Load emails in C# and VB.NET

The following example shows how to load an email message file and read its properties like date, subject, recipients, and body using the GemBox.Email library in C# or VB.NET. With it, you can load these email file formats:

EML
MSG
MHTML

using GemBox.Email;
using System;

// If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY");

// Load message from email file.
MailMessage message = MailMessage.Load("Html.eml");

// Read message information.
Console.WriteLine($"Date: {message.Date}");
Console.WriteLine($"Subject: {message.Subject}");
Console.WriteLine($"From: {message.From}");
Console.WriteLine($"To: {message.To}");

if (message.Cc.Count > 0)
    Console.WriteLine($"Cc: {message.Cc}");

if (message.Bcc.Count > 0)
    Console.WriteLine($"Bcc: {message.Bcc}");

if (message.Attachments.Count > 0)
    Console.WriteLine($"Attachments: {message.Attachments.Count}");

Console.WriteLine();
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(message.BodyHtml))
    Console.WriteLine(message.BodyText);
else
    Console.WriteLine(message.BodyHtml);

Imports GemBox.Email
Imports System

Module Program

    Sub Main()

        ' If using the Professional version, put your serial key below.
        ComponentInfo.SetLicense("FREE-LIMITED-KEY")

        ' Load message from email file.
        Dim message As MailMessage = MailMessage.Load("Html.eml")

        ' Read message information.
        Console.WriteLine($"Date: {message.Date}")
        Console.WriteLine($"Subject: {message.Subject}")
        Console.WriteLine($"From: {message.From}")
        Console.WriteLine($"To: {message.To}")

        If (message.Cc.Count > 0) Then
            Console.WriteLine($"Cc: {message.Cc}")
        End If

        If (message.Bcc.Count > 0) Then
            Console.WriteLine($"Bcc: {message.Bcc}")
        End If

        If (message.Attachments.Count > 0) Then
            Console.WriteLine($"Attachments: {message.Attachments.Count}")
        End If

        Console.WriteLine()
        If (String.IsNullOrEmpty(message.BodyHtml)) Then
            Console.WriteLine(message.BodyText)
        Else
            Console.WriteLine(message.BodyHtml)
        End If

    End Sub
End Module

Screenshot of an email loaded programatically in C# — Screenshot of an email loaded programatically

When using the MailMessage.Load(String) method, GemBox.Email will select the required MailMessageFormat based on the file's extension. So, for a file named Example.msg, it will use MailMessageFormat.Msg and for a file named Example.eml, it will use MailMessageFormat.Eml.

If you need to work with MBOX files, please check our MBOX message collection example.

Load emails in C# and VB.NET

See also

Next steps