Quick filter : getting bad results. How does the search work? Is there a special syntax available?
Trying to find emails containing the string "3.2.1.5" (with or without the quotes).
When I type this in the Quick filter, I get 75 results (out of 379 threaded messages). Problem is that most of them don't include a 3.2.1.5 string. I've even looked at the message source - can't find the string there either.
Is there a detailed guide on how the search is working? It's somewhere in the source code I'm sure, but I have no idea how I could get there...
Since quotes around it doesn't work either, is there a special syntax to tell Thunderbird "Search exactly this"?
I'm very rarely successful in finding an email in Thunderbird. I usually end up using Notepad++ "Find in Files" on my mail folder...
Modified by Bruno G.
All Replies (4)
I should also say that if I take a direct string from the email I want, say "with the screenshot below", Quick Filter usually don't find it either. I get "No results" even though the string is right there in the message source.
For information on Quick Filter see https://support.mozilla.org/kb/quick-filter-toolbar
You may also want to try Global Search. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/global-search
Note, depending on the size of your email archive it may take a while to create the search index.
Thanks for the reply christ1, but the Quick Filter help you point to is very basic and the Global Search one doesn't explain why a search such as "2.3.2.4" doesn't work.
> "2.3.2.4"
Periods are considered to be punctuation, and punctuation splits strings into terms which are indexed. Except the minimum search term is three characters, so your string is not searchable using global search.
But advanced search will find it - find > search messages