diff --git a/src/mu-query.cc b/src/mu-query.cc
index 452dbfd7..88934a3f 100644
--- a/src/mu-query.cc
+++ b/src/mu-query.cc
@@ -350,7 +350,6 @@ mu_query_run (MuQuery *self, const char* searchexpr, gboolean threads,
 			      sortfieldid == MU_MSG_FIELD_ID_NONE,
 			      NULL);
 	try {
-		Xapian::Query query (get_query (self, searchexpr, err));		
 		Xapian::Enquire enq (self->_db);
 
 		/* note, when our result will be *threaded*, we sort
@@ -358,7 +357,13 @@ mu_query_run (MuQuery *self, const char* searchexpr, gboolean threads,
 		if (!threads && sortfieldid != MU_MSG_FIELD_ID_NONE)
 			enq.set_sort_by_value ((Xapian::valueno)sortfieldid,
 					       ascending ? true : false);
-		enq.set_query(query);
+
+		if (!mu_str_is_empty(searchexpr)) /* NULL or "" */
+			enq.set_query(get_query (self, searchexpr, err));
+		else
+			enq.set_query(Xapian::Query::MatchAll);
+
+
 		enq.set_cutoff(0,0);
 		
 		return mu_msg_iter_new (
diff --git a/src/mu-query.h b/src/mu-query.h
index d91e94e4..a93faa07 100644
--- a/src/mu-query.h
+++ b/src/mu-query.h
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ char* mu_query_version (MuQuery *store)
  * manpage, or http://xapian.org/docs/queryparser.html
  * 
  * @param self a valid MuQuery instance
- * @param expr the search expression
+ * @param expr the search expression or "" to match all messages
  * @param threads calculate message-threads
  * @param sortfield the field id to sort by or MU_MSG_FIELD_ID_NONE if
  * sorting is not desired
diff --git a/src/tests/test-mu-query.c b/src/tests/test-mu-query.c
index 6cfeff3f..9518d642 100644
--- a/src/tests/test-mu-query.c
+++ b/src/tests/test-mu-query.c
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ test_mu_query_01 (void)
 		{ "foo:pepernoot",      0 },
 		{ "funky",              1 },
 		{ "fünkÿ",              1 },
+		{ "",                   13 }
 	};