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Advanced search directly in the global search function (from:XXX to:YYY subject:"foo" after:20d)

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Is there any hope for us to have syntax which allows for advanced search through all the folders of a different account? Something that allows powerusers to type something like: "from:XXX to:YYY subject:"foo" after:20d" and get results?

I'm currently parsing all my email with notmuch locally to get something like this. It would be great to be able to get this type of functionality in Thunderbird natively. There are some adons that I have found but they seem like hacks; search needs to be super reliable.

  • Apologies if this is has been asked before!
Is there any hope for us to have syntax which allows for advanced search through all the folders of a different account? Something that allows powerusers to type something like: "from:XXX to:YYY subject:"foo" after:20d" and get results? I'm currently parsing all my email with notmuch locally to get something like this. It would be great to be able to get this type of functionality in Thunderbird natively. There are some adons that I have found but they seem like hacks; search needs to be super reliable. *Apologies if this is has been asked before!

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  • I didn't add the URL for notmuch for those who don't know what that is: https://notmuchmail.org/
  • The syntax I used comes from gmail, but any other syntax would be great! I search for email dozens of times a day, I don't want to go through the advanced search UI (attached)!

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Henry James said
Thunderbird doesn’t support Gmail-style search syntax directly, but you have a few solid options: • Search Messages (Ctrl+Shift+F) lets you combine From, To, Subject, and Date across All Folders. • Saved Searches (Virtual Folders) allow you to reuse complex queries. • Server-side search (e.g., Gmail web) is still the most powerful and reliable for advanced operators.


Although I appreciate that you can get the same results through different means, when you search through your email dozens of times a day for very different things, it's super important to be able to do it quickly.

• Local tools like notmuch remain the best choice for fast, scriptable power-user searches.

If it was possible to view and interact with the resulting emails from a notmuch search in Thunderbird, I would build this solution for myself! Do you know how to do that??

Native syntax like from:XXX subject:"foo" after:20d isn’t available yet, but these methods cover most needs.

Is this part of the roadmap?

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