Mail search not working after Big Sur install

Same for me , still have an outstanding case logged with apple support from beginning of December despite them taking a number of data dumps from my MacBook air M1 to see what the problem is - anyway this has worked for me.

To fix this, try resetting your NVRAM or PRAM to restore the default preferences on macOS.

1. First, turn off your computer. 
2. Next, locate the Option + Command + P + R keys on your keyboard but don’t press it yet. 
3. Lastly, press the Power button on your Mac and immediately hold the Option + Command + P + R keys on your keyboard and continue holding it for 20 seconds.

Now, restart your computer normally and try to use the Mail app again to check if the search function is working properly.

corespotlightd:

...distilled from:

• Core Spotlight framework provides ability to label and manage persistent user data like photos, contacts, and purchased items in the on-device index
• Core Spotlight APIs don’t make items publicly searchable. Instead, Core Spotlight enables you to make items searchable in the user's private, on-device index, the contents of which is never shared with Apple or synced between devices
• corespotlightd: process that keeps this information updated. Information itself is stored in user's on-device index

APPLEAL, we are far beyond "try search ALL mailboxes", and no, it doesn't predominantly affect gmail accounts !

This bug has been introduced with the original Big Sur, we have tried everything possible (just read the 20 pages), and went as far as trying on a brand new MacBook with only a fresh Big Sur installed and the bug exists also on that minimal configuration.

What we know for sure:

• it happens on Macs with multiple users
• what triggers the bug is one user logging off
• then Mail search does not find anything, and that happens for every other user already logged in
• fast user switching does not trigger the bug
• if you reboot or force kill 'corespotlightd' mail search will work again
• there has been zero feedback from Apple about this, I filed at least 10 bug reports, there are hundreds of messages on this board and no reactions form the 'gurus' you can see on other threads
• what a shame !

Hi had the same problem. It looks like there is problem with spotlight.

Here is what worked for me:

• Open task monitor
• Search for spotlight processes
• Identify corespotlightd
• Stop process using x-icon
• Process will re-start and search should work now

Hi,

As per the advice from Gabe previously -

• quit the app
• open the Mail while holding the SHIFT key
• quit the app
• open the Mail while holding the SHIFT key
• quit the app
• restart the Mac

I tried this and it worked - enabling searching again.

THIS TOTALLY WORKS FOR ME!!!!!!! FOR ABOUt TWENTY MINUTES!!!!!!!!

I absolutely LOVED how Apple recommended this 'fix'. IT totally 100 percent works! For a little while. And hten you have to do it again. And again. And again. Ad nauseam. Imagine, coming to your computer, realizing you need to search for something in your mail....then realize that the ONLY F-ING way to do it was to do this:

• 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

EVERY ****** TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVERY SINGLE ****** TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And it's been doing it since I bought it in August '20. And I've let Apple know multiple times. EVERY SINGLE TIME they tell me they've never heard of this problem. I've even reinstalled system software. Nothing works.

Oh... and by the way... my bluetooth keyboard and mouse and trackpad all lose connectivity every once in a while. With full batteries. My productivity since I shifted to a massively faster processor, way more ram, and a huge monitor instead of my 12 year old macbookpro? Well, it's gone way down.

So I was having this problem as well and after messing around for a while I seemed to have fixed it but I'm not sure which step was the fix. First things first the problem:

• This was happening on my gmail email address
• Search in email would sometimes show the searched email in the drop down list (sometimes not)
• Clicking on the email would leave the search running indefinitely sometimes finishing sometimes not
• Doing the shift click when opening the email would fix the problem temporarily but it would always come back

There were two things I did that may have fixed the problem:

• I noticed that when I looked at the email logs in connection doctor that there was a lot of recursive searching in the "Important" IMAP folder. This lead me to think this may be messing up the search. I logged into gmail went to settings and turned this folder off. This folder still lives on gmail but does not show up in Apple mail (never used it so not a big deal).
• Around the same time I did this I tried clicking on the mail filter icon on the top left corner of Apple mail (circle with three stacked horizontal lines). I was surprised to see search results. I unclicked it and I still had the results!

