Mail search not working after Big Sur install

That's strange, as while for me the bug with search is annoying, Apple Mail search is really good when it does work.

And I just need to force quit that corespotlightd process to resolve the issue.

I find that search is quick and picks up all emails with the search term.

For example, I just rang a search for 'buggy' and it picked up not just a notification about your post above, but also tech emails about buggy performance as well as an email from years ago about a buggy/pushchair. This was within less than 1 second.

How many emails do you have in your mailboxes?

I did an email search across 2 mailboxes and it searches all folders and subfolders almost instantaneously. I need to so some mail housekeeping too.

This thread is so long that I didn't see it here, but elsewhere you wrote: "You can temporarily fix the problem by force killing the process 'corespotlightd' in Activity Monitor, it is faster than rebooting."

I suppose disabling fast user switching might also work (go to slow user switching).

Interestingly as of today there zero google hits on the search string: corespotlightd "fast user switching" spotlight mail "Big Sur". I'm going to see if I can interest Harold Oakley in this bug -- he's been digging deep into Spotlight problems in Big Sur and he's read by Apple engineers. (https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/15/full-release-of-mints-1-0-is-now-available-and-diagnoses-big-surs-spotlight-bug/)

GanawaGangunawa - did you notice if the effect varies if users are non-admin? Does turning off fast-user switching help?

My wife's M1 Air is used by her and my son and both are setup for fast-user switching as non-Admin users. Killing corespotlighd from her account does work and I'll look for an Apple Script to run the killall -9 corespotlightd so she can fix it easily. (My AppleScript skills are non-existent)

It's not fast user switching, or slow user switching as the problem does not happen when you switch users.

It happens when one user logs out then you lose search capabilities for every other user. At this point your only choice is to reboot or force kill the 'corespotlightd' process.

Your link is interesting as it shows that Spotlight is really broken and software is to tested seriously. Sad.

Aha! Perfect, yes it's easy to reproduce knowing the logout is the trigger. On my wife's machine with two non-admin users when one logs out the other loses mail search. The AppleScript I created on Emily's Dock (do shell script "killall -9 corespotlightd") fixes the bug quickly. So now it's just a minor annoyance for her until Apple fixes it.

Thank you so much for ALL you have done to identify this bug and share the fix. I summarized the problem with credit to you on my obscure personal tech blog: https://tech.kateva.org/2021/02/big-sur-bug-mail-search-corespotlightd.html

Thank you Mark, look on page 15 I did the same with a brand new Big Sur system installed on a MacBook that I completed erased first, and I see the same bug.

To be precise, Fast User Switching is when you switch from one user directly to the other user by clicking in the menu bar: in that case the search will continue to work.

What triggers the bug is when you log out of one user and then log in the other user. And if you have only one user on your Mac I believe you never see that bug.

And there are only two ways to recover the search capabilities; reboot, or force kill the 'corespotlightd' process in Activity monitor. Everything else I tried (and trust me I tried everything that is suggested in the 10 discussion threads I am following here) does not fix the problem.

Like you I wish I had never installed Big Sur.

I also use Fast User Switching, and experience this bug. But here is another bit of info. I rebooted a day or two ago,

but switched back and forth between two users on my iMac Big Sur system (possibly logging out of one at some point).

In any event, something triggered the problem: search in MacOS Mail failed. As an alternative, I downloaded Spike, and tried it. I got a warning that I needed to check "Show in IMAP" for "All Mail" in the web based Gmail settings (labels).

Did that, read a few messages in Spike, returned to MacOS Mail; search now works.

Thanks for the suggestion Steve_in_Sb !

I also use a Gmail account and the "show in imap" is checked for me.

Do you say that after that change you can logout from one user and Mail search will continue to work for the other users ?

Thank you RBX1, but it works only until another user logs out, and then mail search breaks again. You gave me hope for a few minutes, but I am sorry to say that reset of the PRAM does not solve the issue.

I am so bothered by the incredible bug that I try everything and anything, and it always happens when a user logs out. I can't believe that losing such a functionality does not generate a huge reaction from users !

Before I discovered all of you having the same bug (and by the way my computer is single user, me) I called Apple Support and they not only couldn't fix the search but acted like this was my isolated case. And in the bargain in their attempt to fix the problem, all my desktop and documents disappeared. Luckily I had them backed up.

It is driving me mad as I need search for my productivity.

Try going to 'View', then 'Customise Toolbar' and drag the 'Search' icon from the 'default toolbar' to the head of your custom toolbar list. You should then have a search field in which to enter your address. 'Search' now seems to be working for me (fingers crossed!).

Good Day everyone,

Just wanted to find out or follow up with regards to the Mac Mail Big Sur search issue particularly related to Exchange mail accounts.

Any help with resolving this issue would be appreciated. Thanks

Hello Everyone,

I just updated to 11.2.2 and I am sorry to report that nothing changed for us, the infamous MUMS Multi-User Mail Search bug is still there, and bugging as expected !

Must be a seriously difficult fix, it's been a few months already...😖

Interesting MsFjordstone, it must be a small subset of single user system experiencing this, as there are not many complains... were you able to determine what triggers the bug ?

Does reboot of force killing the 'corespotlightd' process temporarily fix the problem ?

Agreed, the multiple user theme seemed to be a common factor.

It would be useful to confirm whether any single users have more than one user account set up. I recall that at least one single user actually had multiple user accounts on their device - so there was still a link.

If others are single users with only one user account, then that could be a different story - or perhaps a different issue...