If you know which folder has the message, open it, then use the Quick Filter Bar (Ctrl+Shift+K), enter the subject or part of it, without quotes, then click the Subject button under the bar. Or, right-click the folder, Search Messages...

Hi, Thank you for your reply. Ctrl+Shift+Key is indeed working, but my question remains as the top search bar is borderline useless. Is it the same for you? Is it a known issue?

I seldom use Global Search, but haven't noticed any major deficiencies. Read about the differences between GS and other search options:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Search_-_Thunderbird#Global_Search

Yes I did some googling before I have wrote the message but still can't reproduce what the FAQ shows. It says:

Searching for multiple terms Enter multiple terms in the search box. Thunderbird will search for messages that contain at least one occurrence of each of the specified terms. If you enclose multiple terms within quotation marks, Thunderbird will search for the words as a phrase. That is, the search results will only contain messages that have all the words in the order they are specified in the search field. These two types of searches can be combined. For example, if you enter: converting "imap pop" ...Thunderbird will find emails that contain the term "converting" and the phrase "imap pop".

I reckon this means it should work with multiple terms but it does not. And it is annoying because this is the search bar you have on the top, fastest to access.

So, the message was not in any of the 37 search results? Since you know the folder with the message, right-click the folder, Properties, and check that GS is enabled for that folder.

The mail is in the results on the second page while it is sorted by relevance not really good. The folder is indexed hence the match. Every single other message found is a false match. The phrase "m1 upgrade" was not in any other message. How can a single word "Upgrading" be a match with the phrase "m1 upgrade"? This is my issue.

According to the mozillazine article cited above, 'faceted search' means a query on 'upgrade' produces results for 'upgrading'. I can only suggest using Classic Search (Ctrl+Shift+F) to search by account, or Quick Filter Bar to search by folder. Use GS as a last resort if the account or folder is uncertain.

I'm having this problem too. I'm trying to search a particular email address for "funded" but it pulls up funds, funding, etc... I tried putting the search word in quotes, but same problem. I tried Command (Control), Shift, F for the advanced search and I had similar type results where it pulls up similar but not exact matches.

I'm having the same problem. I want to search for the term (as in name) 'Don' but I get results that include words like 'don't' or 'donate'. Basically any work that includes the three letters 'don'.

Is there no Boolean expression that can more precisely search for specific words?