Searching

Version Specific 4.2 and above

Searching has been greatly enhanced. You can now search for content across posts and profiles – not just hashtags as before.

Note The search feature ONLY searches content on the server you are on.

That is: posts/replies made by users on your server; profiles of users on your server; posts/replies that your server has received copies of in the process of retweets, replies to local users. There is NO facility to search across multiple servers of the entire fediverse.

The search feature is new to version 4.2 and above of the Mastodon server software. To check your server version, goto your instance name 'about' page. For example mastodon.social/about and look at the bottom left of the screen.

Your server admin also has to enable search features. If you are not seeing the advanced search features, as noted below, contact your own Admin team.

On the web client the search bar will either appear top left, or in the Explore tab, or by click the Search magnifying glass at the top of the page. This is dependent on the size of your screen.

Clicking on the search bar will expand it to show a helper.

Type a word or phrase and press enter.

chocolate returns any content with the word in it

chocolate cake will return any content with any of the two words in it

“chocolate cake” (note the two “) will return any content with that specific phrase

Tip In some searches the content returned may be limited. Look for “See All” at the top of the list and click for everything.

You can refine your searching by including some directive options. The options are single words with a colon and criteria. There is NO space between the colon.

cake has:media – content with the word cake and it has a media attachment (image)

In addition to media, you have poll for posts with a poll attached, and embed for posts with embedded content such as audio or video clips??

cake is:reply – content with the word cake AND it is a reply to a post

Use sensitive to find content marked with a content warning

Filter by a specific language code. Example: cake language:en

codes are usually two letters: Examples: en = English, fr = French, nl = Dutch, de = German

Filter to an individual user. Example: cake from:@bumble@mastodon.social

Tip Use me as the from to find your own posts.

Limit your results to a specific date. The date is written in full for a specific date in the format YYYY-MM-DD. Example: cake before:2023-01-01

during and after are as above. 'During' implies a specific date only

cake in:library will show all content with the word 'cake' and in your library – those posts you have interacted with (replied, liked, booted)

Search criteria can be combined. Example:

cake has:media after:2023-01-01 from:me

Will show all your posts with 'cake', has an image attached, and after the start of 2023

As you search, Mastodon will retain your most recent searches in the search bar. To clear these click the bar and then the small x to the right of the specific search term.

Additional Reading Opting in to Search results