Mimecast for Outlook - Searching Folders

This article contains information on searching in Mimecast for Outlook, including using search criteria, refining queries, sorting results, saving searches, deleting saved searches, and accessing Smart Tags for enhance email management.

Archive Search is available in Outlook Classic. New Outlook doesn't support COM add-ins like Mimecast. To use this feature, continue with Outlook Classic or the Mimecast Personal Portal. For quick portal access in New Outlook and OWA, consider deploying the MPP add-in.

Also see Mimecast For Outlook - Accessing Smart Tags.

Introduction

Using a series of search criteria, you can search your Mimecast for Outlook folders for messages. This includes your archived folders, if this is enabled as part of your account package.
Searching is limited to your account's retention period, if your Administrator has not enabled archiving.

Searching Mimecast for Outlook

You can search a folder, by using the following steps:

1. Click on the Search in the Mimecast ribbon.
2. Select a Folder.
3. Click in the Search Bar at the top of the folder's contents.
4. Type a Search Query.

5. As you type your search query, up to five matches are displayed from each category (e.g. From Address, To Address, Saved Search).
   When searching for contacts, you can search for their name or email address.

   

6. Either:

• Click on the icon.
  • Select a Search Query from the populated list.
  • Press the Enter key.

7. Your search results are displayed. The search term used is highlighted in the search results.

 

8. If you know the syntax the search tool uses, you can type it directly into the search box. Each piece of search criteria is entered inside parentheses. In the example below, we're searching for messages:

• With the subject of "Sales Report."
• From [e-mail]
• To [e-mail]
• Containing the keywords "First Quarter"

• Another example of search syntax is to use asterisk * to indicate unknown letters, e.g. "docu*", to return results containing words beginning with "docu" such as "document."

• Search will only return items from the folder selected. For example, if a user has a subfolder in their Inbox named Jobs that contains an item they are looking for, a search of the Inbox folder will not reveal content from the Jobs folder. The user will need to navigate to the Jobs folder and perform the search there.
• Special characters in email addresses (like apostrophes) can sometimes cause unexpected search behavior. If you're having trouble finding messages with addresses containing special characters, try searching without the special character, or check different folders, including the Archive Folders, to locate your messages.

Refining a search query

You can refine a search query, by using the following steps:

1. Click on the Search Options link.
2. Specify additional search criteria, including:

• Date Range
• From Address
• To Address
• Subject
• Keywords
• Attachment

3. Click on Search.
4. Sorting the Search Results.
   By default, search results are displayed in

• Newest: The newest results are displayed first if this link is displayed. Click on this link to sort the results by the oldest results. The link changes to Oldest.
• Oldest: If this link is displayed, the oldest results are displayed first. Click on this link to sort the results by the newest results. The link changes to Newest.

Advanced search

Prerequisites and access:

• Mimecast for Outlook is installed and you are signed in.
• Your administrator has enabled Archive Search and (optionally) Archive Folders for your account.
  • Archive Searches can also be performed if the Continuity Online Inbox/Sent Items options are checked in Application Settings.
  • Results reflect your personal archive: messages where you are the original sender or recipient are searchable.

Quick start: Search your archive

1. Open Outlook, select the Mimecast ribbon, and click Search.
2. (Optional) Click Archive Folders to browse a specific folder, or use the main Search bar to search across your archive.
3. Type your search term(s) in the Search bar and press Enter.
4. Use Search Options to refine by Date Range, From, To, Subject, Keywords, and Attachment, then click Search.
5. Toggle sorting (Newest/Oldest) from the results panel to change result order.

Refine, save, and reuse searches

• Refine: Click Search Options to add filters like date range, sender, recipients, subject, has attachment, or keywords.
• Save: In Search Options, choose Save This Search, name it, and save. Saved searches surface when you click into the Search bar.
• Delete a saved search: Click in the Search bar, hover over the Saved Search, and select the delete icon.

