How do I open attachments in Gmail on Android?

Last reviewed: September 27, 2026 · Markdown version

Open the email in the Gmail app and the attachment sits in the message. From there Google's Android page documents two actions: Download, which saves it to the phone, and Save to Drive. Those steps, and everything else from Google about the Gmail app below, come from Open & download attachments in Gmail (Android) (read 27 September 2026). Once a file is on the phone, Android decides which app shows it.

Download it, then open it

Open the Gmail app and the email.
Tap Download on the attachment.
Open your phone's Files app and tap the file. Android's help: "To open a file, tap it" (Find & delete files on Android, read 27 September 2026).

If your phone has Files by Google, recent downloads show up at the top: "Under the Recents section, you can view your recently added, downloaded, and modified files" (View your files, read 27 September 2026). Android's page adds that your maker "might have a different app", so on some phones the Files app has another name.

What Google's Android page leaves out

The Android version of that Gmail page gives steps for downloading and for saving to Drive; it does not describe tapping an attachment to preview it inside Gmail, and it does not say which app Gmail hands a PDF or a spreadsheet to (the Open & download attachments page). So if tapping the attachment opens it for you, good. If not, the download route above is the one Google documents.

Photos inside the message

A picture pasted into the body is not an attachment. Google's steps for it: touch and hold the photo, tap View image, tap the photo, tap More at the top right, then Save (the Open & download attachments page).

When the wrong app opens it

When more than one app can open a file, Android asks. Google's Pixel help describes the choice: tap the app, then Always or Just once, and "If you choose Always: Your device won't ask which app to use anymore" (Set or clear default apps on your Pixel phone or Pixel Tablet, read 27 September 2026). To undo an Always, the same page says: Settings → Apps → the app → Open by default → Clear default preferences. That is Pixel wording; Google warns some of the steps "only work on Android 14 and up", and other makers' menus may differ. Default apps on every platform.

When it will not open at all

A virus was found. If Gmail finds one in an email already in your inbox, "you won't be able to download the attachment" (Anti-virus scanning attachments, read 27 September 2026).
A warning appears. Gmail flags attachments it cannot vouch for, including encrypted ones: "documents that require a password to open, are encrypted and can't be scanned for viruses". Google's advice for a suspicious email is "don't reply and don't download the attachment", and to ignore the warning only if the sender is someone you know and trust (the Open & download attachments page).
No app on the phone reads that format. Google's Gmail page does not cover this case. If the download works but nothing on the phone will show the file, what is missing is an app for that file type.

An attachment you have downloaded is a copy on the phone; the email and its attachment stay in Gmail until you delete them. Saving many at once is a different job.