How do I find an existing email?

The internet is a vast network of information and services with billions of users. But sometimes it’s hard to locate what you need on the web when you're looking for something specific or just want to have some fun. Email addresses are usually easy enough to find thanks to Google. You type in the person's first name, last name, company name, and then they'll pop up as a result.

But there are plenty of people who use different names than those listed above. Or maybe they've changed jobs and forgot about their old one. In these cases, finding the right email can be tricky, so here are some tips for locating them. We'll also cover several online resources that make this process easier.

How do email finders work?

A "finder" is a service that lets you enter a search term into its database and return results based on that query. For example, if you were searching for John Smith at his former job, you might input "John Smith" followed by "at his old job". The site would scan the millions of indexed emails within its system and provide you with all matching entries. Some sites allow you to narrow down the list further by entering additional criteria such as location or age bracket.

There are many other types of email finder out there including ones that rely on reverse lookup databases, social media accounts, and even physical directories like yellow pages. These methods tend to be more effective for finding people in general and not necessarily the exact person you're trying to contact. However, we'll focus our attention on the most popular option which relies on public data sources: websites and apps that collect and index email addresses.

Most major platforms offer similar features, though each has slight variations depending on their particular approach. We'll look at four examples below: Gmail, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Yahoo Mail Search. If you prefer another platform, feel free to check out our comparison chart.

If you'd rather skip straight to using an app instead, try one of these five best email finders.

How do I find email addresses for companies?

Companies often have multiple employees working under different titles. Finding everyone's email address may be difficult because it could change frequently if someone changes roles. Fortunately, there are several options available that let you find the correct email quickly.

Gmail

Google offers two main ways to retrieve employee details through Gmail. One way involves logging onto your own Gmail account and accessing the Contacts tab. Clicking on any given entry brings up full-details for that individual, including their current position, employer, department, and title. From there you can click View Details to view their profile picture and basic personal info.

Another method requires signing into your corporate account. Once logged in, head over to Settings & Privacy and scroll down until you see My Company Data. Here, select Employees and Organizations to view a complete listing of every member associated with your organization.

LinkedIn

If you already have a LinkedIn account, you should be able to access your contacts' profiles directly from the website itself. Simply log in, navigate to People & Companies, and choose Add Member. Select Full Name and Last Name fields to fill in both before clicking Next. At this point, you can add a photo, tagline, and summary to help others identify your contact.

Facebook

You don't actually need to sign into Facebook to find email addresses. Head to the About section of any user's page and click Contact Info & Phone Numbers to reveal a long list of various contacts linked to that profile. To sort the list, simply click the column header and drag to rearrange accordingly. You can filter the entire list by selecting only the appropriate profile category.

Yahoo!

To find someone's email address via Yahoo!, open their profile page and click Account Information. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click Edit Your Profile. Under Personal Information, you'll notice a field labeled Primary E-Mail Address. Enter the desired username here and press Save Changes to save the new email address.

If you still haven't found the right email, try checking your inbox. Chances are, the sender included their name along with their email address in an attempt to connect with you personally.

Can I get number from email?

While you won't always be able to obtain a direct phone number from an email address, you can often find a cell number associated with the same account. Most mobile carriers store customer information in their systems, allowing subscribers to keep track of incoming calls, texts, and messages.

As mentioned previously, you can easily search through your contacts' profiles on LinkedIn. If you happen upon someone's profile with a mobile carrier attached, click More Options next to their contact information. Look for either Mobile Number or Cell Number. Select whichever one applies and copy/paste it into the box provided.

How can I find someone's phone number?

Finding someone's actual office number isn't quite as simple as the previous steps. While it's possible to search for phone numbers through the aforementioned channels, chances are good that the owner doesn't leave their digits anywhere obvious. Instead, you'll probably need to resort to asking around.

For instance, if you're having trouble contacting someone, ask coworkers who they think is responsible for handling business matters. A few days later, call or send an e-mail to confirm whether or not they received your message. Even better yet, schedule a meeting during regular hours to discuss important issues. If they aren't willing to talk face-to-face, ask them to set aside time to speak on the phone.

This is likely the fastest route to obtaining someone's office phone number. Of course, if you really must reach out without getting permission, consider sending an anonymous text message. It works great for things like emergency situations and urgent inquiries. Just remember to delete the message once you receive their response.

How can I find someone's home number?

Similar to finding someone's office number, you'll need to take extra measures to acquire the proper number. Again, you'll probably need to wait until after reaching out to the recipient. Ask your friend who they believe handles residence matters if they have any leads. After a week or so, follow up again to inquire if they heard anything back. Keep doing this until they respond positively or give you a hint regarding whom you should contact.

Once you've reached out to a potential lead, they'll likely request proof of your identity. Make sure to bring along copies of your driver's license or passport when requesting this information. You'll also want to write down the person's address in case you forget which house belongs to the person whose number you're seeking. Finally, prepare yourself mentally for rejection. Be ready to accept the fact that you didn't hear back immediately due to poor timing or being unable to reach the target audience.

How do I find someone's address?

In addition to retrieving a person's primary email address, you can also discover their mailing address. Although it's rare for people to maintain separate residential and professional residences, some individuals may opt to live elsewhere while maintaining a permanent place of employment. Asking around for assistance is typically the quickest method for acquiring a mail forwarding address.

Alternatively, you can search for the address on public documents like tax records. Depending on the state where you reside, your local government may publish your property address on file. Additionally, many real estate agents maintain listings of properties for sale throughout the country.

If neither of these approaches yield success, consider visiting your neighborhood post office or city hall. They often have lists of residents and businesses located nearby. Another possibility is consulting a directory service provider. Sites like 411 Directory Assistance and Yellow Pages Online allow you to perform searches by street address, zip code, area code, and town name.

How do I find someone's address?

These methods can help you find people's physical locations. When you're done tracking down their address, you might enjoy reading up on other helpful resources that can assist you in your everyday life.

Check out these 10 essential Android apps for managing your digital life.

Want to learn how to protect your privacy? Check out these seven simple tricks.

Learn how to create a secure Wi-Fi hotspot and share it with friends.

Finding the right person to talk to over a phone call or video chat can be difficult when they're not in front of you. Email and text messaging are great for quick communication, especially because most people have them on hand at all times. But sometimes we need more than just a simple message or photo exchange with another human being. That's why knowing someone's email address is so useful – even if you haven’t talked to that person in years.

We've covered several methods before for finding someone's email address online, including some popular services like Google Search, DuckDuckGo, and Bing. However, there are also plenty of other options out there that aren't as well-known. In this article, we'll go through the best known ways to find any email address for free. We'll also cover how to use one of these services without having to give up our own information first.

If you need help figuring out which method works best for you, check out our list of tips and tricks for tracking down someone's real email address. It includes everything from using public records databases to searching social media profiles. If nothing else, this should get you started!

How do you find your email address if you forgot it?

You probably already know what "forgot password" means. You may remember setting up an account on a website, such as Facebook or Gmail, then forgetting the login details. Or maybe you tried signing into a service and realized you didn't actually set up an account yet. Whatever the case, here are some things to try if you want to contact someone who has forgotten his/her credentials:

1. Try sending a friendly reminder via email. Sometimes, users forget to change their passwords after creating accounts. A good way to remind them is to send them a quick followup email asking about certain aspects of their new profile. For example, if you created a LinkedIn account, include a link to your company's page. If you registered on Reddit, point them towards the community board where you signed up. Asking something specific makes it easier for them to respond.

2. Contact customer support. Customer support representatives often have access to customers' personal data, including passwords and emails. They might even let you look at previous correspondence between yourself and the user. While you won't always get the info you seek, it could still prove helpful.

3. Check your inbox. Maybe you got an email confirmation from Twitter or Instagram, or a newsletter signup form from your favorite site. Look around and see if anything looks familiar. Chances are, you were able to retrieve your password at least once!

4. Use a search engine. Enter the desired username followed by “password recovery” or similar terms into a web browser. Most major sites allow you to reset lost passwords.

5. Call customer support. Even if you weren't able to recover your password directly, you might still be able to retrieve it through customer support. Just ask the representative to verify that the correct username was used.

6. Ask family members or friends. People tend to keep track of each others' usernames quite easily. If you think someone might know yours, ask them!

7. Go back to the original website and create a fresh account. Some websites make it easy enough to reenter your email address, making it much quicker to request a new password.

8. Sign up again under a different alias. When registering multiple accounts on the same service, many platforms offer extra security features that require additional verification steps. These checks usually take place after the initial registration process.

9. Create a secondary email address. If you really hate remembering your main account details, consider creating a second email address. That way, you can log into your main account while keeping your secret identity safe.

10. Change your primary email address. Many companies now provide an option to switch between two separate addresses. So long as you don't delete either one, you shouldn’t lose too much time trying to figure out which one belongs to whom.

11. Start looking for alternate email addresses. There's no guarantee that an email provider doesn't store your personal information somewhere else. If you suspect that your current account is compromised, it might be worth switching providers entirely.

12. Get creative. If none of those suggestions worked, consider going old school and writing the owner a letter. The recipient would likely appreciate getting a handwritten note rather than an impersonal automated response.

13. Send a gift card. If you run across a friend or colleague who seems hard to reach, perhaps he/she isn't doing anything wrong. Perhaps you need to spend less time worrying about whether the person wants to hear from you and more time focusing on what matters most — relationships. A thoughtful gesture goes a long way toward putting a smile on a stranger's face.

