What are the imap search command operators supported by outlook?

Aryan - Ai Bloq 20

I have tried following operators:

SINCE
SUBJECT
OR
NOT

But when I tried KEYWORD operator it gives me an error. Is there a way to use outlook inbox raw query directly in outlook imap search command as can be gone in gmail imap via extension X-GM-RAW operator?

Accepted answer

ITSRawlinz Jeff 80 Reputation points Student Ambassador

2023-07-21T11:47:59.91+00:00

Hi Aryan,

In Outlook IMAP search command, the supported search operators are limited compared to some other email providers like Gmail. The operators you mentioned, such as "SINCE," "SUBJECT," "OR," and "NOT," are indeed supported by Outlook IMAP search.

However, the "KEYWORD" operator you tried is not supported in Outlook IMAP search. Outlook doesn't have a direct equivalent to Gmail's "X-GM-RAW" extension, which allows you to use raw search queries directly in Gmail IMAP.

In Outlook, the available search operators are generally standard IMAP search operators, and the functionality might not be as advanced or flexible as what you can achieve with Gmail's "X-GM-RAW" extension.

If you need more advanced search capabilities in Outlook, you might consider using the Outlook API or Microsoft Graph API, which provide more extensive search functionalities. Keep in mind that using APIs might require additional programming or development work compared to directly using IMAP commands.

Let me know if you have any other questions or if there's anything else I can help you with!

Jeffrey Rowlings
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Aryan - Ai Bloq 20 Reputation points

2023-07-21T11:53:33.06+00:00

Hello Jeffrey,

Thank you for a detailed explanation.

I have tried out Microsoft graph version 1.0 to retrieve messages, but I just had one concern about the threshold and pricing of this api. Please let me know if you have information about this, because the graph api docs are not very clear about which resources are paid and which are free.

Thank you

PS: graph api endpoint being used: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/messages
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1 additional answer

ChristyZhang-MSFT 22,336 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-07-18T01:37:04.8566667+00:00

Hi @Aryan - Ai Bloq ,

Welcome to our forum!

But when I tried KEYWORD operator it gives me an error.

What exactly do you want to search? And what error did you receive?

Please refer to this article to help you use AND, NOT, OR, <, >, =, and other operators to refine your search:

Search reference tables

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Aryan - Ai Bloq 20 Reputation points

2023-07-18T06:03:31.42+00:00

Hi @ChristyZhang-MSFT

What exactly do you want to search?
While running the imap search command I want to filter emails that have specific keyword (category) attached to them, and then fetch only those UIDs.

And what error did you receive?

I received a Bad command argument error, it says outlook imap does not support KEYWORD operator.

ChristyZhang-MSFT 22,336 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-07-18T06:08:08.09+00:00

Hi @Aryan - Ai Bloq ,

Thanks for your reply!

What do you mean about "the imap search command I want to filter emails that have specific keyword (category)"?

If possible, please provide a screenshot about it for our better research. (In order to avoid the privacy leakage, please remember to hide your personal information)

Aryan - Ai Bloq 20 Reputation points

2023-07-18T06:16:59.2366667+00:00

I am trying to connect to outlook account via imap and the langugage I am using is python.
I am using the imapclient library to do all the imap operations and the above mentioned issue is comming in the search command.

Sample code snippet:

from imapclient import IMAPClient server = IMAPClient('outlook.office365.com', use_uid=True) server.oauth2_login('someuser', 'somepassword') select_info = server.select_folder('INBOX') messages = server.search(['FROM', 'best-friend@domain.com']) for msgid, data in server.fetch(messages, ['ENVELOPE']).items(): envelope = data[b'ENVELOPE'] print('ID #%d: "%s" received %s' % (msgid, envelope.subject.decode(), envelope.date))

ChristyZhang-MSFT 22,336 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-07-18T06:27:38.9533333+00:00

Hi @Aryan - Ai Bloq ,

Thanks for your reply!

Looks like your issue is more related to python. Please kindly understand that the Outlook tag here we mainly focus on general issues about Outlook desktop client and we know little about python.

And i notice that you want filter emails with a specific category, as a workaround, we can do this easily in Outlook desktop client. Just click Search bar>click the drop-down arrow>choose the Category you want to filter.

On the other hand, we can type category:="xxxxx"(such as: category:="Blue Category") directly in Search bar.

Hope to help you!

Aryan - Ai Bloq 20 Reputation points

2023-07-18T06:43:02.7866667+00:00

Hi @ChristyZhang-MSFT

This is not purely about python, its more about what commands and operators does outlook support in IMAP which are not documented anywhere.
So maybe I get any documentation which mentions all this, it will help a lot because at the end of the day the issue is about a specific protocol and not the program using it.

Thank you

ChristyZhang-MSFT 22,336 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-07-21T06:22:30.7933333+00:00

Hi @Aryan - Ai Bloq ,

Thanks for your reply!

Considering that you need more help of python, in order to better solve your problem, we will add "Office Development" tag.

Aryan - Ai Bloq 20 Reputation points

2023-07-21T11:14:17.4933333+00:00

Hi @ChristyZhang-MSFT

Sure, please add the necessary tag.
Thank you for the help.
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What are the imap search command operators supported by outlook?

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