Would be great to have server-side IMAP search using the IMAP SEARCH command. The current search only shows messages that have been cached on the client, which is not very helpful when searching for older mails.
Hello,
I am sorry, but we do not plan to implement it in the near future. We had tested it, but there was a lot of server side problems and the search was extremely slow.
The only solution is to download all messages for offline use.
This is sad.
Such a great client would just need to have a possibility to search on a server.
Sure, it would first search in local cache, but then it should give an option to search on a server as well. This way works all phone clients and it’s great (even 6 year old symbian).
I just don’t believe that developers that put together this great program, don’t have the knowledge to implement this.
I really hope you’ll reconsider this decision… It doesn’t need to be super duper fast! It just needs to be there! I’m not very happy with switching between clients just to search trough older emails…
Just for clarification - It has been already implemented, but there was lot of server side issues so we decided to remove it.
What are the chances that you revisit the possibility of providing access to a server-side searching mechanism?
I’m currently evaluating eM client, and have been very happy with it compared to my exisiting Thunderbird client. This may be a big enough issue that I stick with Thunderbird for a while longer.
For example, I just needed to search for messages from my payroll vendor. In Thunderbird I get a couple of hundred messages. With eM client, I’m getting 5 very random messages (2 from January, and 3 dating back a couple of years), that I don’t see how eM client picked up those quite old emails to cache and be able to search.
I believe that this would be resolved if I cached my entire mailbox onto my local machine. However, I’ve got archive folders that I still want to be able to search, but don’t need to have on my workstation. If I wanted a workstation-centric solution where everything resided on my laptop, I’d have implemented a POP server. However, I don’t want that, which is exactly why we have an IMAP server.
Hi James, as previously stated by my colleague, this feature is currently not considered for future releases.
Thank you for understanding,
Paul.
The IMAP server-side search extensions are straightforward. Don’t need to implement server-specific functions - implement the full functionality of the IMAP protocol.
If the search is slow for misconfigured servers that’s their problem. A properly configured server with FTS indexes is blazingly fast and no client can possibly approach that speed without fully downloading all messages. And that’s something those with large mailboxes absolutely don’t want.
This is completely unacceptable. Sure server-side search is slow. So what? That’s no reason to block it. Forcing users to sync all mail is not an acceptable solution for this.
Especially since your search feature used to work server-side, and the feature has been removed without telling us. I know because I used it and relied on it for several years.
I just found this out the hard way. Can’t you please just put it back in? This was one of the key features that I relied on, and a key reason I use em Client. Now I wonder if I need to roll back a version or two, and which ones… Otherwise I’ll need to use another client for search, which is lame.
True, imap search works GREAT. The Bat does it. Heck, even Mailbird supports it. eM Client looks promising, but missing a feature like this is a NO GO… 
Its completely up to the server to supply good results. Zoho Mail does well. You can include a blame message for providers who f* up.
They already have the code for it. It was in previous versions, but the extremely poor decision was made to remove it. It would have made more sense to make it a search option than just remove it. It always worked great for me, and I don’t want to sync 100GB of mail just to search, or only get incorrect search results if not everything is synced. The “solution” is broken.
Seriously! 100GB of messages! Maybe time to do a bit of housekeeping Adrien. 
This is a must-have feature to make the final call to buy em client. So please look into this again. I’ve found a library here that claims to do the job, probably the developer team could take a look to see if it helps:
https://www.limilabs.com/blog/get-email-information-from-imap-fast
I have no way related to the product above, I found imap_search() too but someone else has mentioned it.
Please, give us the server-side search and it is then perfect.
Version 8, due for release in the Spring, includes IMAP and Exchange server searching.
That’s awesome! Looking forward, thanks Gary.
Hey Gary, I’ll delete half my mail if you delete half of yours.
