So, you’re searching on your iPhone or iPad for a particular mail message from a specific person—not a message that merely mentions her, or a message you sent to her, but a message you got from her.
A simple iOS Mail search will yield every single message that contains the person’s name, whether it appeared in the “From” field or not.
As you type, you’ll see possible matches appear below under the “People” heading; if you see a matching name or email address, go ahead and tap it.
Luckily, there is a way to search only the “From” line—or the “To” or “Subject” lines, for that matter—of your mail messages. Like many things in iOS these days, the method isn’t immediately obvious.
- First, tap the search box in Mail (drag down a bit on your inbox to reveal it, if necessary), then tap in the name.
- As you type, you’ll see possible matches appear below under the “People” heading, including the names of people in your iOS contacts as well as email addresses of folks with whom you’ve traded mail messages. If you see a matching name or email address, go ahead and tap it—and when you do, the name will jump into the search box, outlined in gray.
- Now, tap the name once more, and you’ll see three new tabs appear: From, To, and Message. Since we want to see all the messages we’ve received from the contact, we’ll tap From. You can also tap To to see see only the messages you’ve sent to the contact, or Message to see everything.
You can also search only the subject line of your iOS mail messages.
Want to search only the subject line of your mail messages? Try this…
- Go back to the search box, tap in a name, a word, or anything you want. As you type, you’ll see (again) a list of possible subject matches beneath the search box. Go ahead and tap a match, or simply tap “Search for [what you just typed]” directly under the search field.
- Your search phrase will pop into the search box, once again outlined in gray. Tap the phrase to reveal a pair of tabs: Subject and Message. Tap Subject to find messages with your search phrase in the subject line.