Can't exclude imported Gmail messages when searching

Question

I "pull"/"import" messages from another, non-Gmail email account (notGmail@domain.com) into my Gmail account (gmail@gmail.com).

I want to search for messages that are from either of two sender addresses (sender1@domain.com, sender2@domain.com) but were not addressed to notGmail@domain.com. Optionally also not as BCC or CC, but that is not my priority.

I tried the following and variations of:

from:(sender1@domain.com OR sender2@domain.com) -to:notGmail@domain.com

(please notice the - as the NOT operator.)

but the Gmail search still returns emails originally sent to notGmail@domain.com

I cannot use -(notGmail@domain.com) because notGmail@domain.com might be mentioned in an earlier email somewhere.

Would anyone please have a solution to my quandary? Thank you!

Answer 1

I think that you must be introducing a typo in your search. Please make sure you are not using curly brackets {} as you did in your question

"I cannot use -{to_name@to_domain.com}"

Curly brackets are OR in Gmail so

from:(sender1@domain.com OR sender2@domain.com) -{to:notGmail@domain.com}

would not exclude to:notGmail@domain.com.

Your search should be

from:({sender1@domain.com sender2@domain.com}) -to:(notGmail@domain.com)

or a variation thereof and it will work.

{from:(sender1@domain.com) from:(sender2@domain.com)} -(to:notGmail@domain.com)

or

from:(sender1@domain.com || sender2@domain.com) -to:notGmail@domain.com

etc.

Please also note that Gmail can automatically apply a label to imported mail which gives you another easy way to filter: -label:notGmail