Searching shared folders

mephistodan · 26 Jun 2018, 10:31 PM

Hello

I'm having issues trying to search in "Shared folders", the documentation states that if you search for in:* this will include shared folders but it doesn't seem to do so.

Basically, we have a 'system email account' that we use to sign up to company-wide services. In that account we have multiple folders and rules that file emails in different folders based on certain functions (accounts, HR, PR..etc).

We then share these folders with the personal account of each member so that HR get access to the shared HR folder..etc.

The system works fine, however, there's no way for a certain user to create a 'unified' view where they can see all the shared folders emails in one folder. I tried to use 'saved search' but no matter what we do we can't make it work on the level of shared folders. Actually, the only way in the web interface to search the shared folders is to navigate to a given folder first then type things in search.

Is there something we are missing? We need an effective way to create a cross-folder view that supports shared folders.

Thanks

BritTim · 27 Jun 2018, 02:58 AM

It appears that the system is operating as designed. According to https://www.fastmail.com/help/receive/search.html:

Quote:

By default, all folders except shared folders, Spam and Trash will be searched. If you are currently in a shared folder, Spam or Trash, then just that folder will be searched instead

I believe it is possible to build the saved search you are looking for using Advanced Search syntax.Refer to the section on Searching particular folders in the reference I cited above. You will need something like

Code:

(in:<folder1> OR in:<folder2> ...) <other search terms>

Expect it to take a while to get this working right. Good luck!

mephistodan · 27 Jun 2018, 07:29 PM

I'm not sure if the system is behaving correctly.

When I log in and search for in: I get exactly the same results as when I do in:*, the number of results are the same although there are tons of emails in the share folder.

The documentation clearly states:

Quote:

By default, all folders will be searched except shared folders, Spam and Trash. You can include these folders as well by adding in:* to your search. You can also use the in keyword to restrict your search to specific folders, e.g. in:Inbox OR in

rafts. To specify a subfolder when using the in keyword, use a . to separate the subfolder's name from the parent folder, e.g. in:"Mailing Lists.Hiking".

It seems the 'in:' search query is not conscious of the shared folders no matter what I try. Even when I try to explicitly put the shared folder name in the tag (by the way, the shared folders are grouped under a folder called 'user' and then a subfolder with the originator account email address xx@xx, could this be messing up the ability for the search query to include these folders?

BritTim · 27 Jun 2018, 11:37 PM

When in a basic search, you navigate to a shared folder and do a search there, are the results correct? If so, manually enter

Code:

(in:foldername) <same search>

(same as FastMail just did in the background) to ensure you really have the correct syntax. "in" must be lower case, must be followed by a colon, and the case used for the folder name must match.)

26 Jun 2018, 10:31 PM	#1
mephistodan Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 67	Searching shared folders Hello I'm having issues trying to search in "Shared folders", the documentation states that if you search for in:* this will include shared folders but it doesn't seem to do so. Basically, we have a 'system email account' that we use to sign up to company-wide services. In that account we have multiple folders and rules that file emails in different folders based on certain functions (accounts, HR, PR..etc). We then share these folders with the personal account of each member so that HR get access to the shared HR folder..etc. The system works fine, however, there's no way for a certain user to create a 'unified' view where they can see all the shared folders emails in one folder. I tried to use 'saved search' but no matter what we do we can't make it work on the level of shared folders. Actually, the only way in the web interface to search the shared folders is to navigate to a given folder first then type things in search. Is there something we are missing? We need an effective way to create a cross-folder view that supports shared folders. Thanks

27 Jun 2018, 11:37 PM	#4
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,090	When in a basic search, you navigate to a shared folder and do a search there, are the results correct? If so, manually enter Code: (in:foldername) <same search> (same as FastMail just did in the background) to ensure you really have the correct syntax. "in" must be lower case, must be followed by a colon, and the case used for the folder name must match.)