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.

Search Support

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.

Learn More

Global search and filters

  • 1 reply
  • 2 have this problem
  • 15 views
  • Last reply by Zenos

more options

If I understand Global Search correctly, it 'should' find any keyword from any folder from any email account, whether in the message itself, the 'from' or 'subject' line.

Using search, I only get results from a tiny percentage of emails.

I'm in the sign business. I have hundreds of emails with the word "sign" in them, to and from clients.

Using the search box, the word "sign" only returns a few results.

I've tried rebuilding the "global Database" bit I don't see any change in the behavior.

Help is appreciated. Being able to search through all my emails for multiple accounts is a really big deal to me.

If I understand Global Search correctly, it 'should' find any keyword from any folder from any email account, whether in the message itself, the 'from' or 'subject' line. Using search, I only get results from a tiny percentage of emails. I'm in the sign business. I have hundreds of emails with the word "sign" in them, to and from clients. Using the search box, the word "sign" only returns a few results. I've tried rebuilding the "global Database" bit I don't see any change in the behavior. Help is appreciated. Being able to search through all my emails for multiple accounts is a really big deal to me.

All Replies (1)

more options

The Global Search is indeed a bit unpredictable. And it's also often quite unspecific. I often use Saved Search folders, because it gives you a more precise search dialogue. And IIRC it offers an option to do remote searches - see my last paragraph below. A Saved Search allows you to view all the likely folders in one virtual folder where you can use the QuickFilter to search. If you have the Expression Search / GmailUI addon then you have some powerful and precise search commands at your fingertips.

You might benefit from re-indexing the global search but I'd need to go and look up the details.

Another, if somewhat distant, possibility is that your messages are stored on the server and their bodies are not available to a local search. However, you'd have to have gone out of your way to make it work in this way.

Modified by Zenos