FAQ: OS 4.5 Remote Email Search For BES 4.1.5 Users

Tom sent in a tip that reminded me about one of the small yet very useful improvements to be had with OS 4.5 & BES 4.1.5. The new OS and BES together allow you to search your mailbox from your BlackBerry and retrieve emails that are no longer on your BlackBerry. This knowledgebase article pointed out by visortgw on BBForums does a great job of explaining the feature. Keep in mind you need both OS 4.5+ and BES 4.1.5+ for this to work. My favorite part is the ability to search other folders other than your inbox for messages you have already filed. You can also then retrieve the emails back to your BlackBerry.

From the knowledgebase article:

Remote search for email messages allows the BlackBerry smartphone user to do the following:

• Perform a remote search of email messages in a personal mailbox on an email messaging server using the BlackBerry smartphone
• Search email messages from all folders on the BlackBerry smartphone user’s computer
• Search for email messages that match the search criteria and store these messages in the message list
• Retrieve more matches for a search or cancel a search in progress

To initiate a remote search for email messages, in the Messages application on the BlackBerry smartphone, display the menu, and then select Search. Then change the Search Type option from Local to Remote. Only one search can be performed at one time. Subsequent searches will replace the currently running search.

A search can be performed by each of the following criteria:

• Folder – any folder contained in the folder list, including Sent and Deleted Items, as well as any non-redirected folders
• Subject
• Name – From, To, Cc, or Bcc headers
• Read status – all or unread only
• Attachment – with or without attachments
• Message text
  Note: encrypted message text search is not supported.

Note: BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 or later is required to perform a remote search of email messages.

Note: For remote search to work in a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino® environment, full text indexing is required on the mail file. To enable full text indexing on the mail file go to the database properties dialog select the Full text tab and click Create Index. For assistance in creating this index please contact your Domino Administrator.