How to retrieve messages in Mail

Learn about Mail’s multitude of ways to search for and organize messages

Apple’s mail app

provides several great features to help organize messages and quickly locate the exact one among many that you receive. You’ve probably created a few mailboxes to store things based on their topic, for example.

Maybe you were lured into filing your messages by the promise of “inbox zero” nirvana, but even if you’re the world’s most organized person, it’s likely you’ll have to depend on Mail’s more refined search features to find that one message you need from among many.

Your first port of call is likely to be Mail’s search bar. Enter text related to what you’re looking for and the app displays matching results. There are ways to further filter results, but in macOS High Sierra you may not need them. Its version of Mail uses analysis of the messages you read, who you reply to, which senders are among your VIPs, and other attributes to highlight the most likely matches above all other search results. Apple calls these Top Hits, and says Mail learns over time to improve their accuracy.

Of course, Mail still includes other ways to keep messages organized. These range from attaching flags to them, to pinning mailboxes to a toolbar so you can drag and drop to file things, or click to look up previously filed messages.

Read on to discover how to make use of these great features and stay in control of your email.

REQUIRES

macOS High Sierra (Many features work with older versions.)

you will learn How to quickly find the message you want among the many you’ve received in the past.

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes