This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Etsi tuesta

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Lue lisää

Ketju on arkistoitu. Esitä kysymys, jos tarvitset apua.

Quick filter : getting bad results. How does the search work? Is there a special syntax available?

  • 4 vastausta
  • 1 henkilöllä on sama ongelma
  • 12 näyttöä
  • Viimeisin kirjoittaja Wayne Mery

Bruno G.
Bruno G.
more options

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...

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...

Muokattu , muokkaaja Bruno G.

Kaikki vastaukset (4)

Bruno G.
Bruno G. Kysymyksen kysyjä
more options

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.

christ1
christ1
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

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.

Bruno G.
Bruno G. Kysymyksen kysyjä
more options

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.

Wayne Mery
Wayne Mery
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

> "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