.get_filename()
            if filename:
                # Decode filename
                filename = decode_header(filename)[0][0]
                if isinstance(filename, bytes):
                    filename = filename.decode(part.get_content_charset() or 'utf-8')

                filepath = os.path.join(file_save_path, filename)
                
                # Handle duplicate filenames by adding a number
                counter = 1
                while os.path.exists(filepath):
                    name, ext = os.path.splitext(filename)
                    filepath = os.path.join(file_save_path, f"{name}_{counter}{ext}")
                    counter += 1

                try:
                    with open(filepath, "wb") as f:
                        f.write(part.get_payload(decode=True))
                    attachments_downloaded += 1
                    print(f"  -> Downloaded attachment: {filename}")
                except Exception as ex:
                    print(f"  -> Error downloading attachment {filename}: {ex}")

        if attachments_downloaded == 0:
            print("  -> No attachments found.")

    # Mark emails as read (Optional: comment out if you want to keep them "New")
    # for e_id in email_ids:
    #     mail.store(e_id, '+FLAGS', '\\SEEN') 

    mail.close()
    mail.logout()
    print("\nDownload process completed.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    # If you want to be prompted for password instead of hardcoding it:
    if EMAIL_PASSWORD == "your_app_password_here":
        print("Please edit the script to add your Email and App Password, or modify the code to use input().")
        # Uncomment lines below to use interactive login
        # EMAIL_ACCOUNT = input("Enter Gmail Address: ")
        # EMAIL_PASSWORD = getpass.getpass("Enter App Password: ")
        # main()
    else:
        main()

I don't think it's anything worth selling but if anyone is interested, there ya go. Note that an app password is not your regular gmail password.. it's a feature you have to manually enable. There's a few python dependencies you'll have to have but it's nothing too serious.

[phaz0rz]

It's a neat script. It scrapes your gmail inbox one email at a time. Each email is saved into its own folder in a text file and any attachments are also saved into that email's folder. Takes up very little space since the emails are saved without any formatting.