Email Trigger node executes for new emails and shows manual attachment download, but binary data is missing, preventing automated extraction via nodes

Describe the problem/error/question

I am using the Email Trigger node in my workflow. The flow is executing for new emails, and I am also getting the option to download attachments manually. However, I cannot download attachments through nodes like “Write Binary File” or “Move Binary Data” because there is no binary field containing the attachment data. Additionally, when I use the “Execute Command” node to echo the data, there is no available field from which I can extract the attachment data.

Please share your workflow

Share the output returned by the last node


Information on your n8n setup

  • n8n version: 1.77.3
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): npm (n8n start)
  • Operating system: Linux

It looks like your topic is missing some important information. Could you provide the following if applicable.

  • n8n version:
  • Database (default: SQLite):
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main):
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app):
  • Operating system:
  • n8n version: 1.77.3
  • Database (default: SQLite): NA
  • n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): main
  • Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): npm (n8n start)
  • Operating system: Linux

The attachment binary appears to be there, but you have an expression referencing the actual binary data content instead of the name of the binary data item, which is literally ‘attachment_0’.

If you know there will only ever be one attachment, you could grab its name, whatever it is, with an expression like {{ $binary.keys()[0] }}

If there could be multiple attachments, you can put a Split Out node in front of whatever you need to process the attachment binary data, and use $binary (literal text value, not an expression) as the Fields to Split Out.

There is a template showing an example of most of this here.