Mail search not working after Big Sur install

JLewisH,

I just replicated what you describe and works fine here.

Have you updated to OS 11.3?

I was going nuts with this glitch before updating 11.3 on my mid 2014 13" MacBook Pro.

Edit - after installing 11.3.1 i tried rebuilding the mailboxes and after about 1 hr everything went back to normal.

After updating to 11.3.1, and rebuilding my Spotlight, it seems to search as before. Or, at least more finds show up. Seems okay in 11.4, too.

All,

The only thing working for me is clicking all mailboxes. It works and I can find stuff now....

Rob

Have you tried clicking on the "All mailboxes under search at the top of the left side menu screen that pops up during a search?

This works for me and was not perfect but works fine for now!

Not one of these fixes really helped. I upgraded to Monterey and problem fixed. I'm glad I wasn't on Big Sur for long. This problem actually effected my ability to work

I contacted Apple and they advise it's not a known bug. They suggested doing a SMC reset, which I've tried.

That seemed to work initially. But, guess what - after switching users, no!

I can get it to work again with a simple restart. I didn't do anything else and all is well - for now!

I would suggest that we will only get a permanent solution if everyone reports it to Apple. If they get loads of support requests, then they might do something about it.

Hi, I've had a similar problem to this one (if not the same) with the search being fully broken after the Big Sur upgrade (and 11.1 update). My issue seems to be fixed by exiting mail, then deleting the "Envelope Index*" files from ~/Library/Mail/V8/MailData, restarting Mail, and letting it rebuild its index. Not sure if this will work for anyone else but might be worth a shot.

@PoITFF - just reinstall from the recovery partition without deleting anything. Your documents, preferences, etc. will be preserved. Have a backup just in case, of course, but you shouldn't have any problems.

This is insane. After being literally unable to work without going to either gmail web or iCloud web (which also has very limited search functionality - no global search only on a selected mailbox) I couldn't take it anymore. I've stuck with Mac mail since its inception and through many hiccups but this one is intolerable. After 11.1 failed to fix it I had to do something to get my workflow back (lots and lots of mailbox folders, searching all the time).

I am not promoting any product here. I just want to tell other frustrated users that I stared using the the postbox product. It definitely took some acclimation and a few days to adjust and learn its intricacies, but I am searching up mail no problem now and actually enjoying some features that should have been in Apple Mail a long time ago. The news that 11.2 did not fix this does not surprise me, but it does disappoint me tremendously. I mean, if the company makes one software product that would be essential for every computer they ship, that would be mail (and a browser of course). Shame. Unbelievable. As a user I am deeply disappointed and frustrated. As a shareholder I am concerned about whats going on with Apple QC.

Again, I have no affiliation with the mail app I mentioned, just thought some of you might find some respite from this horrible situation. Not free but it was worth the money to get back to searching mail contents without cringing.

Me too re greyed-out Helpful button.

I have a Mac mini M1 running BigSur 11.2

Logging off when switching from the secondary account takes out the mail search every time. Force quitting corspotlightd brings it back every time.

Mail search results also disappear and reappear in the main spotlight search results in exactly the same way.

I can live with quitting corespotlightd - this would drive me insane otherwise, so sympathy to those of you for whom that doesn't work!

It appears that the gmail search is looking for dumpsboss rather than dumpboss. And retrieving results under the former.

So, try Apple Mail search under dumpsboss and see if you see a different outcome.

If you don't, go to Activity Monitor and force quit 'corespotlightd' process.

Clear the Mail search field and retry - any difference?

There are several posts in this thread that will restore the search function in MAIL to you with a couple of simple steps including that from GanawaGangunawa:

Force killing 'corespotlightd' still fixes it. 

...also, Apple isn't monitoring this thread as it's for user discussions.

If you'd like to make a report of your/this bug to Apple, navigate to:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

...and fill out and submit the form selecting BUG REPORT from the FEEDBACK TYPE:

I can add that for my machine, I am the only user and my mac is set up with only One user account.

I do not know what triggered the bug. I also had it in the past - in early Catalina (as I recall) and one of the updates fixed it.

I have a second MacBook Pro that I did not upgrade and I have no problem with the search in Mail on that.

Since deleting the process 'corespotlightd' as GanawaGangunawa advises I no longer have the problem - and I hope it stays that way.

I will watch for it reappearing and see if I can note any odd incident that might have triggered it.

To Richard-IOW, I don't see the problem you describe. When search works it finds the emails in 'on My Mac' or anywhere in the Mail program.

Did you try to delete the envelop files in the Mail folder in Library ? or re-construct the Spotlight index ?