How do I find my old email username?

Not every service keeps track of its users' full names, so you may find that your former username only shows up as part of a generic email address. To learn how to find your old username, you'll need to dig deep into the past. Here are some places to begin:

1. Your ISP. Most internet service providers maintain logs of IP addresses associated with subscriber accounts. By entering the last four digits of your number, you might be able to locate your account history.

2. Social networks. Many social networking apps record the date you joined the platform, along with an optional unique identifier called a cookie ID. If you ever changed your display name, that information is stored as well.

3. Personal blogs. Blogs often feature comments sections where visitors leave messages behind. If you ever posted a comment, chances are good that it contains the username you wanted to reclaim.

4. Message boards. Some forums allow you to view archived posts dating back months or years. Depending on the topic, you might be able to find threads that mention your username.

5. Forums. If you participated in communities related to your username, you may still be logged onto the site. You can enter your email address to gain access to your account information.

6. Online stores. Stores usually retain transaction histories for customers who purchased goods from their site. If you bought something from Amazon or eBay, you may be able to find your old username attached to your purchase history.

7. Chat rooms. Remembering a particular conversation is nearly impossible unless you took notes during the discussion. Luckily, most modern chat clients save chats indefinitely. Simply click the menu button and select Messages & History.

8. File sharing network archives. Popular file hosting sites like Mega and MediaFire archive entire domains. If you uploaded files to a site like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box, your old username is likely listed within the metadata section.

Anymail Finder works?

Yes, though it may not be the easiest tool to use. Anymail Finder requires you to upload both sides of an email chain to the app. Once you submit the necessary documents, the app searches your mailbox for matching chains. After verifying the authenticity of the sender, the program returns results based on the following criteria:

Whether the email came from a business or individual

When the email was sent

The subject line

How many connections exist between the sender and receiver

Once the app finds a match, you can download the whole thread in PDF format. From there, you can print, copy, paste, or forward the attachments to whomever you'd like. Each attachment represents a single connection.

While Anymail Finder is certainly handy for researchers, the interface is clunky and unintuitive. Plus, you must pay $99 per month to unlock the premium version of the software. Still interested in learning more about the service? Read our interview with Anymail CEO Jonathan Dworkin below.

What Is Anymail Finder?

A cloud-based email archiving system designed specifically for research purposes, Anymail provides historical insight into email exchanges. Users upload a copy of a given message, allowing the app to scan incoming and outgoing mailboxes for matches. When a potential match is found, the archival database presents the email chain alongside relevant information such as dates, recipients, and subjects.

Users pay monthly subscription fees for unlimited storage, but the cost covers both parties involved in a given exchange. According to Dworkin, the average client uses the service for roughly three months before moving onto a competitor. Because of this, Anymail offers a 30 day money-back guarantee.

We've got loads of tips and tricks on how to find a Gmail username or password if it has been forgotten, as well as how to recover one from the Internet Archive. But what about when we're trying to track down our own emails? Or even those of friends and family?

If you need to send or receive messages via email, whether personal or business-related, then chances are you have at least some recollection of your inbox login credentials - either because they were written somewhere, or just in case you forget them again. Whether this is something you can remember easily, or not, there are plenty of methods out there which should help you get back into your old inboxes without any hassle.

Here's everything you need to know on how to find people's real email addresses, plus a few other handy tools to make finding those details easier than ever before.

How do I find an existing email?

You probably already know how to look up a user's Google profile using their email address. If not, check out these instructions on how to use your Google Account with another service like Facebook or Twitter.

But what happens if you want to find an email address for a specific person who isn't signed up to Google or Facebook? Well, there are lots of places online where you can find contact information for others. You could try searching in social media profiles, forums, or ask around to friends and colleagues for clues. There might also be public databases available for businesses too. And while many sites charge per request, you may be able to access them for free depending on the type of data you wish to obtain.

For example, if you're looking for a phone number or address, it'll usually cost between $1-$5 to find each piece of info individually. Other types of data such as email addresses tend to be more expensive. So why not save yourself time and money by getting multiple contacts at once? It doesn't necessarily take long to gather enough data to find that email address you're after.

The best way to go about it is to set up alerts so you're alerted every time someone adds new data to the site you intend to investigate. Then simply hit 'Follow Up' whenever you see relevant updates appear. That way you won't miss anything important.

Remember though, you shouldn't rely solely on paid services to find an email address. Some websites offer email verifications for free, while others require users to sign up beforehand. It pays to double check both options before giving away your precious data.

How do I retrieve an old email address?

