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How do I search the body text of USENET messages.

  • 3 replies
  • 6 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

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Global search won't search body of USENET messages, just the mail and local folders "accounts". Search messages doesn't have a search "body" option but only searches headers.

I tried setting the groups for offline use but that didn't allow me to search them.

Selecting "search on server" reduced the list of headers that can be searched for and didn't offer "BODY".

Global search won't search body of USENET messages, just the mail and local folders "accounts". Search messages doesn't have a search "body" option but only searches headers. I tried setting the groups for offline use but that didn't allow me to search them. Selecting "search on server" reduced the list of headers that can be searched for and didn't offer "BODY".

All Replies (3)

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did you use the Quick filter search?

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<ctrl-shift-k> does search ONE news group but won't do a global search on all newsgroup folders. I've got over 30 subscribed groups, that would each have to be searched individually.

Doesn't seem to work very reliably as searching demon.test for "huff" it finds 731 messages from 1700 odd in the folder. For most (except 2 I posted) opening the source of these messages and doing a find doesn't find "huff". The global search does find just those 2 messages - in my sent folder, it should have found 4 or 735.

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The Quick Filter method

  • will search on the selected folder.

This will do a search on a selected mail account

  • 'Edit' > 'Find' > 'Search Messages'
  • Select the mail account and 'search subfolders.
  • For one condition select 'match all of the following'
  • if more than condition select 'match any of the following'
  • Body contains 'huff'
  • click on 'Search'

Global Search box

  • enter 'huff' and select 'messages mentioning 'huff' from the drop down selection
  • You can then either select from any of the filters or click on 'open email as list'


re Search messages doesn't have a search "body" option but only searches headers.

If you are using an IMAP mail account, the emails are on the server and you get a remote view of them. The headers are visible for emails in subscribed folders.

When you select an email from the list, the contents of that folder are downloaded to a temporary cache to facilitate quicker access.

If you synchronize folders then a local copy of the synchronized folder is made on your computer. When you make changes to a synchronized folder, it synchronizes with the folder on the server to update the folder. So that they are showing the same.

Global searching/indexing uses global-messages-db.sqlite as a search index. It contains a copy of all of your messages. If you have a IMAP account and disable offline folders / not synchronizing, it will use a background process to download copies of the messages in all of your folders. Otherwise it copies them from the mbox files. If global search indexer is not switched on you can search, but on in the selected folder.

Check the Global Search Indexer is enabled:

  • 'Tools' -> 'Options' -> 'Advanced' -> 'General' tab
  • select 'Enable Global Search and Indexer'.
  • click on OK.