I'm having trouble searching through old e-mails.  

I have a lot of e-mails in my inbox and would like to search through some e-mails I got several years ago.  Unfortunately, I can't go directly to the inbox page that I know they are on, and the search function seems only to go back 6 months or so.  I am positive I have these e-mails because If I click manually page by page, I can get there.  Help!

Matt

Matt, by design, the first 400 recent messages will be displayed when you search in your Windows Live Hotmail account.  This is why you can’t see your older messages from the search result. For example, you searched for the word “hotmail” in your e-mail account and you have 500 messages containing the word “hotmail,” the first 400 recent messages will be displayed. 

As a workaround, you may access your account in an email client. For further instructions, visit this link:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/settings/archive/2009/01/06/send-and-receive-windows-live-hotmail-emails-from-a-mail-client.aspx

I used to get a nework error while searching then during June 2009 the search was working fine.  Now, I just get a blank screen when I search.  I have optimized IE 7 browser as sugeested but nothing is working.  I have had a paid hotmail account since 2001 and this was never a problem from 2001-2008.  What is going on?  If this can't be fixed, please tell me how to forward my mail to gmail which has instant search. 

@ Hotmail-HELP_NOW_PLEASE

To investigate your issue, answer the following:

- What's your email address?
- Are you getting an error message? If yes, please post it here.
- Do you encounter the same issue when using another computer?
- Do other Windows Live Hotmail accounts encounter the same issue on your computer?

I have been trying for the past week to try to pull up recent emails in my inbox by using the "Search" function at the top of the page on the Right. I have been successful for the past year but now I am having difficulties as it shows "0 results" when I know there are emails. I have read that maybe it is due to the fact that my email inbox might be too full - I have proceeded to delete hundreds of emails and still, the function won't work. HELP my business depends on me being able to Pull up past emails or at least finding them! Any suggestions?

@ Tucker Team

Please reply to this post with the following information so I can further investigate on your issue.

- What is your complete email address?
- Do you encounter the same issue when accessing your account from another computer?
- Does this issue occur with other Windows Live Hotmail accounts that are being accessed on your computer?

I can't seem to get the "Search" fucntion to work on my account.  I have tried two other accounts on this computer and have no problems.  The problem  just seems to be with mine.  I am using FireFox as my browser.  This is the first time I have encountered this problem.  Any help you can provide would be great.

Hi OBE4477,

Have you already tried using a different browser. Please try to use your account in another computer that has Internet Explorer and see if there is any difference.

Also, post your e-mail address so we can check it out.

Thanks

Well I tried using Internet Explorer on my computer and had the same result.  I don't have access to another computer at this time but I'm hoping that it's something with Hotmail and not my computer.  The computer is not even 4 months old yet.  My email is {removed email address}.

@ OBE4477

Your account appears to be working properly. I would like to request for your permission to access your account to better investigate your concern. This will help us speed up the troubleshooting process. Please visit:

http://windowslivehelp.com/solutions/newvisitor/archive/2009/06/22/things-to-do-before-granting-access-to-your-account-to-support-agents.aspx

"I grant you my permission to access my Windows Live ID. "

@ OBE4477

Thanks for the permission. Before I proceed, I need to know if you’re getting any message when you use the search function. Please also post the search string that you you’re using.

The only messages I get are what's in my Inbox(not my folders) and it's only the current weeks messages(nothing before).  A search string you can use is "GameStop".  When I search, I get the one that came in on 11/03/09 but there should be more seeing as I have 2 in my inbox and some in another folder. 

@ OBE4477

I've escalated your issue to our Escalation Specialist and they'll contact you after the investigation.

Can you give me an estimate on when they will finish their investigation?