Mail Search not working and Spotlight not finding mails

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Mail Search not working and Spotlight not finding mails

Hello. On Catalina, both Mail and Spotlight have stopped being able to search for mails. In Mail, it looks like it is searching yet it throws nothing up, no matter what I search for and Spotlight is the same. I have tried re-indexing Spotlight by moving the ~/Library/Mail/ folder in and out of the privacy section of the Spotlight section of Preferences. I have also tried rebuilding the mailboxes from within the Mail app and tried repopulating ~/Library/Mail/V7/MailData with no success. If anyone has any ideas of how to get these mail searches working again I would be most appreciative.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 19, 2020 8:38 AM

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Answer 1

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Junglesim Author

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Jun 21, 2020 1:27 PM in response to Junglesim

After waiting a few days it suddenly started working again. I put this down to following the advice given here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7144486?answerId=28624265022#28624265022

Thanks to Linc Davis for this post. If anyone else has this problem just follow the advice given the link and give it time. I will spend tomorrow working backward to understand how these searches work and will happily explain what I find.

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Answer 2

Junglesim Author

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Jun 19, 2020 9:04 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks leroydouglas, I appreciate your reply, yes I did. This is what I meant when referred to re-indexing Spotlight. Sorry if that was not clear. Either way, that did not work despite me trying the rebuilding the Spotlight index of my entire index home directory.

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Answer 3

Jun 19, 2020 8:41 AM in response to Junglesim

Did you try rebuilding the entire Spotlight index— that would be the logical next step in an effort to resolve your issue.

How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Junglesim Author

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Jun 19, 2020 9:40 AM in response to Junglesim

I should all note that my Smart Mailboxes have stopped working too.

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Mail Search not working and Spotlight not finding mails

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