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can never quite recall exactly how to log into your email client of choice. Maybe you accidentally deleted the app itself, maybe you had it installed but somehow forgot the password, or perhaps you lost your entire computer. Whatever the reason, the worst thing you can do is sit idly by hoping that one day it'll suddenly pop into your head.

Instead, the solution here is simple: backup! Backing up your email is essential. Not only does it ensure you always have access to your most recent correspondence, but it also means you can restore your account in case of disaster. Plus, having a copy stored elsewhere makes life much simpler if you decide to switch providers later on.

There are various different ways to store your backups, ranging from desktop apps to cloud storage solutions. We recommend Dropbox or OneDrive for simplicity, as they allow you to sync folders across devices and provide automatic file encryption. The process varies slightly depending on the software you choose, but whichever option you opt for, keep in mind that backing up your mail requires extra steps compared to logging into a fresh account. For instance, you'll need to download files manually or create a ZIP archive, rather than merely clicking through a few screens to enter your password.

How do I search for an old email?

In addition to being able to find someone's current email address online, you can often still discover their previous address too. After all, sometimes things change over time. Perhaps you moved house, changed jobs or met someone new. In cases where you think you might have misplaced your email login details, you can always try asking them directly. They might be happy to send you a reminder, especially if you haven't logged onto your account for quite some time. Alternatively, you could write to them explaining your situation and requesting the necessary information.

Alternatively, you could try using specialized search engines specifically designed to reveal past email accounts. These include ResQmail and Email Recovery, although neither service offers 100% guarantees they'll actually work for you. However, ResQmail promises that its database contains "millions" of previously used passwords, allowing you to quickly find yours among them. Meanwhile, Email Recovery claims to index millions of domains, meaning you're likely to uncover whatever email you're after sooner than you'd expect.

As mentioned earlier, we strongly advise against relying on third party services for this kind of task. While it's great knowing that ResQmail boasts a large amount of potential matches, there's definitely nothing stopping hackers from accessing the same database. Also, while Email Recovery appears to cover a wide range of possible email addresses, it's worth noting that the company hasn't listed all known domain names yet. As a result, there's bound to be plenty of false positives along the way.

Ultimately, this approach comes with risks. Therefore, unless you feel confident enough in the results to risk contacting the owner of the account, we suggest sticking to the tried and tested method of writing letters first.

How do I locate all my email accounts?

It's easy to lose sight of your myriad email accounts when juggling several platforms at once. When you're dealing with numerous clients, you might end up forgetting which ones belong to whom, or worse, misplacing the correct login details altogether. To avoid making the same mistake, it's wise to keep records of all your accounts under one roof. Here's how to do that:

Set up separate email aliases for each platform you use regularly. For instance, create a Gmail alias called [email protected] and configure it accordingly. Next, add Mailinator to your list of favorite internet destinations. Finally, consider creating a dedicated web portal for storing your email credentials, complete with autocomplete feature. By doing this, you'll be able to manage and organize all your accounts within one place, ensuring you never forget that crucial connection point.

And finally, if you're wondering how to find your Gmail account by name instead, read our article on how to find your Gmail usernames & passwords.

How do I find my Gmail account by name?

Gmail allows you to link your primary email address to a secondary email address. This second account is created automatically upon signing up, and lets you share certain features with your main account without having to worry about remembering unique identifiers.

However, despite offering convenience, linking your two accounts together can lead to serious security issues. Even if you trust the company completely, you must understand that email links are susceptible to phishing attacks. Phishers can imitate official Gmail pages to trick victims into revealing their login credentials.

So, even if you're familiar with the process of setting up a secondary account, it would be wiser to leave this step until later. Instead, stick to the standard method of locating your Gmail username by entering your full email address inside the Search bar. Once you land on your inbox page, scroll down to the bottom and click the dropdown arrow next to Profile URL. Then select Edit Settings. From here, input the following URL into the box provided: https://accounts.[yourdomain].com/profile/.

This will redirect you back to your original inbox, but now accompanied by additional settings. Click Manage Linked Accounts to proceed. Check off the boxes beside the secondary email address you wish to link to your primary account, then click Save Changes.

Now, whenever you visit your @gmail.com inbox, you should find a section titled My Info below your email signature. Use this space to insert your secondary email address alongside the text Enter Your Secondary Email Address Below. Doing so will allow you to instantly reach your linked account without needing to log in separately.

While this method works perfectly fine, it does come with caveats. First of all, it relies entirely on the validity of your secondary email address. Secondly, it assumes that you don’t have your primary email address bookmarked anywhere else. Lastly, it’s not foolproof since it doesn’t prevent attackers from impersonating your secondary email address. Still, it does give you peace of mind that you can regain control of your identity should you ever lose access to your primary email address.

Have you successfully found someone's email address online? What did you learn? Share your experience with fellow readers in the comments section below.