Using archive folders:

• Open Archive Folders from the Mimecast ribbon to view your archived mailbox folder tree (Inbox, Sent, and Custom Folders).
• Filter folders using the Filter Archive Folders box to locate folders and subfolders quickly.
• Include Deleted Folders to see folders that existed when messages were archived.
• Mark folders as Favorites for quick access.

Export and save results:

• Export messages: Select one or more results, click Export, choose an Outlook folder destination, and confirm.
• Save messages: Select results, click Save to move copies into Inbox | Mimecast Saved Emails.
• Save attachments: Open message Details, right-click the attachment, and choose Save.

Search query syntax:

Mimecast Archive Search supports a simple, flexible query language in the main Search bar. You can combine free-text with field filters and Boolean operators.

Operator summary: use quotes for exact phrases, asterisk for prefix matches, minus to exclude, AND/OR to combine terms. AND is assumed when operators are omitted.

Core operators:

• Exact phrase: "quarterly report"
• Prefix (min 3 characters): finan*
• Exclude: -confidential
• OR: budget OR forecast
• AND (implicit): finance audit is equivalent to finance AND audit

Field filters:

• Subject: Subject line only. Example: subject: "renewal quote"
• From: Header or envelope from. Example: from:[e-mail]
• To: All recipients (To/Cc/Bcc). Example: to:"john smith"
• With: Sender or any recipient (from/to). Example: with:[e-mail]
• Body: Message body text. Example: body:escalation
• Doc: Attachment name, type, and content. Example: doc:pdf OR doc:xlsx OR doc:"statement 2024"

Terms without a field filter search the default content set (subject, body, addresses, attachment).

Practical query examples

People and date:

• Messages from a vendor last quarter: from:[e-mail] "invoice" subject:Q4 attachment
• Conversation with a distribution list: with:[e-mail] budget

Subject and keywords:

• Exact subject phrase: subject:"renewal confirmation"
• Subject starts with a stem: subject:renewa*
• Include and exclude: subject:proposal -draft

Attachments:

• Find emails with PDFs containing a project name: doc:pdf "Project Polaris"
• Find a file by name pattern: doc:"SO-2024-*" OR doc:SO-2024-*
• Filter to attachments plus sender: doc:xlsx from:[e-mail]

Combining conditions:

• Exact phrase plus alternatives: "dark blue" OR "light blue"
• Mix positive and negative: "pricelist" -draft -subject:obsolete
• People, subject, and body: from:"jane doe" subject:"SLA breach" body:remediation

Handling symbols and special cases

• Ampersands and punctuation: Use quotes for phrases with symbols. Example: "C&W" or subject:"R&D update"
• Email addresses: quote if needed. Example: from:"[e-mail]"
• Wildcard: Use within single terms (not inside quoted phrases). Examples: subject:config*

Search strategy tips

• Start broad, then add filters: begin with a key term, then refine by from:, to:, subject:, or doc:, and set a date range.
• Use phrases for precision: wrap multi-word names/titles in quotes to avoid unrelated matches.
• Prefer with: when unsure if a person was sender or recipient.
• Large attachments: If keywords are deep within very large or complex files (e.g., multi-sheet spreadsheet), search by filename with doc:, sender/recipient, and time window to improve results.
• Sort toggle: Switch between Newest and Oldest to review timelines.

Words that are not indexed:

Mimecast does not index very common "stop words". These are automatically ignored in searches, even if you put them in quotes.

Examples (not exhaustive):

a, an, and, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, if,
in, into, is, it, no, not, of, on, or, such, that,
the, their, then, there, these, they, this, to, was, will, with.

Implications:

• Searching for "training the customers" will match phrases like:
  • "training the customers"
  • "training with customers"
  • "training at customers"
• Those small words ("the", "with", "at", etc.) are ignored, and only the meaningful terms are considered.

