Unable to Retrieve Attachments from SharePoint List Using Python

Hi Steven,

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

To clarify my use case — I am not specifically targeting guest or internal users. My primary goal is simply to download the attachments from a SharePoint List using Python. At the moment, I am able to retrieve the list items and metadata, but I am not getting the actual attachment files in the response.

I have given the permissions you mentioned (Sites.Read.All, Sites.FullControl.All).

Could you please guide me on the correct and reliable method (Graph API or REST API) to download attachments via Python? If REST API is preferred for this, I would appreciate a working example or best practices around authentication and URL construction.

Thanks again for your support.

Hi Omkar Shende

Thanks for replying

As I am forum moderator, due to the limitation in capabilities and testing environment, I cannot give you the definitive solution for in some advanced context. However, per my test, you can try this python to see if the issue can be resolved:

import requests
import msal
# Configuration
tenant_id = 'your-tenant-id'
client_id = 'your-client-id'
client_secret = 'your-client-secret'
site_url = 'https://yourdomain.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite'
list_name = 'YourListName'
item_id = 1  
# ID of the list item whose attachments you want to download
# Authentication using MSAL
authority_url = f'https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant_id}'
scope = [f'{site_url}/.default']
app = msal.ConfidentialClientApplication(
    client_id,
    authority=authority_url,
    client_credential=client_secret
)
token_response = app.acquire_token_for_client(scopes=scope)
if 'access_token' not in token_response:
    raise Exception("Could not obtain access token")
access_token = token_response['access_token']
# Construct the REST API endpoint to get attachments
endpoint = f"{site_url}/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('{list_name}')/items({item_id})/AttachmentFiles"
# Set headers for the request
headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}',
    'Accept': 'application/json;odata=verbose'
}
# Make the request to get attachment metadata
response = requests.get(endpoint, headers=headers)
if response.status_code != 200:
    raise Exception(f"Failed to retrieve attachments: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")
attachments = response.json()['d']['results']
# Download each attachment
for attachment in attachments:
    file_name = attachment['FileName']
    file_url = attachment['ServerRelativeUrl']
    download_url = f"{site_url}{file_url}"
    file_response = requests.get(download_url, headers=headers)
    if file_response.status_code == 200:
        with open(file_name, 'wb') as f:
            f.write(file_response.content)
        print(f"Downloaded: {file_name}")
    else:
        print(f"Failed to download {file_name}: {file_response.status_code}")

Please note that while this script works in my environment with the correct tenant, client credentials, and permissions (Sites.Read.All or Sites.FullControl.All) it may require adjustments to function properly in yours. Factors such as SharePoint site structure, list configuration, item permissions, and tenant policies can affect behavior. I encourage you to try it out and update the configuration as needed to suit your setup.

If you encounter issues, feel free to share details so we can troubleshoot together.
Thank you for understanding