I don't even know if either of these things did anything but my mail search has been working well since then (fingers crossed)

Let me know if any of these suggestions helps at all.

I appreciate the suggestion. My computer's been restarted several times since completing the upgrade (everything else about Big Sur appears to function as expected), to no avail. In the previous version of macOS, when I typed something in the search bar, I'd be presented with the option in the results to search just a single folder or all folders. That option seems to have disappeared and now it seems the search only works on the folder which has been selected. See the attached screenshot. Clicking the '+' sign only facilitates creating a smart folder from the search term(s). The filter button only lets me filter that particular folder by the search term(s). No option to search across all folders that I can discern, which is extremely frustrating!

I thought the search was defaulting to all folders/mailboxes. But when I checked just now, it isn't. It was highlighted to all inboxes, so that's what the search did - not surprisingly!

As soon as I start typing the search though, I get an 'all mailboxes' link appearing at the top of the left hand pane - as below:

This then provides results for all mailboxes and all folders - so includes inbox, sent items, drafts across all mailboxes - essentially all Mail folders as the name implies!

If you're not seeing the 'all mailboxes' option, then start typing in the search field first, then the option should appear...

Edit - looks like the multiple folders select option does work exactly as you said (to choose contiguous or non-contiguous folders). Mail will confirm at the top of the page how many folders are selected, as you may have found.

Just discovered this for myself, and my search problems are solved. Hope this helps others. No idea if this is new in Big Sur, but Ive never needed to do this before to search mail.

At the top of the list of mailboxes, Mail now has a "folder" under a category called "Search". I need to select that folder called "All Mailboxes" before searching to get any search results.

If I select the "All Inboxes" folder further below, or any other inbox folder, i get zero search results.

Attached is a screen shot showing my "Include Mail From:" settings. I have three mail servers associated with my account, but I only use two of them. Yesterday, none of them were selected, so I selected them, and search started working. Perhaps you have to have more than one email account set up in System Preferences: Internet Accounts to get the options.

A user in another thread mentioned that "corespotlightd" is the culprit. As a workaround I added the command "killall -9 corespotlightd" to a Stream Deck Key. Works like a charm and should be also working with any other Macro tool of your liking.

Of course Apple needs to fix this issue. Its a major disturbance for many users. Its not affecting just Mail, but other spotlight related searches. Mail may just be the most obvious one.

It's been a week since the last issue happened for me with the mail search and now it is returning values. The question is, how good are the results. I commented earlier in the chain that even if Apple Mail did work, most of the times when I search for something, it can't find it. When I'll go to the native email client - Google, I get immediate results. Below is an example from today's search, where some unrelated results were returned by the Apple Mail whilst typing the word "Dum", but once finished as "Dumpboss", it couldn't find anything. I am looking for an invoice here. When I went to Gmail and typed the same word, it shows all interactions . Here's my answer to whoever was replying to me earlier that he never had issues with finding emails - I do all the time....

APPLE MAIL SEARCH:

GMAIL:

You can trust the Mail app, but I don't. It is better if Apple will start from scratch and deliver A.I. powered mailbox that is easy to use. I'll even pay for using it! You can't keep fixing old code as the whole platform underneath is evolving, at some point you have to draw the line with the patches and start fresh!

Good luck!

When you first launch the ACTIVITY MONITOR application you'll see the following along the top of it's window:

Red ball, Yellow ball, Green ball, "Activity Monitor", X in a circle, I in a circle, ... in a circle, down arrow, "CPU", "Memory".........

The "X" in question is the "X in a circle".

Same here. On a MacBook Air, it works fine; on my iMac, it's the same in all accounts. I've tried everything I've seen posted and no luck. Trying reinstalling Big Sur right now. I'll post back if that works.