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Mail search not working after Big Sur install

I am unable to get mail search function to work after Big Sur install. After reading some other previous email search content, I closed mail completely, opened with shift+Mail, closed and rebooted and same problem occurring.

iMac, macOS 10.12

Posted on Nov 13, 2020 11:40 AM

Reply
Question marked as Apple recommended

Hey,

these steps helps to me:

  • quit the app
  • open the Mail wit h holding the SHIFT key
  • quit the app
  • open the Mail wit h holding the SHIFT key
  • quit the app
  • restart the Mac

Posted on Nov 18, 2020 12:55 PM

3 replies
Question marked as Helpful

Jul 1, 2021 5:39 AM in response to Cloudiii

I had the issue that search would not search.


I did rebuild and resync accounts - no improvement

I also followed the above advice on opening with shift key - no improvement


SUCCESS!

I cannot find it anymore to give credit, but someone posted some advice which was to right click (control click) on the toolbar and go to customise. In customise you can remove the search textbox by dragging it to the pane of options and it puffs away - then drag it back again.


After this everything worked.


I think the person who posted this fix correctly suggested that just because the search box is there, it might not really be.

Thank you whoever you are!


My recommendation is to try the re-adding of the search box first. If that fails, resync and rebuild, close the app and start with shift, close again and reboot. The re-add the search box just in case one of those steps is also necessary.



Question marked as Helpful

Feb 6, 2021 4:26 AM in response to JohnDoe0007

Update ! and bad news !

I did a complete reset of my MacBook Air, erase the DD, dowloaded a fresh Big Sur and created two users (without using Time Machine).

So I have MacBook like new, not a single extra piece of software or driver or data, two empty users we will call A & B. My plan was to slowly add software and data and drivers until the moment I will see the bug appear, it would have given me an indication of what the problem could be. Things got faster than I expected ! 😤

I then setup an email account for user A, not an iCloud account but a simple map account. I give it time to download emails and use the search in Mail, it works as expected.

I go to user B, I don't even create an email account, I use fast switching to User A and Mail search still works as expected.

I fast switch back to user B, do nothing and simply log out of user B, remember this is what triggers the bug.

Log in user A, and bam, search is broken, exactly like it happens on my two Macs since Big Sur.


On an empty MacBook with only Big Sur installed, no other piece of software !


It means that he bug does not depend on anything else than Big Sur and Mail, not even iCloud, 100% reproducible and affecting every Mac with multiple users ? I cannot believe this went through QA in the first place and 3 months after the release of Big Sur it still exists ?


Apple, please, don't make Big Sur the Vista of Apple, I hate to realise I spent hours trying to understand why this bug happens thinking it is because of my configuration, only to find out it is a huge atrocious bug in Big Sur from the start.


So disappointed, and no answers to the multiple feedbacks I reported.


So sad...

461 replies

Nov 14, 2020 12:34 PM in response to NevadaDan

Ha!! Reinstalling Big Sur worked. I wish I had done that to begin with. I had run "rebuild mailboxes" which gets everything the imap servers have on them, but not any linked information that has been removed.


The re-install took a very short time compared to the original install, maybe 10 minutes. I had saved a copy of the installer since it took 10 hours or something to get it downloaded. If you don't have a copy, I think you can re-install from Recovery.


Another app (called "Copied") appears to be OK now. One of its windows would show up surrounded by a purple box with MacOS saying the developer needed to fix it. Apparently that was erroneous as it's fine now.


I don't have a clue what I'm talking about, but I think a library didn't get installed properly on the initial install. Sure hopes this helps somebody.

Nov 15, 2020 6:20 AM in response to Xela2020

Reinstalling Big Sur was the only thing that fixed it for me. There are posts from as far back as OS X Lion with the same issue and advice on how to delete Mail "envelopes", rebuild spotlight indexes, rebuild mailboxes, and so on. I tried them all.


Reinstalling the OS isn't really a big deal. I've done it before to fix oddball issues. As I said above, it only took about 10 minutes. I believe it's called "installing in place" and it leaves your setup completely intact.

Nov 15, 2020 12:16 PM in response to Xela2020

Suggestions online include rebuilding your mailbox or reinstalling Big Sur.

You may wish to try those, although I'd recommend backing up any important data beforehand.

I haven't needed to do either though, so can't guarantee they will work.

You may also wish to contact Apple support for advice.

It may also be possible to rebuild your email manually, but I'd need to direct you online for the exact process and any warnings.

Nov 15, 2020 1:13 PM in response to razal

I think that's a different issue, Cloudiii.

Is there not a magnifying glass icon at the top right of the menu bar?

If not, try going Edit > Find > Mailbox Search.


When I first opened Mail, I thought the search icon was missing, but it just didn't jump out to me.


Other posters seem to be reporting a different issue - searches result in no results following upgrade to macOS Big Sur.


Nov 15, 2020 1:31 PM in response to Xela2020

Things I tried before reinstalling that didn't work, but might work for you:


  1. Running "Rebuild" from Mail's "Mailbox" menu
  2. Restart in safe mode to force rebuild of caches
  3. Rebuild Mail's indexes by

a. Quitting Mail

b. deleting the three files that start with "Envelope index" in ~/Library/Mail/V8/MailData

c. Restarting Mail and allowing import of mail

and 3. Rebuild Spotlight's indexes. You can do this several different ways, but the easiest for this issue would be going to System Preferences, selecting "Spotlight", unchecking "Mail and Messages", wait a while then recheck "Mail and Messages".


None of these resulted in any issues for me, but if you have room it might be a good idea to back up everything beforehand.

Nov 15, 2020 2:42 PM in response to Cloudiii

Hello Everyone,

Reasonably new to the Apple Community so I am not sure if I am posting an updated correctly or not.


I want to say thank you to everyone who responded and offered assistance.


I was back at it this morning and after closing mail completely and opened a couple more times with Shift + Mail, closed and rebooted a couple times and now everything seems to be working correctly.


I generally use my mail pretty much like a data base, consequently I have a large amount of info in my mailbox files.


I should probably store or archive a portion of my mail inbox folder in lieu of leaving everyyyyything in my inbox.


I think I will look to see if I can find a good tutorial on Apple Mail that might allow me learn and use my mailbox folders more efficiently. Back in my pc and Windows days, I remember when the inbox reached XXMB everything locked up and stopped working.


Thank you again everyone, I am really happy knowing this community is here and available.





Mail search not working after Big Sur install

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