Search all Outlook folders

To find emails that have disappeared from Microsoft Outlook, you can search all folders at once. We will show you how to do this in Outlook 2007 and 2010 in the following steps.

Microsoft Outlook 2007: Search all folders with one search

First you have to open your navigation area so that Outlook shows you the folder structure. You can then start the search or switch to the detailed search:

• At the top of your folder list is the search icon to search "all Outlook items". In the search bar, you can search through all emails with a search query.
• If you are looking for a keyword that is very common, you can narrow down the items searched. To do this, click on the downward-pointing double arrow to the right of the search bar. In these advanced options you determine whether you search in subject, category, text or the message of a special sender or recipient.

Microsoft Outlook 2007: Search emails with instant search

If this is too slow, we recommend the immediate search:

• Jump to the search bar with the key combination Ctrl + E. Depending on which folder you are in, you will end up in the local search for the corresponding folder.
• To search all Outlook folders now, open the drop-down list next to the search bar and select "Search all Outlook items".

Microsoft Outlook 2010: Search all emails

Instead of a drop-down list, you will find the corresponding command in Outlook 2010 in the navigation area of ​​the header. Instead of "Current folder", select the "All Outlook items" option to search all folders at once.