To search email in Outlook, click the Search box at the top of the window and type a word, name, or phrase. Outlook scans email messages and many types of attachments for your input, and because it uses prefix matching, searching for "ray" will find "Raymond" but not "disarray" or "tray." When you locate an unwanted message, you can delete an email to keep your mailbox tidy, and for replies you send repeatedly, you can create an email template in Outlook to save time.
How to search email in Outlook with a basic keyword
The fastest way to find an email is to click the Search box, type a word, name, or phrase, and press Enter. Outlook search is not case-sensitive, so "Project" and "project" yield the same results. After clicking in the Search box, the Outlook ribbon displays a Search tab with options to refine your results.
Refine your search with the Search tab filters
After you type a keyword, use the built-in filters in the Refine group on the Search tab to narrow results. You can click buttons such as From, Subject, Has Attachment, Categorized, Sent To, Unread, Flagged, and Important. To adjust where Outlook looks, use the Scope group on the Search tab to choose Current Folder, Subfolders, Current Mailbox, All Mailboxes, or All Outlook Items.
Search for an exact phrase or specific field
When you need to find a precise combination of words, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (for example, "exact phrase"). To target a specific email field, use a keyword followed by a colon. Common field-specific keywords include:
from:sendernameto:recipientnamesubject:keywordhasattachments:yesreceived:datesent:dateread:falseisflagged:yescategory:label
Combine or exclude terms with Boolean operators
To create precise search queries that include multiple terms or exclude unwanted ones, use the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. These must be typed in uppercase. For example, searching for marketing AND sales returns emails containing both terms, while marketing NOT promotions excludes any email with the word "promotions."
Use Advanced Find for complex searches
For detailed, multi-criteria searches, open the Advanced Find dialog. Click in the Search box, then on the Search tab select Search Tools > Advanced Find, or press Ctrl+Shift+F. This dialog lets you build searches with multiple conditions across different fields.
Search the Deleted Items folder and increase the result limit
The Deleted Items folder is not included in searches by default. To search deleted emails, navigate to the Deleted Items folder, set it as the current folder, and select the Current Folder scope from the Search tab. If you need more results, increase the default search result cap to 1000 by going to File > Options > Search and unchecking "Improve search speed by limiting the number of results shown."
