Full-text search
Search runs on this Mac. Queries are not sent to a Primail cloud host.
Results come from two places:
- Mail already shown — every remaining word must appear in the sender, subject, or preview.
- Indexed hits — added after those rows. They are not guaranteed to match every word the same way.
Run a search
Section titled “Run a search”Press ⌘F. Type in the Search panel. An account menu can limit the query to one mailbox or all accounts on this Mac.
⌥⌘F is Find in message, a separate in-body find. It is not mailbox search.
There is no Date / relevance sort control. Indexed hits keep their returned order. Matches from the open list are listed first.
Operators that work
Section titled “Operators that work”The Search panel tips and the parser agree on:
| Example | Meaning |
|---|---|
from:aaron | From name or address contains aaron |
to:max or cc:max | To or Cc contains max |
subject:"q2 planning" | Subject contains that phrase |
has:attachment or has:attachments | Has an attachment |
is:unread / is:read | Read state |
is:flagged / is:starred / is:priority | Flagged |
is:pinned | Pinned on this Mac |
in:inbox / in:sent / in:drafts / in:archive / in:trash | Folder |
in:spam or in:junk | Junk |
before:2026-01-01 | Before that local date |
after:2026-04-01 or since:2026-04-01 | On or after that date |
older_than:7d / newer_than:2w | Relative days, weeks, months, years |
today / yesterday / this week / last week / this month / last month | Date phrases |
folder: is an alias for in:.
Quoted free text such as "q2 planning" is split into words
(q2 and planning). Only a subject quoted value stays a
phrase.
Not operators: AND, OR, NOT, parentheses, has:link,
has:image, is:snoozed, and account:. Those strings are
treated as ordinary text. Use the account menu instead of
account:.
Indexed search runs only when the free-text part is at least two characters.
Incomplete results
Section titled “Incomplete results”If more mail may exist than the current page shows, Search shows More results may be available. Use Load more results or Retry this page. Recent queries are kept locally (up to ten).
Repair search
Section titled “Repair search”There is no Settings → General → Search pane and no relevance slider.
In the Search header, Repair search rebuilds index batches. Each run is capped at 10,000 messages. Cancel repair and Resume repair appear when a batch is in progress or paused. A large mailbox needs more than one run.
Save search
Section titled “Save search”Save search stores the current query on this Mac. The sidebar does not list or edit those saves. See Smart folders.