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Using the gmail python API how can I get the most recent email that does not have a label “read”

results = service.users().messages().list(userId='me', labelIds=['Label_8507504117657095973'], maxResults=1).execute()

this snippet gets the most recent email that has the arbitrary label “read”. How can I adapt it get the most recent email that does not have this label?

results = service.users().messages().list(userId='me', labelIds!=['Label_8507504117657095973'], maxResults=1).execute()

replacing = with != doesn’t work for some reason returning the error:

results = service.users().messages().list(userId='me', labelIds!=['Label_8507504117657095973''], maxResults=1).execute() SyntaxError: positional argument follows keyword argument

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Answer

Answer:

Rather than using the labelIds parameter, you can use a Gmail search operator to do your query.

More Information:

As per the documentation on Gmail search operators:

You can use words or symbols called search operators to filter your Gmail search results. You can also combine operators to filter your results even more.

What you can search by Search operator & example
Messages that have a certain label label:
Example: label:friends

So, rather than using the label ID Label_8507504117657095973 in the labelIds parameter, instead you can use the above search term in the q parameter to remove results that don’t have the label:

labelName = "yourLabelName"
results = service.users()
                 .messages()
                 .list(userId='me', q="-label:"+labelName, maxResults=1)
                 .execute()

This will return a single result without the given label:

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "threadId": "YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"
    }
  ],
  "nextPageToken": "1309905752354234521",
  "resultSizeEstimate": 1
}

References:

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