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In the last two weeks the search function in Mail does not seem to work. I've used Mail and the search function to locate emails and specific contacts for years. Have no idea what caused this change. Because of this I cannot locate important emails and information I've stored in those emails. Any ideas?
MacBook Pro Retina
Personally I have never had the "pleasure" of using a Windows PC! Been using Macs since 1991. I forgot to add that re-indexing Spotlight can take some time, depending on the amount of data you have on your HD. You can tell it´s finished by calling up Spotlight and doing a simple search...if you don't see a thin blue progress bar then you're good to go. Good luck! Ian.
Personally I have never had the "pleasure" of using a Windows PC! Been using Macs since 1991. I forgot to add that re-indexing Spotlight can take some time, depending on the amount of data you have on your HD. You can tell it´s finished by calling up Spotlight and doing a simple search...if you don't see a thin blue progress bar then you're good to go. Good luck! Ian.
Apple Mail uses macOS Spotlight to index and search the contents of mails. If you´re having trouble with searching Mail´s contents it could mean you need to re-index Spotlight:
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/rebuild-spotlight-search-index-on-mac/
Under the Privacy tab just make sure your ~/Library/Mail folder, your Home folder or the volume on which they´re located are not showing! Hope this helps you! Regards, Ian.
Thanks so much for your response! I find ~/Library/Mail when I open a Finder window, but when I go through the suggested Preferences, Security, etc the mail folder does not show up so I can't "Add" it and then remove it.
"the mail folder does not show up so I can't "Add" it and then remove it."
That's because your Mail folder is in your ~/Library folder, which is hidden by default. If you want to make it visible here are various options:
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/access-library-folder-home-mac/
But the easiest thing to do imho is just "add" and then "remove" your main hard drive (wait about 15 seconds before "removing" is what I learned!). That way Spotlight will re-index everything. Regards, Ian.
Thanks for much for that info! I managed to get things going just now. I noticed in Preferences, Spotlight, Mail was not checked. Have no idea why or when this occurred because I had made not changes. So I rechecked it and closed the window. I then closed Mail and restarted the computer. Search is suddenly working again in Mail. That's a lifesaver because I have critical messages and info that I can only locate using the search window. Thank you again for your very helpful suggestions!
I'm disappointed when my Mac starts giving me the same sort of trouble I went thru with Windows for 20 yrs. You know what I mean?
I'm glad things are working for you now! It was incredibly stupid of me not to suggest first checking that Mail was checked 🤭...forgot all about it because I have everything checked!
Apple Mail search does not function
