How search works
The search field sits top center and is reachable from anywhere with
/ (in the default
keyboard shortcut layout). Searching
happens locally in your database, which is why results appear
practically instantly, even in mailboxes with hundreds of thousands of
emails, and even offline.
Just start typing
Section titled “Just start typing”Without further ado, YouniqMail searches subject, sender, recipients
and the message text across all accounts. For senders and
recipients, both names and addresses count, Cc and Bcc included. The
full-text search understands word beginnings: invo finds invoice as
well as invoices. Accents do not matter, Muller also finds Müller.
Several words narrow things down: invoice roofing finds mail
containing both.
Quotation marks search verbatim: "as discussed" finds the phrase
in one piece, not the words scattered separately.
With the same search text, YouniqMail also searches your contacts and the file names of attachments, see The results.
Narrowing down with filters
Section titled “Narrowing down with filters”Next to the field sits the filter button with the most common refinements: From, To, Cc, Subject, Date Range (with shortcuts for the last 7 days, 30 days or 6 months), Has attachments and Search subject only. After Apply, whatever you set there appears as tokens in the search field: the filters are just a convenient way of writing the search operators, which you can equally type directly:
from:mueller has:pdf after:2026-01-01 invoicefinds mail from “mueller” with a PDF attachment since the start of the year that mentions “invoice”.
Some operators exist only for typing, for example read state, folder and account. As soon as you type the first letters of an operator, the search field suggests the matching ones, and matching contacts too.
The results
Section titled “The results”The results take the place of the mail list. The bar above them shows what you searched for; the × next to it ends the search. Below it are four tabs, each with its number of hits:
| Tab | Shows |
|---|---|
| All | up to three contacts and three files at the top, the mails below |
| Mails | every mail found |
| Contacts | contacts whose name, company, group, phone number or email address matches |
| Files | attachments whose file name matches |
In the All tab, the heading above the contacts and the files leads straight to their tab. YouniqMail loads more hits as you scroll.
Mails look like they do in the mail list, with their folder and account in the row. The search terms are highlighted, and the preview shows an excerpt of the text around the match. A click opens the mail, and the context menu offers the same actions as in the list. They always act in the folder the mail is in, whichever folder is open at the moment.
Contacts can also be found by their address or just by its
domain: work.example lists every contact with an address at that
domain. A click opens the contact.
Files are found by their name, a click opens the file in the matching app.
Contacts and files need search text of at least two characters. A
search with filters only, such as is:unread, finds mails only.
With search text, the best matches come first. A match in the
subject or the sender weighs more than one in the text, and among
similarly good matches the newer mail moves up. This also holds when
you limit the search to a folder or an account with in: or
account:, or search the subject only.
As soon as a filter checks the mails themselves (sender, recipient, subject, date range, attachments, read state, flag), or there is no search text at all, the mails come newest first.
Keeping searches
Section titled “Keeping searches”A successful query need not be retyped:
- The search field remembers your recent searches and suggests them again as soon as you click into it or start typing.
- The Save search button in the search field (the bookmark) turns the current search into a saved search, with a name and, optionally, a color and an account. It appears in the sidebar under Saved Searches; a click shows its mails in the mail list, with the tabs All, Read, Unread and Has attachments.
- A smart folder also gets a permanent place in the sidebar and additionally knows criteria such as tags and flag colors.
What search does not find
Section titled “What search does not find”Search works on the local collection, which sets a few limits:
- Folders that have never been synced do not appear in results. With a freshly added account, the hit list grows as the first sync progresses.
- Mails whose text has not been downloaded yet are found only by subject and addresses for now. A note above the results says how many there currently are.
- Excluded folders stay out. Under Settings → Mails → Search you can exclude, for example, all trash and spam folders or single folders from search; this applies to mails and attachments.
- The contents of attachments are not searched, only their file names. You find an invoice PDF by the text of the mail or the name of the file, not by the amount inside the PDF.
- Reactions do not appear as hits of their own when they are shown as emoji on the original mail (Settings → Mails → General, Reactions set to “Send and receive”).