Hi All. Over the years, I have set up several hundred Outlook 2013 subfolders and folders.



Is there a way to identify only those email subfolders and folders that received new emails in the preceding calendar month?

I created New Search Folders for "Emails received last month" and "Emails sent last month", but I don't see an option for identifying the folders/subfolders where those messages ended up.

Thanks,

Rich

The only thing I can think of (and it's far from elegant) is to do a DATE RECEIVED search in ADVANCED SEARCH for received within the last 30 days...and having a column with the folder name, sorting on that column.

You could have multiple items in one folder, which could make the list long and repetitive, but if your objective is to make sure you've ID'd every folder with a recent item, this should work.

It worked! Thank you so much.

I'm pushing my luck, but do you think there is a way to create a separate Advanced Search that, instead of selecting the criteria "last month", would allow two user-selected dates? That would allow me to get the records for previous months, too.

Thank you!!

Rich

Rich,
Wow! Glad I could help.
As for two date ranges, I think you're going to have to do two separate searches each with it's own range....

"I think you're going to have to do two separate searches each with it's own range...."

Can you explain how to do a search with its own user-defined time range? I did not see that option in Advanced Search. Thanks!

It's not simple, but once you've done it, it's easier....
click in the search bar (upper right)
SEARCH TOOLS appears in menu
select SEARCH TOOLS icon, which creates a pull down
select ADVANCED FIND
once open, click ADVANCED tab
down to click FIELD and select from the pull down DATE/TIMES and from the next pull down RECEIVED
then in the next panel to the right RECEIVED
and enter a data range...
I don't recall how to format this, but it can be done, so keep experimenting.
click ADD TO LIST button.
[you might be able to create two ranges, but I don't know if the two are treated as an OR or an AND]
Note that you can only search on one folder at a time.
I've always been able to search all subfolders when I select a parent folder, but that might require a choice somewhere else... a choice I made once in 2003 and never had to do again....
It can't search to parallel folders at the same time...so, it can't search your root .pst folder AND an inbox...those require 2 searches.
Wow! That does sound complicated, but I've been doing advanced searches for so long it does get easy...

Newmarket2, I could not get the date range to work for me in advanced search. I did a manual search for the info that I needed for prior months, but thanks to you, I have the advanced search set up for each future month. THANK YOU!! --Rich

Rich,
Can you tell me more about why it didn't work?
Did you have trouble coming up with the proper syntax for a range that you could add to the list of search criteria?
Or, were you able to add the range criteria but it didn't produce the correct results?
Or, something else?
Michael

Michael, thanks for your continuing interest. Sorry for the delayed response.

No matter what date range I enter, I get results that show the current month. I have tried a variety of options, without success. The ideal search for July 2015 would look like this:

Received On or after 7/1/2015
Received On or before 7/31/2015
Sent On or after 7/1/2015
Sent On or before 7/31/2015

Look: Messages
In: Inbox (with "Search subfolders" selected)

When I do the above, I get the last 12 months of sent and received emails, not just July 2015. I deleted all messages before and after July 2015. I haven't QAd the results in detail, but it does not include a "Sent" column so I don't know for sure whether the "From" column shows all of my sent messages. The results did pick up subfolders, which is great.

If the results did pick up all of my sent messages, then this is actually better than I thought. Just a little more work to delete messages from other months.

Is there a way to save the results? I would love to print a report or save it to Excel and be able to sort.

Thanks again for your interest, Michael. You need to change your status from Novice.

Rich

Rich,
So far, I've been going from memory.
To figure out these latest issues, I'll have to play with advanced search a bit.
But, keep trying other things yourself in the meantime.
And, "novice" categorization is, I think, based purely on how many posts you've made

Problem solved. I'll explain after this public service announcement: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT follow the instructions in my Sept. 3 message. I made two serious mistakes: First, I thought that the newly created Search Folders contained copies of emails in my systems. Oh, no. The Search Folders are just a different view of the same emails, so when I deleted messages that were outside my search parameters -- and emptied the deleted messages bin -- I essentially wiped out my historical emails. My second serious mistake was assuming that I could just retrieve my deleted emails from the O365 cloud.

Fortunately for me, my laptop was turned off while I was doing all of the above on my PC. With the able assistance of Microsoft's support organization, I was able to restore all (I think) of my historical emails.

O365 does not include backup/recovery services. Yes, a copy of your email is stored in the cloud, but it isn't there forever. I thought it was stored for the duration of my subscription. Bad planning on my part.

And now, the solution to my original post about how to create a particular customized search in Outlook 2013. I wanted the ability to identify all emails sent and received in a given period of time, and to be able to sort those emails by folder and subfolder. I tried using the "between" two dates option, but could not get the protocol right for the dates. Here's the solution:

In Outlook 2013:
1. right-click on Search Folders, then click on New Search Folder.
2. in Select a Search Folder, scroll down and click Create a custom Search Folder.
3. click Choose; input a name for the new search folder then click Criteria.
4. after you click Criteria, click Advanced/Field/Date-Time Fields/Received.
5. under Condition, scroll down to Between and click.
6. under "Value", insert two dates using the following protocol xx/xx/xxxx and
xx/xx/xxxx, then click Add to List.

This will search for all emails Received between the two dates. To also include all emails Sent between those dates, click Field and follow steps 4-6 above (except replace Received with Sent in step 4).

The result is a search folder that shows all emails sent and received between two dates, with the ability to sort by folder and subfolder. I created search folders for each month of 2015 so that I can confirm the transaction-related parts of my invoices before I send them to clients.

This is an invaluable feature to me. I hope that others find it helpful... and learn from my multiple mistakes.