Example recipes

Locate a signed contract PDF from a supplier

(from:[e-mail]) (doc:pdf) "Master Service Agreement" -draft

Find quarterly board desks sent to Finance

(to:[e-mail]) subject:"Board Desk" Q1 OR Q2 OR Q3 OR Q4 doc:pptx

Investigate suspected phishing thread

(with:[e-mail]) subject:"password reset" -doc:pdf -doc:xlsx

Retrieve Jira notifications about a project

(from:[e-mail]) subject:PROJ-* "build failed"

Search for invoice numbers in filenames

doc:"INV-2024-1*" from:[e-mail]

Troubleshooting and known behaviors

• Implicit AND: Adjacent terms are combined with AND if you omit an operator.
• Prefix search length: Use at least three characters before . Example: fin" works; fi* will not.
• Wildcards inside phrases: Not supported. Use wildcards on single terms only.
• Symbols: Punctuation can be interpreted as separators. Quote phrases containing special characters (e.g., "&", "+"). Example: "C&W".
• Very large attachments: Indexing captures up to a limit of keywords across attachments and message body. If terms are not matched, pivot to doc: filename terms, sender/recipient, and date filters.
• Archive scope: You can search items where you an original participant. Message manually copied between mailboxes may be visible in Outlook but not searchable in your personal archive.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to type operators in all caps

We recommend using uppercase (AND, OR) for readability. AND is assumed if you omit it between terms.

How do I search only the message body?

Use body:term or body:"multi word phrase" to restrict matches to the message body.

Why don't I see an email I moved from a colleague's mailbox?

Archive Search returns items where you are an original sender or recipient. Manually moved messages may not be searchable in your personal archive.

My keyword exists in a huge spreadsheet but the email isn't returned. What can I do?

Search may not match very deep content in very large attachments. Combine doc: filename patterns with sender/recipient and date filters, or search by subject/body context instead of deep attachment text.

Supported search operators

The following operators can be used to refine your search queries:

Operator	Example	Meaning
"xxx xxx"	"dark blue"	Exact phrase match: searches for the exact phrase.
xxx*	gre*	Starts-with match: matches words starting with the prefix (e.g., green, grey). A minimum of 3 characters is required before the *.
-xxx	-yellow	Exclude term: excludes results containing the specified term.
xxx OR yyy	black OR white	Logical OR: results must contain either term.
xxx AND yyy	red AND blue	Logical AND: results must contain both terms. If no operator is specified between terms, AND is assumed by default.

Searching with Special Characters

When searching for terms that contain special characters (such as &, @, #), the search engine may not treat them as literal characters. Using quotation marks around your search term forces an exact match. The table below provides examples:

Search Term	Uses Quotes?	Expected Result	Notes
C&W	No	Returns messages containing C or W separately.	The & is ignored; the search treats this as C OR W.
"C&W"	Yes	Returns messages containing the exact phrase C&W.	Quotes force a literal search; exact match only.
&	No	May return results not containing &.	The & is treated as a special/boolean character; literal search is unreliable without quotes.
"&"	Yes	Returns messages with the & character (may include some unrelated results).	Quotes attempt a literal search, but the search engine may still interpret & specially in some cases.

Saving a search

You can save a search query to use at a later date, by using the following steps:

1. Click on the Search Options icon to the right of the search bar.
2. Click on the Save This Search link in the bottom left-hand corner.

3. Specify a Name for the search. A default name is automatically provided based on your search criteria, but you can change this. Our example shows "MFO 7.4, Archive, 1 Year", because the search searches the archive for messages less than a year old with a subject of "MFO 7.4".

   

4. Click on Save. The search now displays in your Saved Search list.

Deleting a saved search

You can delete a Saved Search, by using the following steps:

1. Click in the Search Bar at the top of the folder's contents to display your saved searches.

2. Hover over the Saved Search to be deleted.

   

3. Click on the Delete icon to the right of the saved search.

See Also...

• Mimecast for Outlook - Using Archive Search