Find a Gmail attachment by size

Question

I am searching a mailbox for the mail that first brought a specific attachment. Since the original mail, the attachment has been saved to associated Google Drive and likely been renamed too.

Since it has been renamed, filename:CurrentFileName.pdf searches don't find my document under the filename I know. The only thing I can think of that is likely not to have changed is the file size (PDF files should not change size).

In short: It's easy to search the mailbox by email size (size:) but what about attachment size? Is there a syntax like attachment:size?

Side note: a search by email size within a 5kB range around the file size found nothing, most probably because the original mail has several files attached.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there's no search filter for attachment size (though that would make a good feature request).

The closest you'll likely be able to get is to use several search parameters to try to find a group of emails that might contain the one you're looking for. You could try:

has:attachment filename:pdf larger:{minSize} 

Replace {minSize} with a size that you know is smaller than the attachment.

If you have any idea when the email was sent, you can include an after: or before: filter -- or both -- to narrow it down even further.

If you remember at least part of the file name, you can use wildcards in your search. For example, you could search for filename:report*.pdf or filename:*report*.pdf.

Other filters can be added, depending on any other information you might have, such as the sender's name, whether the email was marked as "important," etc.