Outlook Search Folder: Search actual e-mail address, not Display Name

microsoft-outlooksearchsearch folder

I need an Outlook Search Folder that finds e-mail by searching the sender or recipient's actual e-mail address. For example, if I want find all messages from senders in the domain example.com, I use the search criteria From… @example.com:

But the search only returns messages where @example.com appears in the sender's Display Name (e.g. From: John Doe <john@example.com>). If the name doesn't contain their e-mail address, the e-mail doesn't appear in the search results.

How do I search for e-mails based on the actual To/From/CC e-mail address, even if the address is not present in the Display Name?

What I've tried:

I've reviewed all the available fields on the Advanced tab. I see the "From", "To", etc. fields but they work the same way.
I found this post, which suggests searching the Subject field and message body…but that is very unreliable.
Google….but there's a billion results telling me how to do what I'm already doing.

Best Answer

I need an Outlook Search Folder that finds e-mail by searching the sender or recipient's actual e-mail address.

It's possible to configure a Search Folder to find email based on the Sender's actual e-mail address (see below). However, it's not possible to expose the actual e-mail address for the To, Cc, or Bcc fields. An explanation of why can be found at the end of this answer.

Configure Search Folder to Search on Sender's Actual E-mail Address

Note: These instructions are written for Office 2013, but the solution should work for at least Outlook 2007 and later.

Step A: Add a Custom "Sender's Actual Address" Field to Outlook Using a Form

These steps create a custom form that adds a new field to Outlook with the sender's actual email address:

Save the following custom Outlook form configuration with the file name FromEmailAddress.cfg:

[Description] 
MessageClass=IPM.Note
CLSID={00020D31-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 
DisplayName=From Email Address 
Category=Standard 
Subcategory=Form 
Comment=This forms is used to expose a sender's actual email address.
LargeIcon=notel.ico
SmallIcon=notes.ico 
VersionMajor=1
VersionMinor=0
Locale=enu 
Hidden=1 
Owner=Microsoft
[Platforms]
Platform2=NTx86
Platform9=Chicago
[Platform.NTx86]
CPU=ix86
OSVersion=WinNT3.5
[Platform.Chicago]
CPU=ix86
OSVersion=Win95
[Properties] 
Property01=FromEmailAddress
[Property.FromEmailAddress] 
;PropTag=PR_SENDER_EMAIL_ADDRESS, 0x0C1F001E
Type=30     ; 001E = 30 in decimal
NmidInteger=0xc1f   ; 0C1F
DisplayName=From E-mail Address 
[Verbs] 
Verb1=1 
[Verb.1] 
DisplayName=&Open 
Code=0 
Flags=0 
Attribs=2 
[Extensions] 
Extensions1=1 
[Extension.1] 
Type=30 
NmidPropset={00020D0C-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 
NmidInteger=1 
Value=1000000000000000

Copy the FromEmailAddress.cfg to your language-specific Microsoft Office's Forms folder, located at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\FORMS\<LanguageID>
- <OfficeXX> is the Office folder including the version number (e.g. Office15 for Office 2013)
- <LanguageID> is your 4-digit language ID (e.g. 1033 for English).
  
  Note: Administrative rights are required to save files to this folder.
  Note: Office may be installed in C:\Program Files if you have a 32-bit OS, or a 64-bit version of Office on a 64-bit OS.
In Outlook, on the File tab of the ribbon click Options.
Click Advanced in the left pane, then in the Developers group click Custom Forms...
In the Options dialog, click Manage Forms...
In the Forms Manager dialog, click Install...
Navigate to the folder where you saved the FromEmailAddress.cfg file, select it, then click Open.
Click OK on the Form Properties window that opens, then Close, followed by OK twice to close Outlook Options.

Credit to this slipstick.com article for information on how to expose a sender's actual e-mail address as a field.

Step B: Use the Custom "From Email Address" Field in a Search Folder's Criteria

These steps leverage the newly created field as criteria for a Search Folder:

On the Advanced tab of the Search Folder Criteria dialog box, click the Field drop-down, then click Forms...
In the left pane select From Email Address, click Add -> then Close.
Click the Field drop-down again, point to From Email Address then click From E-mail Address on the fly-out menu.
Specify the desired Condition and Value, then click Add to List, then OK to close the dialog.

The Actual To, Cc, and Bcc E-Mail Addresses Can't Be Used as Criteria for Search Folders...

A thorough search of Outlook's other pre-defined fields, the MAPI fields available through Outlook's Object Model, and a review of properties exposed by OutlookSpy reveals there are no fields that expose these e-mail addresses as text. There is the PR_MESSAGE_RECIPIENTS property, but unfortunately this is an object that contains each recipient as a separate item. Accessed natively (using the Custom Form method above) returns nothing.

...With One Almost Useless Exception

Using the VBA from this slipstick.com article I was able to add a User Defined Field (UDF) to messages that contained a single string containing the recipient e-mail addresses in the format john@example.com, jane@example.com. However, when selecting a UDF in the Search Folder Advanced Criteria's Field list, only UDFs defined in the Inbox are available:

If messages with the custom fields populated exist in the Inbox, they are found by the Search Folder. However, such messages located in other folders are not included in the results. Unless your Search Folder is only interested in the Inbox, this is rather useless.

Reasons why UDFs don't work in the criteria of a Search Folder are documented here, here and here.

The Pre-Defined Fields Are Still the "Best" Solution

When it comes to the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: fields, it's still best to use the pre-defined fields in your Search Folder criteria and hope the actual e-mail address is part of the Display Name (which it often is).

A solution using VBA:

Copy this simple VBA procedure into an Outlook VBA project :

Sub ChangeSenderName(itm As MailItem)

    itm.SentOnBehalfOfName = "Joe TextsTooMuch"
    itm.Save

End Sub

Now create an Outlook rule that checks for incoming emails from 0123456789@mms.att.net. I suggest using the condition called 'with specific words in the sender's address'.

Then for the rule action, select 'run a script'. Set the value to the script called ChangeSenderName.

Once you have saved and enabled this rule, any incoming email that matches the sender address will be passed to the VBA code, which will modify it.

Notes on this solution

This code is actually modifying a field called SentOnBehalfOfName. As a result, it only appears to take effect in the Outlook Message View - not when you open up an individual email. I looked into changing the actual sender field, but it is not able to be modified with VBA.

Alternative solutions

Of course, the most elegant way to do this would be to configure the service that is sending the emails, but I am assuming you have no control over that.

Another option is to configure the mail server which receives the emails, to modify the From header before it delivers to your copy of Outlook.

Outlook rule does not recognize sender

I had exactly this issue too and just right now managed to work around it by creating a contact in my local Contacts address book that had the email address as the "Email Address" and "Display Name".

When setting up the rule I used the local Contacts address book to select the email sender instead of the Global Address Book.

Doing this kept the raw email address in the rule, which I could then at least run manually. I still need to check that it will work when triggered automatically, but it updated to the server and does not show as a client side rule, so hopeful.