Outlook - Searching For (and Finding!) Emails

Notes

Outlook provides a handy search feature to search your mailbox for emails. By typing a word in the search field, Outlook will search all emails in the selected folder(s) for that word anywhere in the sender name, subject, message body, or attachments. This document provides some guidance on finding emails and returning those that have strayed to their correct location.

Classic Outlook

In Classic Outlook, the Search field is located at the top above the ribbon. (Classic Outlook is the one with a "File" tab at the top left).
Outlook will provide suggested searches as you begin typing in the Search field, and clicking one of the suggested options will immediately search for that result
Pressing Enter without clicking on one of the suggested searches will search for any words containing the letters entered.
1. For example, searching for CHI will find CHICAGO, CHICKEN, CHIMICHANGA and any other words or phrases containing "chi"
There is an option to the left of the Search field to choose where to look. To search everywhere, choose "All Mailboxes". This will search in all mailboxes listed in Outlook. Choosing "Current Mailbox" will only search your own folders and subfolders in your email account EXCEPT the Deleted Items folder.
In the image below, everything within the red outline is searched by using "Current Mailbox". The shared mailboxes at the bottom are not searched. The Deleted Items folder is not searched BY DEFAULT (see step 6 for more)
To include the Deleted Items folder in the search, select the Search tab at the top of Outlook and click the Include Deleted Items icon. (There are also icons to the left to adjust where you're searching, also highlighted.)
To find the SOURCE folder containing the email you found, look at the results just under the date. Below, one email is in Sent Items, two are in my Inbox, and the last is in a custom "Important" folder I created.
To MOVE an email to another folder (for example, moving the email from Pam from my Important folder back to my Inbox), right-click the email to be moved and choose Move and then select a location. In the image below, I'm moving the email to my Inbox
2. Please note that you CAN drag/drop an email to another folder, but this risks accidentally "dropping" it along the way and it could end up somewhere unintended. This is not recommended.
Finally, there is a "nasty" shortcut in Outlook that will move emails to an Archive folder if an email is selected and the Backspace key is pressed. If you repeatedly press the Backspace key, multiple emails will be moved to the Archive folder.
1. In the example below, the email from PDQ is highlighted. Pressing Backspace will send it to the Archive folder inside my mailbox. Unfortunately, this shortcut can't be disabled.

New Outlook

New Outlook's interface is completely different than "Classic" Outlook, but the Search feature is almost identical. You can identify New Outlook by it's more modern icon and lack of a "File" tab
Like Classic Outlook, New Outlook provides search suggestions as you begin typing. Pressing enter ignores the suggested searches and uses the typed text as the search instead
The search location is different in New Outlook. While still to the left of the Search field, the options are different. There is no "Current Mailbox" or "All Mailboxes" option. Instead there are options for "All folders" and individual (non-custom) folders.
Unlike Classic Outlook, searching with "All Folders" selected in New Outlook will search the Deleted Items folder. No special configuration needed!
The SOURCE folder for any emails found by your search will be listed under the time (see below).
To MOVE an email from the search results to another folder, right-click the email and choose "Move" from the list of options. In the image below, the email will be moved to my Inbox, but I could have move it to another folder or even created a new folder for it from the list of options
2. Again, PLEASE don't use the drag and drop option when moving emails.
And finally, the Backspace shortcut still exists in New Outlook. If you can't find an email that used to be in your Inbox but suddenly isn't there, check the Archive folder. Below is a copy of the information from the the discussion in Classic Outlook as it is identical.
1. There is a shortcut in New Outlook that will move emails to an Archive folder if an email is selected and the Backspace key is pressed. If you repeatedly press the Backspace key, multiple emails will be moved to the Archive folder.
2. In the example below, the email from PDQ is highlighted. Pressing Backspace will send it to the Archive folder inside my mailbox. Unfortunately, this shortcut can't be disabled.

If after reading this you still can't find that missing email in Outlook (New or Classic), please submit a Helpdesk ticket and we'll be happy to help you track it down.

More information can be found from Microsoft at this site: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-to-search-in-outlook-d824d1e9-a255-4c8a-8553-276fb895a8da