advanced search - gmail help

7/25/2019 Advanced Search - Gmail Help

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1/29/2016 Advanced search - Gmail Help

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Gmail Help

GMAIL FORUM

Advanced search

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 refine your search by clicking the arrow in the search box.

Op e ra t o r De f in it io n Ex a mp le s

from: Used to specify the

sender

Example: from:amy

Meaning: Messages from Amy

to: Used to specify a

recipient, including "cc:"

and "bcc:" fields

Example: t o : d a v i d

Meaning: All messages that were sent to

David (by you or someone else)

s u b j e c t : Search for words in the

subject line

Example: s u b j e c t : d i n n e r

Meaning: Messages that have the word

"dinner" in the subject

OR Search for messagesmatching term A or term

B*

*OR must be in all caps

Example: from:amy OR from:davidMeaning: Messages from Amy or from

David

-

(hyphen)

Used to exclude

messages from your

search

Example: d i n n e r - m o v i e

Meaning: Messages that contain the word

"dinner" but do not contain the word

"movie"

l a b e l : Search for messages by

label

Example: f r o m : a m y l a b e l : f r i e n d s

Meaning: Messages from Amy that have

the label "friends"

Example: f r o m : d a v i d l a b e l : m y - f a m i l y

Meaning: Messages from David that have

the label "My Family"

h a s : a t t a c h m e n t Search for messages

with an attachment

Example: f r o m : d a v i d h a s : a t t a c h m e n t


an attachment

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6579

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/gmail

https://mail.google.com/?hl=en

https://support.google.com/mail





l i s t : Search for messages on

mailing lists

Example: l i s t : i n f o @ e x a m p l e . c o m

Meaning: Messages with the words

[email protected] in the headers, sent

to or from this list

f i l e n a m e : Search for an

attachment by name or type

Example:

f i l e n a m e : p h y s i c s h o m e w o r k . t x tMeaning: Messages with an attachment

named "physicshomework.txt"

Example: l a b e l : w o r k f i l e n a m e : p d f

Meaning: Messages labeled "work" that

also have a PDF file as an attachment

" "

(quotes)

Used to search for an

exact phrase*

*Capitalization isn't taken

into consideration

Example: " i ' m f e e l i n g l u c k y "

Meaning: Messages containing the

phrase "i'm feeling lucky" or "I'm feeling

lucky"

Example: s u b j e c t : " d i n n e r a n d a m o v i e "

Meaning: Messages containing the

phrase "dinner and a movie" in the

subject

( ) Used to group wordsUsed 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: s u b j e c t : ( d i n n e r m o v i e )

Meaning: Messages in which the subject

contains both the word "dinner" and the

word "movie"

i n : a n y w h e r e Search for messagesanywhere in Gmail*

*Messages in S p a m and

T r a s h are excluded from

searches by default

Example: i n : a n y w h e r e m o v i eMeaning: Messages in A l l M a i l, S p a m,

and T r a s h that contain the word "movie"

i n : i n b o x

i n : t r a s h

i n : s p a m

Search for messages in

I n b o x, T r a s h, or S p a m

Example: in:trash from:amy

Meaning: Messages from Amy that are in

T r a s h

i s : i m p o r t a n t Search within messages

Example: i s : i m p o r t a n t f r o m : j a n e t





l a b e l : i m p o r t a n t that Priority Inbox

considers important.

Meaning: Messages from Janet that were

marked as important by P r i o r i t y I n b o x

is:starred

i s : u n r e a d

i s : r e a d

Search for messages

that are starred, unread,

or read

Example: i s : r e a d i s : s t a r r e d f r o m : D a v i d


been read and are marked with a star

h a s : y e l l o w - s t a r

h a s : r e d - s t a r

h a s : o r a n g e - s t a r

h a s : g r e e n - s t a r

h a s : b l u e - s t a r

h a s : p u r p l e - s t a r

h a s : r e d - b a n g

h a s : o r a n g e - g u i l l e m e t

h a s : y e l l o w - b a n g

h a s : g r e e n - c h e c k

h a s : b l u e - i n f o

h a s : p u r p l e - q u e s t i o n

Search for messages

with a particular star

Example: h a s : p u r p l e - s t a r f r o m : D a v i d

Meaning: Messages from David that are

marked with a purple star

cc:

b c c :

