Can't search in messages.app

Question

Level 1

39 points

Can't search in messages.app

I recently got a new Macbook Pro (2018 model) running High Sierra, and am migrating manually from my 2013 MBP running Sierra. Everything seems to be fine with one big exception. In Messages.app on the new machine, all my chat history shows up fine and everything works except search. I can't search for ANYTHING, not even words that are vey clearly visible right now in the most recent messages. That being said, if I just keep searching over and over and over for different things, sometimes... with no pattern that I can detect... the search works. It seems like it might be when the word I'm searching for also exists in the contact's name or email address, but even then it's not 100% of the time.

I'm guessing Spotlight is responsible for the search function in Messages. I have tried adding the ~/Library/Messages/ folder to the Spotlight "prevent searches here" list and removing it as instructed by Apple's support site, but it has made no difference.

I'm fresh out of ideas here and even though the search functionality in Messages is a joke at best to begin with, it was better than absolutely nothing which is what I have now. Any ideas on how to get this to work again, are appreciated.

MacBook Pro w/ Touch Bar (2018 or later)

Posted on Dec 25, 2018 5:33 PM

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Answer 1

vanclute Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 28, 2018 6:43 AM in response to BDAqua

Well I'll be ******.,.. it appears that did the trick. Not immediately, but I left it alone overnight and this morning, search is back. Crazy! Doesn't make sense to me either... how would UN-checking Messages from Spotlight, suddenly enable search to work? Seems totally backwards. But regardless I'm happy it's back, even with what a crippled search functionality it is.

Thanks for the tip!

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Answer 2

vanclute Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 28, 2018 10:19 AM in response to BDAqua

Oh wait a second... that reminds me of another issue I had a while back on my old machine, and the solution was to disable Bookmarks & History from Spotlight. Was specifically related to a Safari problem as I recall. Wonder if this is actually the same core issue. Might experiment a bit further and see what I find.

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Answer 3

vanclute Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 30, 2018 12:21 PM in response to BDAqua

Well much to my disappointment, search now only partially works.

Some words I can search for and it finds them, but other instances of the same word that are clearly in recent messages, do not show up at all. For instance I searched for "parallels" to find a note I sent myself about my Parallels Desktop license. There are two references, one from last September, and one from a few days ago. But only the one from September shows up when I search, even though the one from a few days ago is plainly visible in my message history.

Also I just noticed that somehow the Mail & Messages option in Spotlight Search Results preferences , is enabled again. I did not turn it back on, so it seems that the OS wants that enabled for some reason. I'll try repeating this whole procedure again and see what happens.

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Answer 4

vanclute Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 31, 2018 6:13 AM in response to BDAqua

I don't get it either. Mail & Messages is now unchecked in Spotlight, yet search still works, partially. It still doesn't find all results for terms I put in, and I can't explain why it does find the ones that it does. I may have to put in a call to Apple Support and see if they have any ideas. I'm completely stumped.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,213 points

Dec 27, 2018 8:03 AM in response to vanclute

Leave it unchecked for ever, then add your drive to Spotlight's exclusion pane, wait, then remove the drive from the exclusion pane, wait for Spotlight to rebuild it's index.

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