The 1.6 Documentation is no longer maintained and some information may be outdated.
The MyBB 1.6 series reached end of life on October 1, 2015.
This means there will be no more security or maintenance releases for these series and forums running these versions of MyBB may be at risk of unfixed security issues. All administrators are strongly encouraged to upgrade their forums to the latest release of MyBB as soon as possible.
Parts of this article or section have been written for MyBB version 1.4 and is no longer up to date.
Contributors: Please update the article to reflect the current MyBB version, and remove this template when finished.
MyBB's Search Page
If you wish to find something quickly and easily, you can use the search tool in MyBB. If you wish to search the whole forums and use other advanced options, you first need to click on the "Search" link at the top of each page. On this page, you can enter details such as keyword, username, search by forum(s), and more. Then all you have to do is click on the "Search" button at the bottom of the page, and you will be taken to the search page.
Here are some descriptions of the options that are available:
Search by Keyword: Enter the keyword(s) that you are searching for
search entire post: This option will enable searching through the message of each post
search titles only: Selecting this option will mean that only the post subjects will be searched for your keywords
Search by Username: Enter the author's name of the posts that you are searching for. This field has username autocomplete enabled.
match exact username: If you entered the exact name of the user and you are only looking for posts by one user, then check this box. Otherwise, the search will also search for posts by users with usernames that contain the partial username.
Search in Forum(s): Select the forums that you would like to search. Use CTRL+click to select more than one.
Search Options
Number of replies: You can search for threads that have more or less than the specified number of replies.
Post dates: You can find posts that are newer or older than a certain date selected in the list.
Sorting Options: You can select which way you want the results to be sorted. The options are last post date (the last time a user has posted in the thread), author (the author's username) and forum (the name of the forum). In addition you can select whether the results are sorted in ascending (ie. from A-Z or oldest to newest) or 'descending (ie. from Z-A or newest to oldest).
Display Options: You can select whether you want results to be shown in a list of threads, or the individual posts that contain your keywords.
An example search with a thread list
Same search, but with a list of posts
If you have moderator permissions, you can use inline moderation in the search results. When viewing search results as threads, you can use Inline Thread Moderation, and when viewing search results as posts, you can use Inline Post Moderation. Simply select the threads or posts you wish to moderate, scroll to the bottom of the search results, and select the action to use. After you perform your moderation, you will be returned to your search results.
Bottom of the forum display page
There is also a search forum option on the Forum Display. This lets you search through just that forum easily and quickly, right from that page. This search field is found near the bottom of the forum display page, right above forum jump. In this field, all you have to do is enter your search keywords and then click "Go" and you will be taken to your results.
Bottom of the show thread page
At the bottom of the Thread Display, there is a "Search this Thread" field, allowing you to search for posts in the thread from inside the thread. This field is found in the blue footer bar, beneath the posts. Enter in your search keywords and click "Search Thread" to be taken to your results.
