Advanced Search Overview
SmarterMail actually gives you two ways to search: a basic search bar that quickly searches the mail folder you're currently viewing, and Advanced Search, which uses SmarterMail's powerful and comprehensive indexing to search your ENTIRE mailbox — not just email folders, but Contacts, Notes, Calendars, and Tasks as well. Advanced Search is performed in its own pop-out window, so you can continue using SmarterMail while the search runs, and keep the results open for reference as you work. Search results are displayed with complete details (date/time, folder, size, etc.), making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for.
Basic Search
Before diving into Advanced Search, it's worth knowing what the standard search bar does. Clicking the magnifying glass icon at the top of the messages list opens a search box for the folder you're currently viewing. Type your search term and press Enter, and SmarterMail returns matches from that folder only. (Press Escape, or click the X, to clear the search.)
Don't let its simplicity fool you: a basic search doesn't just look at subjects. A single search term is matched against the message subject, the From, To, and Cc addresses, the message body, attachment file names, and even any categories you've applied. So typing "invoice" in your Inbox finds messages with "invoice" in the subject, the body, or in an attachment named "March-Invoice.pdf".
Where basic search falls short is scope and precision: it searches one folder at a time, and every term you type is simply matched anywhere in the message. When you need to search multiple folders (or multiple areas of SmarterMail), or combine conditions like "from this person, within this date range, with an attachment," that's the job of Advanced Search.
Search Tips
These behaviors apply to searches in SmarterMail and are useful to keep in mind:
- Partial matches are automatic. Searching for "report" also matches "reports" and "quarterly-report". You don't need to add wildcards for simple "contains" searches, though * and ? wildcards are supported if you want to build your own patterns.
- Use quotes for exact phrases. Searching for "budget meeting" (in double quotes) returns only items containing that exact phrase, whereas budget meeting without quotes returns items that contain both words anywhere in the message.
- Multiple words all have to match. When you enter several words, each word must appear somewhere in the item for it to be returned. Adding more words narrows a search; it doesn't widen it.
- Searches are not case sensitive. "Invoice", "invoice" and "INVOICE" all return the same results.
- Some characters and words are ignored. Most special characters, such as "#" or "%", are treated as separators rather than searched for. The "@" symbol and periods ARE preserved, however, so you can search for full or partial email addresses like jdoe@example.com. Extremely common words (e.g., "the" or "and") are ignored as well.
- Very new mail may take a moment to appear. Messages are added to the search index shortly after they're delivered, so a message that arrived seconds ago may not be searchable for a brief period.
Performing Advanced Searches
Advanced Search is opened from the menu at the top of the interface. Once Advanced Search is selected, it opens in a new pop-out window. Here, you select "where" you want to search: Everywhere, or within a specific area of SmarterMail — Email, Notes, Contacts, Calendars, or Tasks. If you set Everywhere as your criteria, you simply enter your Search String and SmarterMail will search throughout all areas at once, with the results organized into tabs for each area. If you select a specific area to perform your search, such as Contacts, you'll want to add search criteria to help narrow down your results.
Using the Add Criteria dropdown, you pick the criteria you want to use for your search. Multiple criteria can be combined, and the Match Type setting determines how they work together:
- ALL conditions must be met - Every criteria row must match. Use this to progressively narrow a search. For example: From contains "acme.com" AND Contains Attachments AND Received After January 1, 2026.
- ANY condition must be met - An item is returned if it matches at least one criteria row. Use this to cast a wider net. For example: Subject contains "invoice" OR Subject contains "receipt".
The criteria available depend on where you're searching, and include the following:
Searching Email
- Search String: The words or phrases you want to search for. As with basic search, this matches against the subject, addresses, body, attachment file names, and categories.
- Folder: The specific folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched. Note that Advanced Search targets your own folders; folders shared with you by other users are not included.
- Cc: The address a message was carbon copied TO.
- Contains Attachments - Whether the email must (or must not) have an attachment. This is a simple dropdown with two options: "Must contain attachments" and "Must not contain attachments". This is extremely useful when you know someone sent you a file but can't remember the message it came in.
- From: The address a message was sent FROM.
- Received After - The date after which the message was received. For example, if May 15, 2026 is selected, only messages received AFTER that date are returned.
- Received Before - The date before which the message was received. Combine Received After and Received Before to search within a specific window — e.g., everything received during the first quarter of the year.
- Subject: The complete or partial subject of the message.
- To: The address a message was sent TO.
As a practical example, say you're looking for a contract a vendor emailed you sometime last fall. Set the search area to Email, then add: From = "vendor.com", Contains Attachments = "Must contain attachments", Received After = September 1, and Received Before = December 1, with Match Type set to "ALL conditions must be met". Rather than scrolling through months of mail, you get a short list of candidates in seconds.
Searching Notes
- Search String: The words or phrases you want to search for.
- Folder: The specific folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
- Color - The color designation of the note. Handy if you color-code your notes — e.g., all project-related notes are green.
- Subject - The note's subject.
- Last Modified Before - Only notes last modified BEFORE the selected date are returned.
- Last Modified After - Only notes last modified AFTER the selected date are returned.
Searching Contacts
Using advanced search on Contacts gives you the ability to set up criteria based on every aspect available for a contact — over 20 different criteria in all — from their birthday through the website associated with the contact. For example, you could find every contact with a birthday in the coming month, or every contact whose company name contains "Acme".
Searching Calendars
- Search String: The words or phrases you want to search for.
- Folder: The specific calendar to search. If left blank, all of your calendars are searched.
- Ends After - Only appointments/events that end AFTER the selected date are returned.
- Ends Before - Only appointments/events that end BEFORE the selected date are returned.
- Starts After - Only appointments/events that start AFTER the selected date are returned.
- Starts Before - Only appointments/events that start BEFORE the selected date are returned.
- Subject - The name of the appointment/event.
Searching Tasks
- Search String: The words or phrases you want to search for.
- Folder: The specific folder to search. If left blank, all folders are searched.
- Due After - Only tasks due AFTER the selected date are returned.
- Due Before - Only tasks due BEFORE the selected date are returned. For example, searching for tasks due before the end of the month is a quick way to build a "what's left to do" list.
- % Complete - The completion percentage of the task.
- Priority - The task's priority.
- Starts After - Only tasks set to begin AFTER the selected date are returned.
- Starts Before - Only tasks set to begin BEFORE the selected date are returned.
- Status - The current status of the task.
- Subject - The name of the task.
Working With Search Results
Once all choices have been made, use the Search button to initiate the search. (A Reset button is also available to clear your criteria and start over.) A progress bar displays while the search runs, and results appear in the same pop-out window. When searching Everywhere, results are organized into tabs — Email, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and Tasks — with a count of matches on each tab.
Email results display the From address, Subject, Folder, Date, Size, and whether the message has an attachment, and the results can be sorted by any of these columns. By default, results are listed with the most recent messages first, and the number of results shown per page can be adjusted. Because results include the Folder column, a search is also a handy way to figure out where a message was filed — whether by you or by a content filter.
From the results list, you can act on what you've found:
- Open - Click on an individual item to open it in its own pop-out window. Messages must be opened individually — it's not possible to check the box next to multiple messages and have them all open at once.
- Download EML - Select a message, right click on it, and download the raw EML file. This is useful for archiving a message or passing a complete copy to an administrator.
- Delete - Delete one or more messages by checking the box next to each message and using the Delete button. Messages deleted from Advanced Search will use whatever default deletion behavior you have chosen for your account. (I.e., moved to the Deleted Items folder, marked as deleted, or marked as deleted and hidden.) For more information, see Deleting Email Messages.