How to search inside your emails

The quote from the builder came by email last spring. So did the booking reference for the conference hotel, and the thread where a client agreed to move the deadline. You remember roughly what was said, not who sent it or which account it went to, and the attachment you need might have been saved to your drive afterwards anyway.

This guide covers how to search inside your emails with Fabric. It explains how to connect Gmail or Outlook so email is searchable alongside your files and notes, how to forward the messages you want to keep, and how to use quotes, filters and the AI assistant to pin down the exact message.

How people usually search their email

Gmail and Outlook both have capable search. Gmail’s operators (from:, has:attachment, before:, filename:) and Outlook’s search filters narrow a mailbox quickly when you know the sender or a rough date. For most single-inbox lookups, that’s enough.

It gets harder when the answer is split across places. A work account and a personal account need separate searches. The email might say see attached while the attachment has since been edited and saved to a cloud drive, and the decision it refers to might be written up in a meeting note. Each piece is searchable in its own app, and you join them up yourself.

Many people cope by starring or labeling important messages, or by emailing files to themselves so they’re easy to find later. Labels work if they’re applied consistently. Emailing yourself tends to fill the inbox with copies that are hard to tell apart.

Step 1: Connect Gmail or Outlook

Go to the Fabric marketplace and choose Gmail or Outlook. You’ll see information about the connection. Click Install, sign in to your email account on the permissions screen, and grant permissions. Fabric then sends you back and confirms the connection worked. Connections need a paid plan.

Once connected, search and the AI assistant can read your email alongside everything in Fabric. If you have both a work and a personal account, connect each one so a single search covers both.

Step 2: Forward the emails you want to keep

Some messages are worth keeping inside Fabric itself: contracts, confirmations, receipts, instructions from a client. Forward them, with their attachments, to your Fabric email address. It only accepts mail from your verified account address, and on a team you can approve extra senders.

Forwarded emails become items in your library, so you can add a comment or tags to them and keep them in the same folder as the related files. How to stop emailing files to yourself explains why this tends to work better than a self-addressed inbox.

On a phone, forwarding works from any mail app. The share sheet in the Fabric mobile app also sends attachments, links and copied text, which is handy for a confirmation code or an address pulled out of a message while you’re away from your desk.

Step 3: Search for the exact wording

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows). For emails you’ve forwarded into Fabric, type a query and Fabric search matches by meaning and by keyword. Put words in quotes for strict matching, which suits booking references, order numbers, a project code or a distinctive phrase like “move the launch to the 14th”.

To include your connected mailboxes, click inside the knowledge search panel. It’s on the right of the search screen on web and desktop, and in the bottom drawer on mobile. It searches Fabric and your connected apps together, and you can ask a follow-up question if the first results aren’t quite it, such as only the ones from the builder, or only from last year.

Filters by tag, location or kind of item help narrow results among the emails you’ve saved into Fabric, for example only items in a House renovation folder.

Step 4: Ask the AI assistant about a thread

When you need an answer from a long thread more than the thread itself, ask the AI assistant. It runs the same search across Fabric and your connected apps, and its answers cite sources with clickable references so you can open the original message.

Questions like what deadline did we agree with Northwind, or what did the insurer say about the excess, save scrolling through dozens of replies. If the answer is worth keeping, save it as a note in the folder for that client or project. A short note titled Agreed dates, Northwind, with the sender and date of each source email written beside the answer, is quicker to find next time than the thread it came from.

Step 5: Keep attachments with the files they belong to

Attachments are often the reason for searching an inbox in the first place. Forwarded attachments land in Fabric as files, where search reads the text inside PDFs and documents and opens results at the exact page. How to find an old email attachment fast goes deeper on that part.

Keeping the email and its attachment in the same folder as your other project files means one search covers all three. How to search across all your apps at once shows how far that can stretch.

Frequently asked questions

Can I search Gmail and my files at the same time?

Yes. Connect Gmail and use the knowledge search panel or the AI assistant, which search Fabric and your connected apps together. Connections need a paid plan.

Does Fabric work with Outlook?

Yes. Outlook is available as a connection from the Fabric marketplace, the same way as Gmail.

How do I search for an exact phrase in old emails?

Put the phrase in quotes in Fabric search for strict matching. This works well for reference numbers and distinctive wording.

Can I search two email accounts at once?

Connect each account and the knowledge search panel covers them together with your Fabric library.

Can I save individual emails into Fabric without connecting my inbox?

Yes. Forward them to your Fabric email address. It accepts mail from your verified account address and any extra senders you approve for a team.

Can AI summarize a long email thread for me?

Ask the AI assistant about the thread. It answers with clickable references to the messages it used, and you can save the answer as a note.

Is searching email included on the free plan?

Connections to Gmail and Outlook need a paid plan. See pricing for the options.

What happens to attachments I forward?

They’re saved into Fabric, where the text inside PDFs and documents is searchable and results open at the exact page.