This page was last changed 2020.12.16 11:43
Gmail Annoyances
Searching your gmail
Maybe your account is getting too close to filling and you want to search and delete messages smartly.
Note that if you delete them, they're not removed from your gmail space until you empty the trash. So the sequence of actions could be:
- Search for large emails, those from certain addresses, etc, and delete all of them.
- Empty trash.
| gmail search command | explanation |
|---|---|
| alphabet | find all mail with the word “alphabet” in it. Also finds those with “alphabets”. |
| from:george | find all mail from this person |
| to:martha | |
| subject:dinner | |
| OR | From:george OR from:martha |
| label:Adverts | |
| has:attachment | |
| “exact phrase” | |
| in:anywhere | Anywhere in gmail |
| in:inbox in:trash in:spam in:sent | |
| is:starred is:unread is:read | |
| after:2004/04/16 before:2004/04/16 | Msgs sent after midnight 4/16/2004 and before the start of 4/18/2004 |
| newer_than:2d older_than | newer_than:2d means, Messages sent within the last 2 days d (day), m (month), y (year) |
| size:10M | All messages of at least 10MB in size |
| +unicorn | Finds words matching unicorn exactly – not different forms like “unicorns” or misspelled “unicron” |
Examples
| in:adverts older_than:10d | all mail in the “adverts” folder older than 10 days |
| from:costco@online.costco.com size:5M | all mail from that address 5MB or larger in size |
| in:sent before:2020/09/15 after:2020/09/13 | all mail that you sent in that time period, midnight on 9/13 to maybe a message on 9/16 |