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edit approved Feb 27, 2019 at 23:59

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)(label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1MyLabel1
And do not have label "inbox"inbox
And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"MyBadLabel1

The tricks are:

to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)
to use UPPER CASE for the logic operators (AND NOT will work, and not won't)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it'sIt may be a bit weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1
And do not have label "inbox"
And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

The tricks are:

to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)
to use UPPER CASE for the logic operators (AND NOT will work, and not won't)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1
And do not have label inbox
And do not have label MyBadLabel1

The tricks are:

to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)
to use UPPER CASE for the logic operators (AND NOT will work, and not won't)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

It may be a bit weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

I specify that the case of the logic operators is indeed important. I was not aware that gmail logic operators are case sensitive, so the first time I applied the answer, I wrote them in lower case and the filter didn't work as expected. So, I tried to avoid that error for another reader.

Source Link

edit approved Dec 18, 2016 at 4:59

danidemi

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1
And do not have label "inbox"
And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

--> The trick is to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)tricks are:

to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

to use UPPER CASE for the logic operators (AND NOT will work, and not won't)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1
And do not have label "inbox"
And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

--> The trick is to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1
And do not have label "inbox"
And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

The tricks are:

to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

to use UPPER CASE for the logic operators (AND NOT will work, and not won't)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

added 9 characters in body

Source Link

edited Aug 26, 2016 at 20:57

BobJones91827364093485345

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1

And do not have label "inbox"

And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

Do have MyLabel1

And do not have label "inbox"

And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

--> The trick is to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1

And do not have label "inbox"

And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

--> The trick is to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

You can do searches that exclude certain labels. That is, searches like this will do what you expect: (label:MyLabel1 AND NOT label:inbox AND NOT label:MyBadLabel1)

That search will show you only messages that:

Do have MyLabel1

And do not have label "inbox"

And do not have label "MyBadLabel1"

--> The trick is to get yourself out of conversation mode! (As @Ruben says above.)

If you leave "conversation mode" on, you will get confusing results. For example, doing that search above (with conversation mode on), will likely return messages that do NOT match your search.

Whaaaat?? Yup, it's weird.

Here's the deal:

Conversations are collections of messages that all have the same Subject.
When "conversation mode" is on, searches return entire conversations as results.
So what should gmail search do if a conversation contains both a message that matches, and a message that does not match your search?
You are probably expecting it to return conversations only if all messages in that conversation match.
But that is not correct. Instead, Gmail search will return conversations even if only a single message in that conversation matches.
So that means that if you do the same search above with "conversation mode" on, the results are likely to include messages that do not match your search!

Source Link

answered Aug 26, 2016 at 20:52

BobJones91827364093485345