Search for messages#

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Use Mattermost search to find messages, replies, and the contents of files shared across all channels you’re a member of in your team’s conversation history. You can also search by hashtags or perform more advanced searches using search modifiers.

Mattermost Academy Learn about search

Search for message and files#

Search for messages

  1. Select the Search field, select Messages, then enter your search criteria.

Use the Search field to search for messages. Use the expanded Search field to search for messages.

  1. When message results display in the Search Results pane, select Jump to view a full message in context.

From search results, you can go to the full message by selecting Jump.

Search for files

File content search is available in Mattermost Server and in Mattermost Cloud. Select the Search field, select Files, then type your search criteria.

Use the Search field to serach for files attached to messages.

File contents that match on file name, or contain matching text content within supported document types, are returned in the Search Results pane. Each search result includes file name, extension, and size details, as well as details about when and where the file was originally shared.

  • For Mattermost Cloud workspaces, supported document file formats include PDF, PPTX, DOCX, ODT, HTML, and plain text documents. DOC and RTF file formats, as well as the contents of ZIP files, are not supported.

  • For Mattermost self-hosted deployments, supported document file formats include PDF, PPTX, DOCX, ODT, HTML, and plain text documents.

Note

System admins can extend file content search support for self-hosted deployments to include:

Filter results by file type

To narrow search results further, in the Search Results pane, select the File Type Filter option, then select specific file types, such as documents, spreadsheets, or images.

You can filter search results by file type.

Tip

Select the Channel Files icon to the right of the channel name to access files recently shared in the current channel.

Use the Channel Files option to access recently shared files in the current channel.

  1. Tap the Search Search for messages and files in Mattermost. icon at the bottom of the app to search for messages or files attached to messages.

Tap on the Search icon to search for messages or files attached to messages.

  1. To the right of search options, tap to select which team to search.

Tap on the Team selector to select the team you want to search in.

  1. Enter your search criteria, including applicable hashtags.

Type your search criteria along with applicable hashtags.

  1. Tap to apply search modifiers to your search.

Apply search modifiers to further refine your search. Check the search results to find your required message or file from the list.

To access files recently shared in a channel:

  • Select the Use the Channel Files icon to search for files attached to messages in a given channel. icon to the right of the channel name to access files recently shared in that channel.

  • Select the channel name, select the View Info Use the Channel Info icon to access additional channel management options. icon, then select Files in the right pane.

Search modifiers#

You can apply search modifiers to any search to reduce the number of results returned. Select a search modifier to add it to the Search field. Supported modifiers are described below. Your search results include messages from all of your teams.

from: and in:#

  • Use from: to find messages or files from specific users.

    • For example, searching from:john.smith only returns content from your direct message history with John Smith.

  • Use in: to find messages or files posted in specific public channels, private channels, direct messages, or group messages. You can specify channels by display name or channel ID.

    • For example, searching Mattermost in:town-square only returns results in the Town Square public channel that contains the term Mattermost, while searching Mattermost in:john.doe only returns results that contains the term Mattermost in your direct message history with John Smith.

before:, after:, and on:#

  • Use before: to find messages or files posted before a specified date.

    • For example, searching website before: 2018-09-01 returns messages or files containing the term website posted prior to September 1, 2018.

  • Use after: to find messages or files posted after a specified date.

    • For example, searching website after: 2018-08-01 returns messages or files containing the term website posted after August 1, 2018.

  • Use both before: and after: together to search in a specified date range.

    • For example, searching website before: 2018-09-01 after: 2018-08-01 returns all messages or files containing the term website posted between August 1, 2018 and September 1, 2018.

  • Use on: to find messages or files posted on a specific date. Use the date picker to select a date, or type it in YYYY-MM-DD format.

    • For example, searching website on: 2018-09-01 returns messages or files containing the term website posted on September 1, 2018.

    Select the on modifier to specify messages or files for a specific a date.

Exclusions#

Use the hyphen - symbol to exclude terms from your search results. For example, searching test -release only returns results that include the term test and exclude the term release.

This exclusion modifier can be used in combination with other modifiers to further refine search results. For example, searching test -release -in:release-discussion -from:eric returns all results with the term test, excludes posts with the term release, excludes posts made in the release-discussion channel, and excludes messages sent in direct messages by eric.

Quotation marks#

Use quotation marks " " to return search results for exact terms. For example, searching "Mattermost website" returns messages containing the exact phrase Mattermost website, but doesn’t return results containing Mattermost and website as separate terms.

Wildcards#

Use the asterisk * symbol at the end of the word to perform a wildcard search. The wildcard search returns all words that begin with the specified letters. The wildcard in search cannot be used at the beginning or in the middle of a word. For example, searching rea* returns messages or files containing words like reach, reason, reality, real, and other words starting with rea. However, searches like *each and re*ch are invalid wildcard searches.

Hashtags#

Hashtags are searchable labels for messages. Anyone can create a hashtag in a message by using the pound sign # followed by alphanumeric or other unicode characters. Hashtag examples include: #bug, #marketing, #user_testing, #per.iod, #check-in, #마케팅.

Valid hashtags:

  • Don’t start with a number.

  • Are at least three characters long, excluding the #.

  • Are made up of alphanumeric or other unicode characters.

  • May contain dots, dashes, or underscores.

To search for messages containing hashtags, select a hashtag in an existing post, or type the hashtag (including the pound # symbol) into the search bar.

Note

Hashtags don’t link to channels. If you have a channel named “Marketing”, selecting a #marketing hashtag does not take you to the Marketing channel. To link to public channels, use the tilde ~ symbol followed by the channel name. For example ~marketing.

Notes about performing Mattermost searches#

  • Multiple-word searches return results that contain all of your search criteria.

  • Search modifiers can help narrow down searches. See the search modifiers section for details.

  • You can search Archived channels as long as you’re a member of that channel.

    • If you’re unable to see messages or files in archived channels in your search results, ask your system admin if Allow users to view archived channels has been disabled via System Console > Site Configuration > Users and Teams.

    • To remove archived channels from your search results, you can leave the Archived channels.

  • Like many search engines, common words such as the, which, and are (known as “stop words”), as well as two-letter and one-letter search terms, are not shown in search results because they typically return too many results. See the Technical notes about searching section below for details.

  • IP addresses (e.g. 10.100.200.101) don’t return results.

Technical notes about searching#

By default, Mattermost uses full text search support included in PostgreSQL. Select the product menu Navigate between Channels and collaborative playbooks using the product menu icon. then select About Mattermost to see which database you’re using.

  • Stop words are filtered out of search results. See PostgreSQL database documentation for a full list of applicable stop words.

  • URLs don’t return results.

  • Hashtags or recent mentions of usernames containing a dash don’t return results.

  • Terms containing a dash return incorrect results since dashes are ignored in the search engine.

  • From Mattermost v7.1, search results respect the default_text_search_config value instead of being hardcoded to English. We recommend that Mattermost system admins review this value to ensure it’s set correctly.