How to Find All Mail Exchanged With a Contact in Gmail

Find all emails from one person

By
Heinz Tschabitscher
Heinz Tschabitscher
Heinz Tschabitscher
Writer
  • University of Vienna
A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
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Updated on October 30, 2021
  • Select More > Filter Messages Like This > Search to see a message list. Search a name or address to see all emails exchanged.
  • If they have multiple email addresses, enter to: followed by the first email address, then OR from: followed by the first email address.
  • Then, for each additional address, enter OR to: followed by that email address, followed by OR from: followed by that address again.

This article explains how to quickly find email messages from a specific contact in Gmail. Instructions cover the web version of Gmail and should work in any web browser including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.

How to Find All Emails From One Person in Gmail

To see all emails sent to or from an email address starting with a recent message that you send to or received from a sender:

  1. Open a conversation with the sender.

  2. Select More at the end of the message.

    An email in Gmail with the More menu icon highlighted

  3. Select Filter Messages Like This.

    An email in Gmail with the 'Filter messages like this' menu option highlighted

  4. Make sure the contact's name or email address is in the From line and choose Search. A list of messages you received from that person appears.

Start With the Name or Email Address

To have Gmail display emails exchanged with a certain email address:

  1. Select the Gmail Search field. Or, press / (the forward slash key on the keyboard) with Gmail keyboard shortcuts enabled.

  2. Start typing the name or an email address for the contact, then select an auto-complete entry for the contact or sender from the Gmail suggestions.

    A Gmail user searches for a contact in the Search field

  3. Press Enter or select the Search button (🔍).

Gmail shows contact details for the name or email address along with additional email addresses for the contact. Select an address to open a new message to that address. To search for messages exchanged with this address, copy and paste the address into the search field.

Use Alternate Addresses

To search for emails to and from multiple email addresses that belong to the same person:

  1. Select the Gmail search field or press /.

  2. Enter to: followed by the first email address, followed by OR from: followed by the first email address.

  3. For each additional address, enter OR to: followed by that email address, followed by OR from: followed by that address again.

    The complete string to search for sender@example.com and recipient@example.com would be: 

    to:sender@example.com OR from:sender@example.com OR to:recipient@example.com OR from:recipient@example.com

  4. Press Enter or the select the Search icon (🔍).

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