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Searching for emails in Inbox or Sent items


Guest gregmarcroftorc

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Guest gregmarcroftorc

Hi,

I have been advised to add this question to the forum for advice. The way our Inbox currently works is that we very rarely delete any emails as we were told that the number of emails in there would have no impact on performance.

So what we tend to do in the following scenarios is:

  • Spam type email comes in to the inbox. We delete it.
  • Email from colleague comes in to the inbox but it is not related to a ticket. May just be an update about project timings. We mark as read but leave it in the inbox.
  • Email comes in that has an existing ticket reference in the subject. We mark it as read and apply the email to the ticket. However, the email still stays in the inbox.

As a result I believe we have about 27,000+ emails in our inbox that have been marked as read, originating from June 2016 to the present time. I have been advised that the search function in the Inbox or sent items does not work in the same way as the Request List, and therefore, if I want to find an email from an internal colleague from say 2 weeks ago and type in their surname or %surname, the results that are returned are not accurate. The order seems to be scattered, and often I cannot find the relevant email.

Please can someone advise on any solutions to this problem because it is a big disadvantage for our analysts to not be able to find previously sent emails or recent emails from say a day or 2 ago. To have to scroll down through the Inbox is not that easy to do either to find the email even from the day before.

One suggestion I have been provided so far is this:

  • Create subfolder (could name it something like 'Old Inbox'. Move all 27,000+ emails in to there for reference or as a type of back up folder
  • Create rule where any incoming email that is attached to a ticket gets automatically moved to the deleted items once attached to ticket.
  • Can then search via the request list (once this rule is applied) as the email would have been added to the ticket. This would only be a solution once the change had been applied and would not help for the previous emails not attached to a ticket from the previous 27,000+ emails. I understand why that would not be possible though so no issues there.

Thanks

Greg

 

 

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@gregmarcroftorc

We use the process of creating an monthly inbox archive folder where processed email are automatically moved to when they are action-ed, so it is easier to search for emails.

The other point to be aware of if you delete the email after you have updated the request from it, you will no longer be able to use the 'View Email' option on the timeline entry to view the source email, so you will just have the textual content of the email inserted into the the request timeline.

inboxarch.PNG.92e390c65df57b254eb197c35ea4565f.PNG  

Cheers

Martyn

 

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Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

I agree with you that there are things that need to improve in the search functionality. I will speak to our Platform Team to see what can be done in that area and when.
The ideal thing would be to improve the search by adding search by a range of dates, or say, last day or two and allow better filtering based on the FROM field. At the moment you have to type the entire from email address for this to work.

I will keep you updated when I have some answers.

I would wait with these workarounds until we have a better idea of time frames.

Thanks,

Daniel.

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Guest gregmarcroftorc

Thanks both. 

Martyn, do you know if this is a complex thing to do? If I create those sub folders is it simple to have any email moved to the monthly sub folders once processed?

Daniel, do you know what approximate time frame you are likely to have an update by? We are hoping to have something in place in the next 2 weeks really, even if it is a workaround for the time being for us to be able to search easier.

In the mean time, are you able to explain how the full email address works? When I search for an entire email address, it has brought back hundreds of results but the order does not seem to follow an expected format. There are 2 emails from this person from a year ago and the third is the one from 25 minutes ago. I would expect some sort of formatting on the order of the search results. E.g date order.

Thanks

Greg

@Daniel Dekel @Martyn Houghton

 

 

 

 


 

 

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Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

I can't give you yet an answer regarding time. Hopefully on Monday I'll have more to say.

Regarding the order of the search results, yes, is one of the problems and that is one of the things that has to improve definitely. It is based on relevance, so if you also add something extra to the email address like some content in the subject or in the body it will give you better results.
For example if you search "my@email.com IN00123456"

Regards,

Daniel.

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Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

The platform team do understand the problem and the importance of improving this in a short term. There are a few challenges but they will be investigating to decide what is the best way to deal with the problem. I expect this to be improved in the next few weeks.

I will keep you updated with the progress.

Thank you,

Daniel.

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Guest gregmarcroftorc

Thanks @Daniel Dekel. My manager is hoping a solution will be found early - mid September for this. I can set a reminder to follow up with you to see  if you have an update,. Does 4th September sound reasonable (2 weeks after your post on 21st August).

Greg

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Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

Wanted to let you know that next week we will be pushing a build with extra filters. This will allow you to minimize the amount of results by being more specific when you search.
It is also more flexible when looking for a person, first or last name.

The only thing left is the sorting of the results by date. That will take some and I'll let you know about the progress on this.

Thanks,

Daniel.

image.png

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Guest gregmarcroftorc
22 hours ago, Daniel Dekel said:

Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

Wanted to let you know that next week we will be pushing a build with extra filters. This will allow you to minimize the amount of results by being more specific when you search.
It is also more flexible when looking for a person, first or last name.

The only thing left is the sorting of the results by date. That will take some and I'll let you know about the progress on this.

Thanks,

Daniel.

image.png

Thanks, that is helpful, appreciate it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest gregmarcroftorc

@Daniel Dekel Hi Daniel,

I am having problems with the search function again. I have someone in our inbox with the surname 'Ireland'. I type in Ireland and results seem to be returned. I search for various others in the exact same way (surname) that I know 100% are sat in our inbox now and it says 'No messages' in yellow.

Please can you investigate/advise?

Thanks

Greg

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Hi @gregmarcroftorc,

The search is using the email address or the email display name.
For example <John Smith>john.smith@js.com

You can search on "john", "smith" or "john.smith"

But if the display name is not declared or does not contain the last name for example it will not be found.

For example: john.s@js.com

"smith" will not be found. only "john" or "john.s"

Hope this explains better.

Let me know if your case is different.

Thanks,

Daniel.

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