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Global Search IGNORING search terms (Supernova and prev Thunderbird versions)

  • 3 replies
  • 0 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Wayne Mery

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Whenever I search a two-letter or two-character search it immediately says "no messages match your search".

For example: Searching of or "of" returns "no messages match your search"

Searching of of of or "of of" returns "no messages match your search"

Searching of the or "of the" returns results for "the" only.

Also ignores "." and ":" e.g. ignores "of."

Probably there are other things/combinations it ignores

Is there any way to correct this e.g. via config editor or via add-on or otherwise?

Whenever I search a two-letter or two-character search it immediately says "no messages match your search". For example: Searching of or "of" returns "no messages match your search" Searching of of of or "of of" returns "no messages match your search" Searching of the or "of the" returns results for "the" only. Also ignores "." and ":" e.g. ignores "of." Probably there are other things/combinations it ignores Is there any way to correct this e.g. via config editor or via add-on or otherwise?

All Replies (3)

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The Global Search article here (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/global-search) doesn't touch on the issue above.

However, when searching not via Global Search, e.g. via the Search Messages dialog box, two character searches yielded results, albeit obviously from only a single mailbox at a time.

Anyone know why this is a limitation of Global Search only and if it can be rectified?

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It seems based on the discussion in the link here (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1096668), Global Search has a indexing limitation..."minimum word length TB will index is 3 characters", according to @Toad-Hall, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/user/Toad-Hall/

In my experience it also ignores 3 characters if one of them is a "." or ":" etc.

Can this be fixed so that Global Search indexes 2 and 1 character and non-alphanumeric characters?

Modified by lookintolearn

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> Can this be fixed so that Global Search indexes 2 and 1 character and non-alphanumeric characters?

Backend changes in the next couple years may make this possible. But not possible in the short term.