How to find out attachments by file type in Outlook?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2024-09-23

Sometimes you may not be clear about attachments' names, content, etc. but attachments' file types (file extension) in messages. For example, the only thing you remember is that the attachment is a Microsoft Word document with meeting time. How to find out these attachments of specified file types? It seems hard to find out attachments of special file types with existing search tools in Microsoft Outlook.

Actually, you can find out attachments by file types in Outlook with entering searching criteria in the Search Box directly.

Find messages with attachments of one specified file type

Find messages with attachments of two or more file types

Find messages with attachments of at least one of specified file types

Find messages without attachments of specified file types

Common file types (extensions)

Find messages with attachments of one specified file type

If you want to find out the messages which contain attachments of one specified file type, please enter the ext: extension in the Search Box.

ext: extension

For example, if you want to find out the messages that contain attachments of zip files, please input the ext: zip in the search box. Then it will filter the messages with attachments of zip in one minute.

Find messages with attachments of two or more file types

Your messages may contain attachments of more than one file types. And this section will help you find out messages with attachments of two or more specified file types at the same time.

ext: (extension extension)

Take the attachments of zip files and of txt files for example, just enter the ext: (zip txt) in the search box, and then it will find out the messages which contains both attachments of zip files and attachments of txt files at the same time.

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Find messages with attachments of at least one of specified file types

This section will help you find out messages with attachments of at least one of several specified file types.

ext: (extension OR extension)

Supposing you need to find out the messages with attachments of zip, or attachments of docx, or attachments of zip or of docx, just enter the ext: (zip OR docx) in the search box.

Find messages without attachments of specified file types

Sometimes you may remember the messages contain attachments, and you can ensure the attachments are not some specified file types. In these cases, you can do it as following:

Firstly enter ext: (NOT extension) in the search box, and then click the Has Attachment on the Search tab.

In other cases, one message may include several types of attachments. However, you need to filter messages with specified types of attachments, but excluding specified types of attachments.

ext: (extension NOT extension)

For example, you need to find out the messages with attachments of word documents (docx), but exclude messages with attachments of workbook (xlsx). In other words, the messages with both attachments of docx and attachments xlsx don't meeting your needs. In this case, just enter the ext: (docx NOT xlsx) in the search box.

Common file type (extensions)

NO.	File type	extension
1	Word Document	docx
2	Word 97 – 2003 Document	doc
3	Excel Workbook	xlsx
4	Excel 97-2003 Workbook	xls
5	PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation	pptm
6	PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation	ppt
7	CSV (Comma delimited)	csv
8	Outlook message	msg
9	Web Page	Htm, html
10	PDF	pdf
11	Plain Text	txt
12	Open Document Text	odt
13	Open Document Spreadsheet	ods
14	Open Document Presentation	odp
15	Common Picture Format	png, jpg, gif, tip, bmp
16	Compressed (zipped) folder	zip