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How to find a mail by Sender across all Folders?
I'd like to quickly find all mails in all folders of an account by a given sender. 'Global Search' Filters don't help, I can just choose 'must involve' or 'can't involve', but not something like 'must be Sender' 'Quick Search' only seems to work in a chosen folder 'Search messages'-> 'From' -> 'is' is cumbersome:doesn't offer autocompletion of addresses, have to type the whole address to get an exact match I have a feeling there must be a way for this and I'm just missing it
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You posted in the Firefox support fora queue. Firefox doesn't do email, it's strictly a web browser.
If you are using Firefox to access your mail, you are using "web-mail" such as Yahoo!Mail or Gmail. You should seek support from your "web mail" service provider or a forum for that service.
If your problem is with Thunderbird, let us know and we can move this thread to the Thunderbird support queue.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/problems-with-email-how-to-find-help
Yes, sorry, It was meant for thunderbird!
In Global Search I started to type name of person or start of email address and was offered to search for 'messages mentioning' and a drop down list, so I select the appropriate email address from drop down.
It opens in a new tab. Top left there is: 'Filters' In my case I see four options 'From me', 'To me', 'Starred', 'Attachments' Below that was a list of names which I could select must or must involve.
I clicked on 'To Me'
The remaining search list may be emails sent from person X to me and also the email address I'm searching on. Under 'People' in left pane of filters, I selected each person except for one I want, and select 'must not involve' to remove them. So I'm left with 'People' and the only name is the one I'm searching for.
So at this point I'm searching on emails 'To Me' the only person is the name/email address I want.
Then I clicked on 'open email as list' so easier to read.
"Under 'People' in left pane of filters, I selected each person except for one I want, and select 'must not involve' to remove them." I just tried out with a random sender from my address book and there were +1000 people in the 'People' column for his mails. It's not very practical to check them all as 'must not involve' .
Hi If the person is often part of messages that are to/from a long list of people it can be hard to separate certain messages. As Toad-Hall mentioned, selecting To me should filter messages from the one you are looking for to you, but does not remove messages to you and long list of other people. Are the ones you want to see from that person and only to you? Setting 'can't involve' for just one or two of the other people usually on the same lists, would exclude any messages that went to/from both those people and everyone else who always gets the same messages. This way using a few key names can quickly get rid of messages to multiple recipients. After that, open messages as a list, and sort by the sender or the correspondents column. I hope this helps narrow it down. Agnes
Another option worth setting up is a search folder if you do this sort of search on a regular basis. It may seem a bit long winded at first to set it up, but I've found this method really useful because once it is created, it is easy to manipulate for a search on a particular person or add an additional filter eg: Status is starred. Read on...
- 'Menu app icon' > 'Find' > 'Search Messages'
- Search on the account name rather than a folder in that account.
Search for message in: click on drop down to see list of mail accounts. Hover over a mail account name and you will see a further drop down list showing all the folders...BUT at the top of that list is the account name. Select that account name and it will search on the entire account.
- search subfolders
- Select 'Match all of the following'
- 'From' and 'contains' and type email address or name
- click on 'Search'
- Click on 'Save as Search Folder'
- Give search folder a name.
- Choose where to save it as a sub folder of...
- Select the folders to search on...Click on 'Choose' button
You will see the first account selected and all it's folders.
- Scroll Down.
- select checkboxes for all other accounts and folders. yes this bit is tedious but worth it.
- click on Ok
- click on Update
Search is now extended to all accounts and all folders.
Folder is created where you stated eg: Local Folders. View the folder to see results. Sort as desired.
Modifying the parameters of the search folder: Right click on new search folder and select 'Properties' This opens up the saved search properties for editing. As it is already set to search on everything you can leave that part as it is. You can change the search parameter eg: search for a different person who sent emails to you. just edit the email address and click on 'Update' Or add another parameter : click on small + to get another input line. eg: Status is starred. click on 'Update' Search folder displays a different set of data.
Very handy :)
Yes, a Search folder is what I've been using until now, but, as I mentioned on my question, it doesn't provide autocompletion for email addresses, you have to type the whole thing. I guess I'll stick to that option. Thanks everyone!