Used to specify

recipients in the cc: or

b c c : fields*

*Search on bcc: cannot

retrieve messages on

which you were blind

carbon copied

Example: c c : d a v i d

Meaning: Messages that were cc-ed to

David

a f t e r :

b e f o r e :

o l d e r :

newer:

Search for messages

sent or received during a

certain period of time

(using the date format

yyyy/mm/dd)

Example: a f t e r : 2 0 0 4 / 0 4 / 1 6

b e f o r e : 2 0 0 4 / 0 4 / 1 8

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.

o l d e r _ t h a n

n e w e r _ t h a n

Similar to o l d e r and

n e w e r , but allows

relative dates using d,

m, and y for day ,

m o n t h, and y e a r

Example: n e w e r _ t h a n : 2 d

Meaning: Finds messages sent within the

last two days.

i s : c h a t Search for chat

messages

Example: i s : c h a t m o n k e y

Meaning: Any chat message including the

word "monkey."

d e l i v e r e d t o : Search for messages

within a particular email

address in the

Delivered-To line of the

Example:

d e l i v e r e d t o : u s e r n a m e @ g m a i l . c o m

Meaning: Any message with

[email protected] in the Delivered-






message header

To: field of the message header (which

can help you find messages forwarded

from another account or ones sent to an

alias).

c i r c l e : Search for messages

that were sent from

someone who you

added to a particular

Google+ circle

Example: c i r c l e : f r i e n d s

Meaning: Any message that was sent by

a person in your "Friends" circle.

Examples: c i r c l e : " s o c c e r f r i e n d s ( t e a m

b l u e ) " or c i r c l e : " m y \ " f a b f o u r \ " "

Notes: For circle names that include a

space, parentheses, curly brackets, or

vertical bar, add quotes around the

name. For names that include quotes,

add a back slash immediately before the

quotes.

h a s : c i r c l e Search for all messages

that were sent from

someone who you

added to your Google+

circles

Example: h a s : c i r c l e

Meaning: Any message that was sent by

a person in any of your circles.

c a t e g o r y : Search for messages

within a category

Example: c a t e g o r y : u p d a t e s

Meaning: All messages in the Updates

category.

Example: c a t e g o r y : s o c i a l M i n d y

Meaning: Messages in the Social

category that include “Mindy.”

s i z e : Search for messages

larger than the specified

size in bytes

Example: s i z e : 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

Meaning: All messages larger than 1MB

(1,000,000 bytes) in size.

larger:

smaller:

Similar to s i z e : but

allows abbreviations for

numbers

Example: l a r g e r : 1 0 M

Meaning: All messages of at least 10M

bytes (10,000,000 bytes) in size.

+

(plus sign)

Match the search term

exactly

Example: + u n i c o r n

Meaning: Finds messages containing

“unicorn” but not “unicorns” or “unciorn”

r f c 8 2 2 m s g i d : Find a message by the

message-id header

Example:

r f c 8 2 2 m s g i d : 2 0 0 5 0 3 2 9 2 @ e x a m p l e . c o m

Meaning: Locates the exact message

with the specified SMTP message-id.

Learn more about headers.






Boolean operators

You can use boolean operators such as 'OR' when searching in Gmail.

For example, to look for messages from [email protected] and messages that contain the subject

line 'Meeting reminder', you can enter '[email protected] OR meeting reminder' in your Gmail

search box.

Using these along with Gmail's advanced operators can be a great way of making your search criteria

more powerful.

The 'or' function in Gmail is represented by 'OR,' and the 'not' function is represented by a minus (-).

You also can use quotes (" ") to specify an exact phrase.

Share this:

Vivian is a Gmail expert and the author of this help page. Leave her feedback about this help page.

W a s t h i s a r t i c l e h e l p f u l ?

YES NO

h a s : u s e r l a b e l s

h a s : n o u s e r l a b e l s

Search for messages

that have and have not

had labels that you

created applied to them.

NOTE: Gmail applies

labels to individual

messages, not to

conversation threads.

Example: h a s : n o u s e r l a b e l s

Meaning: Finds all messages without any

of your own labels (excludes automatic

labels like inbox, spam, and trash). Since

Gmail applies labels to individual

messages, you might see results that

appear to have labels; in this case,

another message in the sameconversation thread has had a label

applied to it.





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