---
title: "Find conversations and control memories"
description: "Search your Bearly chat history and choose which earlier conversations a chat can use for context."
canonical: "https://bearly.ai/docs/features/memory-search/"
markdown: "https://bearly.ai/docs/features/memory-search.md"
---

# Find conversations and control memories

HTML: [https://bearly.ai/docs/features/memory-search/](https://bearly.ai/docs/features/memory-search/)

> Search your Bearly chat history and choose which earlier conversations a chat can use for context.

Bearly offers two related controls: **Search conversations** helps you find and reopen an earlier chat, while **Memories** lets the AI look for relevant context from earlier conversations as it answers.

Changing **Memories** does not change which conversations appear in the search window.

## Find an earlier conversation



1. **Open conversation search**

   Select the **Search conversations** magnifying glass in the chat sidebar. You can also press <kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd> on a Mac or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd> on Windows and Linux.

2. **Describe what you remember**

   Enter a phrase in **Search conversations...**. You can search for a topic or idea even when you do not remember the exact wording.

3. **Open a result**

   Results are grouped by conversation. Each result shows the chat title, its number of matches, and a preview of the most relevant matching message. Select a result to open that chat.



Select **Clear search** to remove the current phrase, or press <kbd>Esc</kbd> to close search. If Bearly shows **No results found**, try a broader description or a distinctive phrase from the conversation.

## Choose what a chat can remember

In a chat, select the sliders icon beside the message box, then open **Memories**.

- **Off** prevents the chat from searching earlier conversations for context.
- **Project Only** lets a project chat use memories from chats in the same project.
- **All Chats** lets the chat search across your Bearly conversations.

Outside a project, the available choices are **Off** and **All Chats** because there is no project boundary to use.

When memories are available, Bearly may search them when your request refers to earlier work, decisions, preferences, or missing context. You can also ask directly:

```text copy
Find the budget assumptions we agreed on in an earlier conversation and use them in this forecast.
```

> **Note**
> The first search across older chats can take longer while Bearly prepares existing conversations. New conversation content becomes searchable automatically.


## Understand defaults and policy locks

The selection applies to the current chat. Defaults for new chats can be changed in **Chat Settings** → **New Chats**.

A project setting or managed-team policy may supply or lock the memory behavior. If **Memories** will not change, review the project's settings or ask a team administrator which policy applies.

## If a memory is missing or unwanted

- If Bearly cannot find an earlier detail, use **Search conversations** to locate the original chat and continue there, or paste the relevant information into the current message.
- If the recalled context is not relevant, select **Memories** → **Off** and restate the request without relying on earlier conversations.
- If search has no results immediately after opening Bearly on a new device, leave the app open briefly and try again after earlier chats finish preparing.

## Continue through the documentation

- [Documentation index](https://bearly.ai/docs.md): Browse every Bearly guide.
- [Previous: Email work from a chat](https://bearly.ai/docs/features/send-email.md)
- [Next: Generate images](https://bearly.ai/docs/features/image-generation.md)