diff --git a/gpgmymail b/gpgmymail
index e538e13..8622548 100755
--- a/gpgmymail
+++ b/gpgmymail
@@ -58,6 +58,124 @@ def is_message_encrypted(message: email.message.Message) -> bool:
 
     return message.get_content_subtype() == "encrypted"
 
+def decode_email(message: email.message.Message) -> email.message.Message:
+    """Turn a quoted-printable or base64 encoded email into a 7or8bit encoded
+    email
+
+    :param message: email.message.Message to be decoded
+    :return: decoded email.message.Message"""
+    def decoded_bytes_to_return_value(decoded_bytes: bytes) -> email.message.Message:
+        """
+        if at any point you want to return, return a call of this function and
+        pass decoded_bytes
+
+        :param decoded_bytes: an email as an ASCII byte array; this should be
+                              stored in decoded_bytes
+        :return: the expected return value of decode_email
+        """
+        # if i do message_from_bytes it bizarrely changes it back to base64?
+        # utf-8 has encoding issues so do latin1
+        return email.message_from_string(decoded_bytes.decode("latin1"))
+
+    # this is a kinda hacky way to do this by manipulating the message as a
+    # string but i couldn't get it to work any other way
+
+    # sometimes this raises an exception and idk why
+    try:
+        decoded_bytes = message.as_bytes()
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        decoded_bytes = message.as_string().encode()
+    # if email doesn't need decoding
+    has_quopri = b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable' in decoded_bytes
+    has_base64 = b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64' in decoded_bytes
+    if not (has_quopri or has_base64):
+        return message
+    decoded_bytes = quopri.decodestring(decoded_bytes)
+
+    # replace any instances of the Content-Transfer-Encoding header
+    # quopri version, we do base64 version down there
+    decoded_bytes = decoded_bytes.replace(
+        b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable',
+        b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'
+    )
+
+    # now exit if there's no base64 as i think that's the most fucky
+    if not has_base64:
+        return decoded_bytes_to_return_value(decoded_bytes)
+
+    # REALLY hacky but i had issues with the more sensible ways to do this.
+    # iterates through a Message object to find CTEs of base64
+    # gets the b64 payload and the decoded payload
+    # then find and replaces in decoded_bytes the b64 payload
+    # with the decoded payload
+    # lol
+
+    def decode_b64_part(
+        part: email.message.Message,
+        decoded_bytes: bytes,
+        most_recent_boundary: str = None
+    ) -> bytes:
+        """
+        change decoded_bytes such that part is decoded if base64 (unchanged if
+        not)
+
+        see usage below for examples
+
+        :param part: email.message.Message to be decoded
+        :param decoded_bytes: the email as a bytes object (ie not a string with
+                              encoding), will have modified version returned
+        :param most_recent_boundary: str of the most recent boundary so we
+                                     don't overwrite this
+        :return: bytes of decoded_bytes with part decoded if base64
+        """
+        if part.get("Content-Transfer-Encoding") == "base64":
+            b64_str = part.get_payload()
+            # remove the boundary as we don't want to change this
+            if most_recent_boundary:
+                b64_str = b64_str.replace(most_recent_boundary, "")
+            # sometimes we have leftover hyphens from a boundary, so strip:
+            # hyphens not in base64 so we know not to use them
+            # strip whitespace first
+            b64_str = b64_str.strip()
+            b64_str = b64_str.strip('-')
+            b64_str = b64_str.encode()  # turn into bytes-like object
+            # this will also decode the boundary so there'll be some nonsese
+            # chars at end of email but it's nbd
+            decoded_b64_str = part.get_payload(decode=True)
+            return decoded_bytes.replace(
+                b64_str,
+                decoded_b64_str
+            )
+        
+        return decoded_bytes
+
+    quopri_decoded_message = email.message_from_bytes(decoded_bytes)
+    if quopri_decoded_message.is_multipart():
+        most_recent_boundary = None
+        for part in quopri_decoded_message.walk():
+            # multipart and has boundary (not None)
+            if part.is_multipart() and part.get_boundary():
+                most_recent_boundary = part.get_boundary()
+            else:
+                decoded_bytes = decode_b64_part(
+                    part,
+                    decoded_bytes,
+                    most_recent_boundary
+                )
+    else:
+        decoded_bytes = decode_b64_part(
+            quopri_decoded_message,
+            decoded_bytes,
+            None
+        )
+
+    decoded_bytes = decoded_bytes.replace(
+        b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64',
+        b'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit'
+    )
+    
+    return decoded_bytes_to_return_value(decoded_bytes)
+
 def set_email_header(
     message: email.message.Message,
     name: str,
@@ -79,24 +197,6 @@ def set_email_header(
     else:
         message.add_header(name, value)
 
-def decode_email(message: email.message.Message) -> email.message.Message:
-    """Turn a quoted-printable or base64 encoded email into a 7or8bit encoded
-    email
-
-    :param message: email.message.Message to be decoded
-    :return: decoded email.message.Message"""
-    if message.is_multipart():
-        for part in message.walk():
-            if part.get('Content-Transfer-Encoding') in ('quoted-printable', 'base64'):
-                set_email_header(part, 'Content-Transfer-Encoding', '7bit')
-                part.set_payload(part.get_payload(decode=True))
-    else:
-        if message.get('Content-Transfer-Encoding') in ('quoted-printable', 'base64'):
-            set_email_header(message, 'Content-Transfer-Encoding', '7bit')
-            message.set_payload(message.get_payload(decode=True))
-
-    return message
-
 def encrypt(
         message: email.message.Message,
         recipients: typing.List[str],