How to find an email by describing it

Inbox search is quick when you remember the sender or a word from the subject line. It gets slow when all you have is the gist. The landlord wrote about the heating repair at some point last winter, or a supplier confirmed a new delivery date, and you can’t recall the address it came from, the subject, or whether it went to your work or personal account.

This guide covers the ways people usually dig out an email like that, and how to find one in Fabric by describing what it said, across your connected inboxes and anything you’ve forwarded.

How people usually find an old email

The usual tool is the mailbox’s own search, often with operators like from:, has:attachment or a date range. It works best when you know at least one firm detail. If you search for “heating” and the landlord wrote “boiler”, the right message can sit a page down the results or out of them altogether.

Labels, folders and rules help when they were set up in advance. Most people have some, applied unevenly, and the email in question tends to be the one that skipped the rule. Scrolling back through a month of mail is the next fallback, which works for a small inbox and wears thin for a busy one.

Two accounts double the work. With a work Outlook and a personal Gmail, an email you half-remember means two searches in two apps, and then often a message to the sender asking them to resend it.

Step 1: Connect your inbox

Fabric has connections for Gmail and Outlook. Go to the Fabric marketplace, choose the app, and click Install. A permissions screen appears: sign in to your email account and grant permissions, and you’re sent back to Fabric with confirmation that the connection worked.

Once connected, the knowledge search panel and the AI assistant can search that mailbox alongside everything in Fabric. If you use both Gmail and Outlook, connect each one. Connections need a paid plan.

Step 2: Forward the emails you want to keep close

Some emails are worth saving in Fabric itself: a contract confirmation, a booking, instructions you’ll need again. Forward them, with any attachments, to your Fabric email address. It accepts mail only from your verified Fabric account address, and you can approve extra sender addresses for a team.

Forwarded emails sit next to your files and notes, and Fabric processes them like anything else: it creates embeddings so search can match by meaning, writes a summary, and suggests tags. How to save email bills and receipts automatically shows how to make this a habit for regular senders.

Step 3: Describe the email in the knowledge search panel

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows). On web and desktop, the knowledge search panel sits on the right of the search screen; on mobile it’s in the bottom drawer. Click inside it and describe the email the way you’d describe it to a colleague: “the landlord’s email about fixing the heating last winter” or “supplier confirming the new delivery date for the oak tables”.

The panel searches Fabric and your connected apps together, so one description covers both inboxes and anything you forwarded. If the first result is close but not right, ask a follow-up, such as “the one before that, with the invoice attached”, and it narrows from there.

For emails you’ve forwarded into Fabric, the main search box also works by meaning and keyword, and you can put a phrase in quotes for exact matching or filter by kind of item. How to search across all your apps at once explains how the panel fits with the rest of search.

Step 4: Ask the AI assistant for the answer inside the email

Often you want what the email said rather than the email itself. Ask the AI assistant “what did the caterer say about refunding the deposit?” It runs the same search across Fabric and your connected apps and answers with clickable references, so you can open the source and check the wording.

This helps with threads that wandered. If a delivery date changed three times over a month, the assistant can tell you which message had the final one and link to it. You can save a useful answer as a note, which keeps the conclusion somewhere easy to find.

Step 5: Keep attachments with the rest of your files

Attachments are often the reason people go looking for an email in the first place. When you find one you’ll need again, forward it to Fabric so the file joins your library, where search reads text inside PDFs and documents. How to find an old email attachment fast goes into that case specifically.

When you save an email or attachment, you can add a comment or tags at the same time. A short note such as “final quote, agreed by phone on the 12th” records context the email itself doesn’t contain, and gives a later search one more thing to match. Fabric also suggests tags of its own, which you can keep or ignore.

None of this requires sorting mail into folders inside Fabric. Search and the assistant work across everything whether or not you organize it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find an email when I can’t remember who sent it?

Connect your inbox to Fabric and describe what the email was about in the knowledge search panel. It searches by meaning across Fabric and your connected apps, so the sender’s name isn’t needed.

Can Fabric search my Gmail?

Yes. Connect Gmail from the Fabric marketplace, and search and the AI assistant can reach it. Connections need a paid plan.

Does it work with Outlook?

Yes. Outlook is a supported connection, set up the same way as Gmail.

Can I search a work and a personal inbox at the same time?

Connect both, and the knowledge search panel searches them together with everything in Fabric.

Who can send emails to my Fabric email address?

Only your verified Fabric account address by default. On a team you can approve extra sender addresses.

Can I ask follow-up questions to narrow the search?

Yes. Both the knowledge search panel and the AI assistant take follow-up questions, so you can refine a search in plain words.

Can I search my email from my phone?

Yes. In the iOS and Android apps, the knowledge search panel is in the bottom drawer of the search screen. The apps are on the mobile download page.

Which plan do I need to search my inbox?

Connections to Gmail and Outlook need a paid plan. Pricing has the details for each plan.