Search

Here's how to find anything: the search box, server-side results, search history, and the shortcuts that search a sender or a single conversation.

Searching your mail

The search box sits in the top-right of the header. Press / to focus it, type, and press Enter to search the server as well as your local mail.

While results are showing, the view selector reads "Search", and the first (newest) result opens automatically in the reading pane with its row highlighted. Use the Up and Down arrow keys to move through the results one row at a time; they never jump to emails outside the results. Opening a result shows that email and the older ones in its conversation, starting at the very top; a "Show newer emails" link above it reveals any newer emails.

Results are always listed in date order, newest email first.

Search also checks your Drafts: matching drafts appear at the top of the results under a Drafts heading, and clicking one opens it in the composer.

Escape clears the search and returns to the Inbox; switching to another box also clears it.

Pro Tip: press Enter, don't just type. Typing filters what is already loaded; Enter searches the server too, which is what finds older mail.

Search operators

Narrow a search by starting a word with an operator. A space after the colon is fine and everything is case-insensitive.

from: / to: / cc: / bcc: — a name, full address, domain or part of one (from:ron, from:butlermortgage.ca, from:ron butler).
subject: — the subject line only.
has:attachment — only emails carrying a file.
has:photo — only emails with a photo or image (tiny logos are ignored).
has:calendar — only emails with a calendar invite.
Each Search result shows pills for where that email lives: Snoozed or Follow-Ups when they apply, its box (Inbox, Other, Archive, Sent, Drafts, Trash, Spam, Future Box) and every label. Up to three show; hover +N for the rest. Click a pill to open that box or label with the email still selected. While you search, the Inbox button stays visible, so you can drag a result onto it; the Search chip with its mailbox drop-down sits separately, after Tasks, and shows the open box (Archive, Sent, Spam and so on) when you are in one. Matching drafts show a Drafts pill plus the labels of the conversation they reply to.
label: — a label you use.
before: / after: / on: — plain dates or wording like 2024-03-01, "March 2024", "last tuesday".
newer_than: / older_than: — relative ages such as 7d, 3w, 6m, 1y.

Combine them with AND / OR, a leading minus to exclude (-from:noreply), "quoted phrases" for an exact match, brackets for grouping, and several values in one operator: from:(ron OR dustan).

A word with no operator searches sender, recipients, subject, body and attachment names, across every box including Sent, Archive, Spam and Trash. Typing a person's name finds mail sent from or to them even when their name never appears in the subject or the text of the email. If the name matches one of your contacts, mail sent to or from that contact's address is found too, which is what surfaces your own sent replies.

One search box covers all three views: Email, Tasks and the Reading List. As you type, WonderMail filters what is already on your device — the last week of email, your open tasks, and your saved links (title, site name and link) — and shows them in sections, with the view you are in first. Press Enter to run the full historical email search; a hint under the box reminds you. Sections start with five rows and a "Show more" button. Operator searches such as from: or before: are email-only. Escape clears the box and leaves your view unchanged. On mobile, the search screen shows email results first, with matching tasks and saved links in sections below.

Operator searches scan your most recent 10,000 emails first. If there is older mail, the bottom of the results offers to search the next 50,000 — that pass can take a while and shows a spinner while it runs.

Reading your results

Search lists every individual email that matches, not just one row per conversation, so an original email and each later reply appear separately, newest first. Up to 200 are shown at a time, with a link at the bottom to search further back.

Every result is an actual match: an email only appears when your words really are in its sender, recipients, subject, body or attachment names — WonderMail never pads the list with emails that merely look similar to what you typed, and results are always ordered newest first.

If a search finds nothing at all, WonderMail offers a single "Did you mean" suggestion below the empty result — click it to run the corrected search. Addresses, domains and email ids are always matched exactly, so no suggestion is offered for those.

Each result shows three lines: who it involves — "From: sender" for mail sent to you, or "To: first recipient" for mail you sent from any of your accounts or aliases (with "+CCs" when more people received a copy) — with the attachment clip, unread dot and date; then the subject; then the first line of that email's own text, with quoted history from earlier emails and extra spacing removed.

Pro Tip: after typing from: or to:, WonderMail suggests matching contacts so you can pick an address instead of typing it.

Shortcuts and history

Focusing the empty search box shows your last six searches, plus a Search tips list of every operator.
Click Advanced Search at the bottom of that dropdown to open a pre-built form (From, To, Subject, Has words, Label, Contains (Attachment, Photo, Calendar invite — pick any; several means any of them), Date within, Include Spam / Trash) that builds the query for you. Use the dropdown carets to choose a label or date range.
On a phone, tap the search icon in the mailbox header, then tap Advanced beside the search box to open the same form. Results come from all your mail, and the search box also runs a full search when you press Enter; tap Clear to return to the mailbox.
⌘E shows all email from the sender of the open conversation.
⌘F searches inside the open conversation.
On the Tasks view the same box searches every task tab as you type: Today, Tomorrow, Future, Completed and Trash, with the matches grouped in that order.

Pro Tip: ⌘E is the quickest way to see a person's whole history with you — no need to type their address.

Ask a question in the search box (or in Help) and pick 'Ask AI' to get an AI answer about WonderMail or about your own mail and tasks.

Ask WonderAI from the search box: the box reads 'Search or ask anything…'. Type keywords to search as usual; type a question and press Enter (or ⌘/Ctrl+Enter) and WonderAI answers instead. It handles how-to questions from this Help guide, 'find me…' questions that it turns into a real search you can open under the Search chip, questions about your mail such as counts and unread, and questions about the email you have open — it reads that email and its documents, finds up to three earlier similar emails from the same sender, reads their documents too, and compares them. Every answer lists the emails it used, and you can click one to open it. When an answer mentions or compares email dates, each date is a link: click it to open that email in its own window you can move around. If WonderAI needs one more detail, it asks in a small WonderAI panel above the subject line; type your answer there and it continues. Rate tables inside PDFs are read by AI rather than parsed exactly, so always check the cited emails before acting on a number; scanned images are not read. Requests that start with 'Find' always go to WonderAI, any search of five or more plain words is treated as a question, and the 'Ask AI' row appears under every typed search so the AI is always one click away. Ask for a link to any help page — for example "give me a link to the help doc on Send & Archive" — and the answer includes a clickable link that opens the page in a new tab; matching topics also appear as Read more links under the answer. Ask for a list of people — for example 'list the people who emailed me at robert@mclister.com who work for mortgage investment corporations' — and WonderAI searches several wordings, checks each sender's signature, and answers with a numbered list of names, companies, email addresses, roles and a linked date for each. Newsletters that only mention the topic are left out. While it works, the answer box shows what it is doing, and if part of the search takes too long it says the list may be incomplete and offers the matching emails.