How to Search in Apple Mail on Mac, iPhone, and iPad (When Apple Mail Fails)

Key Takeaways

Use a natural language search to find emails in Apple Mail with phrases like “from John yesterday” or “to Bill”.
Narrow down search results in Mail using the provided suggestions and optionally adjusting the search filters.
Try advanced search methods that may not be obvious including message filtering, searching all inboxes, and Boolean operators.
Fix common issues when yielding no results like indexing, search scope, and missing emails, or consider third-party tools with smart features like Clean Email.

How to Search in Apple Mail on Mac

Apple makes a Mac email search simple by displaying the Search option right at the top of the Mail app.

Open Mail and choose a mailbox or All Inboxes in the sidebar.
Click the Search button (magnifying glass) on the top right to expand the Search field.
Enter a search term such as a word or use a natural language search like “from John”.
Press Return to see your results.

How to Search in Apple Mail on iPhone and iPad

Similar to Mac, an iPhone or iPad email search is easy as the Search field is fixed on the screen. You’ll see it on the bottom on iPhone and top on iPad.

Open the Mail app and choose a mailbox or All Inboxes on the Mailboxes screen.
Tap inside the Search field.
Enter a search term and press the Search button.

You’ll then see your results which can include Top Results and More Results.

Apple Mail Suggestions and Filters

As you type in the Search field, you’ll see suggestions appear. By using a suggestion, you can more quickly narrow down your results and even adjust the search filter if needed. Here’s how it works.

Search Suggestions

Enter a search term and pick one of the suggestions that appears. For example, if you search for “sales,” you may see suggestions like “sales tax” and “sales team” as well as Sender Contains:, Subject Contains:, and Attachment Name Contains:sales.

Pick a suggestion to see your results.

Search Filters

After you choose a suggestion, you’ll notice a filter appear in the search field. Using this search filter’s menu, you can pick a different filter. For instance, if you search for “sandy” and pick “Sender Contains: sandy,” you’ll see the search filter From.

On Mac, click the arrow on the filter to pick To or Message to search for the term in those parts of the email. On iPhone and iPad, you’ll see these other options as tabs you can select.

💡 Note: The options you see for the search filter in Apple Mail depend on the particular filter.

Advanced Search in Apple Mail

Along with the basics of using the Search field and suggestions with search filters are other ways you can find what you need in Apple Mail.

Message Filtering

Different from the Search filters mentioned above, this message Filter lets you quickly perform general searches. For instance, you can filter a mailbox by Unread, To: Me, or Only Mail with Attachments.

On Mac, click Filter to enable it, click and hold to open the Filter menu, and choose an option.
On iPhone and iPad, tap Filter at the bottom, then tap it again to choose the filter options.

💡 Note: You can choose more than one type of message filter. Be sure you see a checkmark next to each option you want to use. Select an option to check or uncheck it.

Search All Mailboxes

If you search a particular mailbox and receive zero results, you can quickly search your other mailboxes without reentering the search term.

As you type your search term and see no results displaying, select Search all mailboxes right below the Search field. On mobile, select the All Mailboxes tab that appears.

Search Operators

Although Apple Mail lets you use a natural language search, it doesn’t always work as expected. Similar to Gmail, you can use search operators for details in the message header instead. For example, to find emails from John, you can enter from:john.

While Apple Mail limits some of the operators you can use, tools like Clean Email let you use a broader set of search filters. You can use those like IS, HAS, LABEL, and LARGER/SMALLER, and then sort, filter, or group the results.

Boolean Operators

Another way to search for something specific is using the Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT.

For instance, to find emails with both “project” and “task,” you’d enter project AND task. Note that you must use all uppercase letters for a Boolean operator.

Search Alternatives

For advanced searching and filtering options, try Clean Email for free to check out its useful solutions. For instance, using Smart Folders, you can see all emails related to Top Senders, Online Shopping, Travel, Social Notifications, and many more.

Automatically filter and categorize messages into folders using Clean Email

Within these Smart Folders, you can perform a search, filter by status, age, or size, and group the messages to more easily spot what you need.

Reasons Apple Mail Search Can Fail

With all of the methods and tools you can use to search in Mac Mail or the Mail app on iPhone and iPad, you may still not find what you need. This can be frustrating and leave you feeling helpless.

To assist you on your search, here are several common reasons that searching in Mail can fail and how to fix it.

Indexing issues: Indexing refers to the system creating a data structure to speed up processes like search. Sometimes, indexing can cause a Mac Mail search to work incorrectly or even lead to “missing” messages.
- To rebuild the index, open Mail, select a mailbox, and choose Mailbox → Rebuild in the menu bar.

"Some Results May Not Appear" message: It’s possible that only the Inbox for an account is indexed in Mail on iPhone or iPad which can result in this error message, and thus, missing emails from folders.
- To check the account syncing, open Settings and select Apps → Mail. Choose Mail Accounts → Fetch New Data. Make sure the Push toggle is enabled and that Push is selected for those accounts where available.

Notice that you can also adjust the Fetch timing for accounts that cannot use Push.

Message Filtering enabled: Earlier you learned how to use Message Filtering to find emails. But if you leave this filter enabled, it can skew your search results. Note that when enabled, the Filter button is blue.
- To turn off message filtering on Mac, click the Filter button in the toolbar or click and hold to pick Disable Message Filter. On mobile, simply tap the Filter button.

Junk mail or Trash: If the email you’re looking for is in the Junk or Trash folder, it won’t display in your search results unless you have those locations enabled.
- To search these locations on Mac, open Mail and select Mail → Preferences in the menu bar. Then, go to the General tab and mark the checkboxes to search in Trash, Junk, and/or Encrypted Messages.
- To search these locations on iPhone and iPad, open Settings and select Apps → Mail. In the Messages section, choose Search and turn on the toggles for Junk and/or Trash.

Search scope: Although searching in Mail looks for messages in your inbox as well as any folders you have, it doesn’t automatically search all accounts if you have a particular mailbox selected.
- To search all mailboxes when managing multiple accounts, select All Inboxes in the sidebar on Mac or on the Mailboxes screen on mobile, and then perform your search.

Conclusion

When you need to find an email, performing a basic search in Apple Mail should help you locate the message you need faster than manually scanning your mailbox.

But if you run into problems finding the email, consider using the advanced search in Apple Mail, troubleshooting possible issues, or turning to a complementary app such as Clean Email which lets you sign up and try its robust features for free.