Save Gmail attachments to Clio — with smart filenames
Clio for Gmail is great at filing emails and attachments to matters — but it saves them under whatever filename came in, often scan001.pdf or IMG_4521.JPG. Send to Case suggests a clean, searchable filename built from the sender, subject, and date, so the file you upload is the file you can find six months later.
- ✓Google Chrome on desktop — Windows, macOS, or Linux
- ✓An active Clio Manage account you can sign into
- ✓The Send to Case extension installed and connected to Clio
- ✓Gmail open in a desktop browser tab
The "scan001.pdf" problem
Most attachments arrive with whatever name the sender's scanner, phone, or e-filing system slapped on them.
An opposing-counsel email lands in your inbox with one attachment:
In Clio's matter folder it looks identical to the eight other scan001.pdf files filed last quarter from the same sender.
Right-click the attachment, and Send to Case suggests:
Searchable by sender, subject keyword, and date. You opt in per file with a "Use this name" button — nothing is renamed without your click.
This isn't an exaggeration: most attachments do arrive with generic names. Court e-filing portals churn out eFileSubmission_2349841.pdf. Signed documents arriving from DocuSign come in under the envelope ID, not the agreement's name. Phone-camera uploads from clients come in as IMG_4521.JPG. By the time you need to find that document a year later, the only context that survived was the email itself — and you're scrolling Gmail to figure out which file is which.
How this compares to Clio for Gmail
The Add-on does most of the email-to-Clio job well. There's one gap.
Built and maintained by Clio. Lives in Gmail's right-side panel. Strong product — widely installed (one of the more popular Gmail add-ins for legal).
- ✓Files emails and their attachments to a Clio matter
- ✓Logs the email as a time entry on the matter
- ✓Surfaces matter context next to the email thread
- !Cannot rename attachments — they file under the original filename, per Clio's own help center.
Right-click any Gmail attachment to file it to a Clio matter — with a smart, searchable filename suggested for you.
- ✓Suggests a clean filename from sender + subject + date
- ✓Per-file matter and folder selection
- ✓Doesn't replace the Add-on — complements it
- ✓Free for the first 10 uploads/month
Use both. The Add-on takes care of filing the email and the time entry; Send to Case handles the attachment's filename so it's findable later.
The filename format
Format
Worked example
Original
Suggested
Sender: Jane Doe <[email protected]> · Subject: Smith v Jones - Notice of Hearing · Date: 2026-05-06.
You opt in per file. The suggestion appears next to the original filename with a "Use this name" button. Click it to accept, edit it inline, or upload under the original name — your call, every time.
What about Clio Maildrop?
Clio Maildrop lets you forward an email to a per-matter address and have the email body land on the matter. It's a useful tool — but according to Clio's own help center, Maildrop may not carry attachments through (it requires a matter match and has a per-email size limit). The email body is what gets filed; the files themselves don't always make the trip.
That means Maildrop is the right tool when the email body is the record (a confirmation of intent, an opposing counsel position, a settlement summary). For the attachments themselves, you still need either Clio for Gmail or Send to Case.
Privacy: we don't see your files (or your email)
The bytes go straight from your browser to Clio. We're not in the path.
When you click upload, the attachment bytes stream from your browser directly to Clio's S3-backed storage using a presigned URL Clio's API hands out. That data never passes through any server we operate. The Send to Case backend only ever sees the small amount of metadata Clio needs to attach the file to the right matter — never file contents.
The subject, sender display name, and date used to suggest a filename are read client-side, in the active Gmail tab, only at the moment you right-click an attachment. That metadata is used to compose the suggestion in your browser and is never sent to our servers — not even hashed. We don't see your inbox, your messages, your contacts, or which threads you have open.
What does flow to our error tracker (Sentry) is anonymized selector diagnostics — boolean signals like "subject element found: yes/no" or "date parsed within range: yes/no". No email content, no filenames, no addresses. The point is to alert us within hours if Google changes the Gmail UI in a way that breaks the suggestion, so we can ship a fix before users notice.
An honest list of what this doesn't do
Standard Gmail web UI on desktop Chrome only
Custom Gmail clients, Inbox-by-Gmail successors, and embedded webmail wrappers aren't tested.
Confidential Mode + S/MIME attachments may not surface metadata
Encrypted threads sometimes hide the subject and sender from page markup; the suggestion will fall back to the original filename when that happens.
Gmail mobile app is out of scope
This is a browser extension. iOS and Android Gmail clients don't run extensions.
.ics invites save as files, not Clio calendar events
Send to Case uploads the attachment as-is. If you want the meeting on the matter calendar, use the Clio for Gmail Add-on or import the .ics through Clio's calendar.
