Question

So I know how to get emails that are unseen
And I know how to get emails before a certain date.
But how do I combine these 2 to get all emails that are unseen before a certain date?

conn = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL("imap.gmail.com", 993)
typ, data = conn.search(None, 'BEFORE', before_date) //before a date
typ, data = conn.search(None, 'UNSEEN') //all un seen

Answer 1

Just put your two conditions one after the other, like this:

typ, data = conn.search(None, 'BEFORE', before_date, 'UNSEEN')

Reference: section 6.4.4 of the IMAP RFC (RFC3501) says this:

When multiple keys are specified, the result is the intersection
(AND function) of all the messages that match those keys. For
example, the criteria DELETED FROM “SMITH” SINCE 1-Feb-1994 refers
to all deleted messages from Smith that were placed in the mailbox
since February 1, 1994.

-Phil