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searchfiltergmaillabelinbox
ProgrammerGirl
ProgrammerGirl

Reputation: 3223

How to search Gmail for conversations in the Inbox AND with a specific label?

How can I search Gmail for all conversations that satisfy the following criteria:

  1. in the Inbox (e.g. not Archived)
  2. have a specific Label

For example, there's currently a total of 160 conversations in my inbox, and 60 of those are labelled "X" in the message list. I want to be able to search to view only those 60 "X" messages in the inbox.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1315

Answers (1)

Patrick
Patrick

Reputation: 14378

Unfortunately this isn't possible.

Gmail doesn't automatically add labels to conversations, only to particular messages within a conversation. (A message is a single email and a conversation is a group of emails with the same subject.) Source: "Labels are only added to a message".

The reason Tanaike's suggestion of in:inbox label:X doesn't show all 160 conversations with the label is because the latest message in your conversation doesn't have the label. The reason for this is most likely, you've archived the conversation at one point and the latest messages in the conversation don't have the label (either because the label wasn't automatically applied based off filter criteria or you haven't manually added the label).

Said another way, even if there are one or more messages in the conversation that contain the label, but those messages are not in your inbox anymore, the conversation won't show up with the search in:inbox label:X. This usually happens when someone responds to your archived conversation and that latest message doesn't contain the criteria necessary for your label to be added automatically.

Unfortunately, Gmail's UI shows a label at the top of a conversation (in conversation view) and not per each message so you have to guess which messages have the particular label(s) shown above the conversation.

Upvotes: 0

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