Searching

Find messages across your collection by words, people, dates, subjects, attachments, and original folders.

Email Collection Toolkit searches the full time span of your local archive. Search and viewing leave the preserved messages unchanged. Start with a word or phrase, then narrow the collection by person, date, subject, or source folder.

The working interface with a synthetic collection. No private email is shown.

Words, phrases, and selectors

Enter words to search indexed headers and message text. Put a phrase in double quotes to keep its words together. Combine terms and selectors to narrow a search: every supplied term must match. The empty search screen includes a built-in reference and examples; submitting an empty query does not list the whole archive.

Search	Finds
`exhibition`	The word in indexed headers or message text
`"community archive"`	An indexed phrase
`any:alex@example.org`	The address in From, To, Cc, or Bcc
`from:alex@example.org`	A matching sender
`to:sam@example.org`	A matching To recipient
`cc:sam@example.org`	A matching Cc recipient
`bcc:sam@example.org`	A matching Bcc recipient
`subject:"annual report"`	A phrase in the subject
`date:2024-05-01`	Messages during that worldwide calendar date
`before:2024-05-01`	Messages before that date begins anywhere
`after:2024-05-01`	Messages after that date ends everywhere
`from:alex subject:exhibition after:2024-01-01`	Messages matching all three filters

Address and subject selectors match text within the corresponding fields. Invalid search syntax is shown as an inline error so you can correct the query.

Date searches cover a 50-hour worldwide window, including late-evening messages whose UTC timestamp falls on the following day. Adjacent date searches overlap. See Date handling for boundaries and examples.

After three characters of a value, the search box suggests matching addresses, names, subjects, and recognized dates with message counts. It matches original header names and saved authoritative names even before content processing finishes. Use arrow keys and Return, or click a suggestion. An explicit prefix such as from:simson restricts suggestions to that field.

An address/name match defaults to its only matching role, or Any if several roles match. Click the tile's tag to choose among matching From, To, Cc, and Bcc roles. Any counts each message once across roles. Date tiles offer Date, Before, and After. Dates accept 2020-01-05, 1/5/2020, or January 5, 2020; selecting one normalizes it to ISO format. Quote multiword values in a typed query: date:"January 5, 2020". Click × to remove a filter, or press Delete in an empty input field.

Sort and read results

Sort the complete matching set by date, subject, or sender, in either direction. Large searches show an initial group of 2,000 results and retrieve the rest automatically. Searching in background indicates more results are arriving; the final count is exact when that work finishes. There is no manual next-page control, and starting a new query supersedes the old search.

Click a result to read it beside the list. Use Up and Down to move through messages, double-click to open a separate message window, or drag the divider to resize the panes. Each message includes its original headers and source locations. Search terms are highlighted in headers and body text.

The body menu offers available text and HTML parts plus Raw Source. On macOS, Command-1 through Command-9 selects numbered MIME parts; Command-0 or Command-Shift-U opens Raw Source. HTML is sanitized and remote images remain blocked until you choose Load Remote Content. Message links show their destination and offer Open Link, Copy Link, or Ignore. Attachments can be saved; available preview and open actions depend on their type.

Find within a message

With a message selected, Command-F opens Find in message, initially filled with the textual part of your archive query. Command-G advances to the next match; Shift-Command-G goes back. The find text stays when you select another message. This works with text, HTML, and raw-source views.

Command-A selects results when the result list has focus, or displayed message text when the message body has focus. The copy-text control copies visible message text. Save and print controls operate on the selected message.

Include attachment text

Enable Search attachments to include indexed text attachments. The archive must first have been indexed with attachment support. PDF and Microsoft Office attachment-text extraction are not currently implemented; the checkbox does not add those capabilities.

make run ARGS='--archive "/path/to/collection" refresh-index --index-attachments'

Original folders and saved filter sets

Enable Show original folder structure to reveal the Original mailboxes tree. Select one or more folders to search their combined contents. Folder counts represent distinct messages, and duplicate source copies still appear once in the results. Parent checkboxes include their descendants; a dash means only part of a branch is selected.

By default, matching logical folders from different backup volumes are combined. Show source volumes separates them when needed. Source paths remain visible with the message. Hiding the tree disables its filter without forgetting the selection; showing it restores the filter.

Use Filter set → Save... to name a folder selection. Select its name to restore it, or None for no folder filter. The ... manager renames and deletes saved sets. These are local preferences, not changes to the archive.

Independent windows and command-line search

Window → New Search Window gives the same collection another independent query and selection. You can also search from a terminal:

make search ARGS='--archive "/path/to/collection" subject:"annual report" after:2024-01-01'