Are you searching for an email in your gmail inbox by scrolling the pages? No need of such a tedious task…You can search emails by just entering a word (or multiple words) that appears anywhere within the message you want to locate. If you’re looking for a message that contains the word shopping, simply type shopping in the search field and press Search Mail. Your results will be displayed with your search terms highlighted in yellow.
Gmail doesn’t recognize special search characters like square brackets, parentheses, currency symbols, the ampersand, the pound sign, and asterisks. It also doesn’t recognize partial or similar matches, so a search for travel will find travel, but not travels, traveler, or travle.
If you’re having trouble finding the result you want, you can refine your query by clicking Show search options next to the search box, and entering your criteria in the appropriate fields.
Using advanced search
[advt]Advanced search operators are query words or symbols that perform special actions in Gmail search. These operators allow you to find what you’re looking for quickly and accurately. They can also be used to set up filters so you can organize your inbox automatically. Some of the most useful operators are listed below.
You can also use advanced search operators by clicking on Show search options beneath the Gmail search box.
| Operator | Definition | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
| from: | Used to specify the sender | Example: from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy |
| to: | Used to specify a recipient | Example: to:david Meaning: All messages that were sent to David (by you or someone else) |
| subject: | Search for words in the subject line | Example: subject:dinner Meaning: Messages that have the word “dinner” in the subject |
| OR | Search for messages matching term A or term B* *OR must be in all caps |
Example: from:amy OR from:david Meaning: Messages from Amy or from David |
| – (hyphen) |
Used to exclude messages from your search | Example: dinner -movie Meaning: Messages that contain the word “dinner” but do not contain the word “movie” |
| label: | Search for messages by label* *There isn’t a search operator for unlabeled messages |
Example: from:amy label:friends Meaning: Messages from Amy that have the label “friends”Example: from:david label:my-family Meaning: Messages from David that have the label “My Family” |
| has:attachment | Search for messages with an attachment | Example: from:david has:attachment Meaning: Messages from David that have an attachment |
| list: | Search for messages on mailing lists | Example: list:[email protected] Meaning: Messages with the words [email protected] in the headers, sent to or from this list |
| filename: | Search for an attachment by name or type | Example:filename:physicshomework.txt Meaning: Messages with an attachment named “physicshomework.txt” Example: label:work filename:pdf |
| ” ” (quotes) |
Used to search for an exact phrase* *Capitalization isn’t taken into consideration |
Example: “i’m feeling lucky” Meaning: Messages containing the phrase “i’m feeling lucky” or “I’m feeling lucky” Example: subject:”dinner and a movie” |
| ( ) | Used to group words Used to specify terms that shouldn’t be excluded |
Example: from:amy (dinner OR movie) Meaning: Messages from Amy that contain either the word “dinner” or the word “movie” Example: subject:(dinner movie) |
| in:anywhere | Search for messages anywhere in Gmail* *Messages in Spam and Trash are excluded from searches by default |
Example: in:anywhere movie Meaning: Messages in All Mail,Spam, and Trash that contain the word “movie” |
| in:inbox in:trash in:spam |
Search for messages in Inbox, Trash, or Spam | Example: in:trash from:amy Meaning: Messages from Amy that are in Trash |
| is:important label:important |
Search within messages that Priority Inbox considers important. | Example: is:important from:janet Meaning: Messages from Janet that were marked as important by Priority Inbox |
| is:starred is:unread is:read |
Search for messages that are starred, unread or read | Example: is:read is:starred from:David Meaning: Messages from David that have been read and are marked with a star |
| cc: bcc: |
Used to specify recipients in the cc: or bcc: fields* *Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied |
Example: cc:david Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to David |
| after: before: |
Search for messages sent during a certain period of time* *Dates must be in yyyy/mm/dd format. |
Example: after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/18 Meaning: Messages sent between April 16, 2004 and April 18, 2004.* *More precisely: Messages sent after 12:00 AM (or 00:00) April 16, 2004 and before April 18, 2004. |
| is:chat | Search for chat messages | Example: is:chat monkey Meaning: Any chat message including the word “monkey”. |
| deliveredto: | Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header | Example:deliveredto:[email protected] Meaning: Any message with [email protected] in the Delivered-To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias). |
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