Selectors are retested each release
Google changes Gmail markup on its own schedule. We retest the selectors every release; if a change ships in between, expect a hotfix. Troubleshooting guide →
Need to capture an entire discovery production at once instead of one attachment at a time? See discovery productions in bulk.
Filing from Outlook instead of Gmail? The Outlook equivalent of this workflow covers the Microsoft side, and what Clio's Outlook add-in actually supports — which mailbox types, which Outlook builds — decides whether the official route is open to your firm at all. And for attachments already saved into Drive folders, see moving Google Drive files into matters.
How Send to Case names your Gmail attachments
Three pieces of context, read from the open thread, combined into one filename.
Sender's first name
Read from Gmail's sender display element. The first token before the email address — so "Jane Doe <[email protected]>" becomes Jane.
Subject
Read from the open thread's subject line. Re:/Fwd: prefixes are stripped so threads read cleanly even after a few exchanges.
Date
Parsed from the message timestamp's tooltip and normalized to YYYY-MM-DD. Validated within ±5 years to filter junk values.
Five steps. Most uploads take under a minute
Right-click any Gmail attachment to file it to a Clio matter.
Open the thread
Open the email thread with the attachment in Gmail.
Right-click attachment
Choose "Send to Clio" from the context menu.
Review suggested name
Click "Use this name" or edit before uploading.
Pick matter and folder
Search Clio matters and choose the folder.
Upload
File streams browser → Clio directly. Done.
Built for security-conscious firms
Your client data deserves protection. Here's how we keep it safe.
Direct upload
Files travel straight from your browser to Clio. They never touch our servers.
Official OAuth
We use Clio's official authentication. Your password is never visible to us.
Local storage
Settings stay on your device. Nothing stored on our servers.
Privacy first
No file names in error logs. Your data stays private.
Where this saves the most time
Six places where attachment-rename effort adds up fast.
Court e-filing notices
NEFs and file-stamped pleadings arrive from the clerk under generic IDs. The suggested name preserves the proceeding and date.
Opposing counsel correspondence
Letters with exhibits where every PDF is named for the sender's internal numbering, not yours.
Client intake submissions
New clients email PDFs and phone-camera shots with names like IMG_4521.JPG. Filing under the client's first name + subject makes intake searchable.
Expert and vendor reports
Doctors, investigators, and process servers each have their own filename quirks. The suggested format normalizes the lot.
Insurance carrier docs
Acknowledgements, demand responses, and policy excerpts arrive with claim-system identifiers. Sender + subject + date is far more searchable.
DocuSign / e-sign notifications
Completion emails attach the signed PDF under DocuSign's envelope ID. Renaming gives you the document, not the envelope number.
Does this replace Clio for Gmail?
+No. Clio for Gmail (the official Add-on) is a strong product for filing the email itself and logging time entries against a matter. Send to Case complements it by suggesting cleaner, searchable filenames for the attachments you save. Most firms get the best results using both.
Does it work with the new Gmail design?
+Yes. The Gmail selectors used to read the open thread's subject, sender, and date were verified in May 2026. If Google changes the markup, we ship a fix — anonymized selector diagnostics flow to our error tracker so we know within hours, not weeks.
What does the suggested filename look like?
+The format is First - Subject - YYYY-MM-DD.ext. For example, an attachment named scan001.pdf from Jane Doe with the subject Smith v Jones - Notice of Hearing on 2026-05-06 would be suggested as: Jane - Smith v Jones - Notice of Hearing - 2026-05-06.pdf. You can accept the suggestion with one click or edit it before uploading.
Does Send to Case read my email?
+No. Send to Case only reads the subject, sender display name, and date of the Gmail thread you have open at the moment you right-click an attachment. That metadata is used locally in your browser to suggest a filename — it never leaves your machine. The file bytes stream from your browser to Clio's storage directly. We don't see your inbox, your messages, or your attachments.
Is it free?
+Yes. The free tier includes 10 uploads per month, which is enough for most solos to evaluate the workflow on real matters. Pro is $19/month for unlimited uploads.
Can I save all attachments at once?
+Yes. Right-click the page and choose Find Downloadable Files — Send to Case scans Gmail's attachment chips and presents them in a single batch. Pick the matter and folder once, and every attachment uploads together.
Keep going
Clio bulk upload
Batch page scanning, drag-and-drop, and automatic zip extraction for evidence portals and discovery.
Read guide →Clio upload troubleshooting
Fixes for failed uploads, login issues, and "Something Went Wrong" errors.
Read guide →Court documents to Clio
Overview of uploading court filings to Clio matters from any court system.
Read guide →Cleaner Gmail attachments in Clio — in one click
Install Send to Case and stop filing scan001.pdf on every matter.
Free tier includes 10 uploads/month. See pricing · How files reach Clio