Search folder for unread emails in inbox not including subfolders

Question

I would like to make a search folder for unread emails in the inbox which does not look into subfolders in the inbox. Right now I have 5-10 subfolders which are automatically filled with news emails from different sources( using ordinary rules), and then I use the top level of the inbox folder as a kind of important email folder. I would like to make a search folder which finds the unread emails in the top level of the inbox folder but ignores everything in the subfolders.

Outlook version: 1808 (I think). It is part of MS office 365 but it does run locally.

Answer 1

You need to use the Application.AdvancedSearch method which performs a search based on a specified DAV Searching and Locating (DASL) search string. The AdvancedSearch method and related features in the Outlook object model do not create a Search Folder that will appear in the Outlook user interface. However, you can use the Save method of the Search object that is returned to create a Search Folder that will appear in the Search Folders list in the Outlook user interface.

The key benefits of using the AdvancedSearch method in Outlook are:

• The search is performed in another thread. You don’t need to run another thread manually since the AdvancedSearch method runs it automatically in the background.
• Possibility to search for any item types: mail, appointment, calendar, notes etc. in any location, i.e. beyond the scope of a certain folder. The Restrict and Find/FindNext methods can be applied to a particular Items collection (see the Items property of the Folder class in Outlook).
• Full support for DASL queries (custom properties can be used for searching too). You can read more about this in the Filtering article in MSDN. To improve the search performance, Instant Search keywords can be used if Instant Search is enabled for the store (see the IsInstantSearchEnabled property of the Store class).
• You can stop the search process at any moment using the Stop method of the Search class.

    string scope = "Inbox";
    string filter = "[UnRead] = true";            
    Outlook.Search advancedSearch = null;
    Outlook.MAPIFolder folderInbox = null;
    Outlook.MAPIFolder folderSentMail = null;
    Outlook.NameSpace ns = null;
    try
    {
        ns = OutlookApp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
        folderInbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
        scope = "\'" + folderInbox.FolderPath "\'";
        advancedSearch = OutlookApp.AdvancedSearch(
                                        scope, filter, false, advancedSearchTag );
        advancedSearch.Save();
     }
     catch(Exception ex)
     {
         MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "An eexception is thrown");
     }
     finally
     {
         if(advancedSearch!=null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(advancedSearch);
         if (folderSentMail != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderSentMail);
         if (folderInbox != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderInbox);
         if (ns != null) Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ns);
    }                

Answer 2

In the search box type "Read:unread" without quotes