Search in mailbox folders...

I am using EagleFiler to archive my email from PC/Outlook. I use Aid4Mail to export Outlook folders as mbox files and import them to EF. I then put the mbox files in a simple folder structure under a main Mail Archives folder. Eg:

Records
+Mail Archives
++Concepts
+++Mailbox 1
+++Mailbox 2
.
.
.
++Projects
+++Mailbox 1
etc.

It’s puzzling to me why I cannot then search all mail folders by selecting Mail Archives and doing a search. When Records is selected the search works as expected but it also returns non-mail results. When Mail Archives is selected, no results are returned. When Concepts is selected, only matches to the mailbox names are returned. When the individual mailboxes are selected it also works as expected, but this isn’t very useful, I’m afraid.

After poking around here I found that I can get the expected results by setting up a Smart Folder for Any Record in Mail Archives and subfolders, then searching with that Smart Folder selected.

Is there a more straightforward way of doing this? If not, can someone explain why this extra step is required?

Thanks,

  • Dan

When you select Mail Archives and do a search, it’s ambiguous what you want to search. You could be asking to search the direct contents of Mail Archives, which is what EagleFiler is displaying; or you could be asking to search Mail Archives and all of its subfolders and mailboxes. EagleFiler, as currently designed, always searches what is displayed.

To search everything, you would need to set up a smart folder as you’ve done, or else make a multiple-selection of the folders/mailboxes that you’d like to search.

With EagleFiler 1.6, you can.