15+ Gmail Search Tips and Tricks

You were chatting with a friend and she sent you a password for a web app. Later when you tried to find the password in the archived mails, you couldn’t and had to ask her again. What if I tell you that you could have found that info simply by typing password is:chat in the search box.

We all face such situations when we can’t find what we are looking in the thousands of archived mails. So isn’t it a good idea to master some gmail searching hacks to save time and effort.

OK, Now all this hackery depends on what do you remember about the thing that you want to search,

I remember something about whom I sent this mail…

from:
Use this if you remember who sent you this mail, like
from:tendulkar.sachin@bcci.com
to:
If you remember that you sent this mail to someone, then you can use this to find that,
to:contact@hacktrix.com
cc:
bcc:
Find all those messages that were carbon copied or blind carbon copied to someone you remember.
cc:whatever@wherever.com
bcc:somethingelse@somewhereelse.com

Important – Remember that bcc: will not work on incoming mails.

I remember the date when I sent that mail…

before:
It will look for all the messages sent before a particular date.
before:2008/10/02

before:
It will look for all the messages sent after a particular date.
after:2008/10/02

Important – Remember that you have to specify the date in the yyyy/mm/dd format. If you specify the date in any other format then no result will be returned.

I think that mail had an attachment whose name is honeymoon_pics.zip…

has:attachment
Return the messages that has one or more file attached to its body.

filename:
Looks for all those messages that has one or more attached files and one of those file names matches the provided filename parameter.
For example, filename:honeymoon_pics.zip will return all those messages which has this file attached.

You can also use this to search for attachments of particular type, for instance, filename:pdf will return all those messages which has pdf files attached.

More Gmail Search Weapons!

in:
This can be used to search messages in inbox, trash, spam or anywhere, like this,
in:inbox
in:trash
in:spam
in:anywhere

Important – Remember that spam and trash are not included in the anywhere parameter.

is:
Search for a message based on if it is starred, read or unread.
is:starred
is:read
is:unread

is:chat
Used to search for chat messages.

label:
Look for all the messages which has this label applied, for instance,
label:Pamela_Anderson

I hope that using these tricks and theri various permutations and combinations will turn you into an Ultimate Gmail Search Ninja.