Mail search not working after Big Sur install

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.

For me rebuilding the mailbox solved the problem. Select the mailbox you suspect the message is in, then go Mailbox - Rebuild. You can check the progress of rebuilding in the Activity Window (Window - Activity)

Do you have multiple users on your device?

I have previously tried rebuilding mailbox and it does work - for a while.

But if another user logs into MacBook, the search problem reappears.

I see others have mentioned the latest version of Big Sur fixes this problem - although there are others who seem to be saying it is still re-occurring. So, perhaps still a glitch in there.

I took the 11.1 Upgrade last night. It does not appear to have completely resolved the issue if at all. Searching seemed lightning fast this morning but by mid day it is back to not finding things that I know are there. Just hangs on "searching" and produces no results. This problem is very frustrating.

The update did seem to solve the issue of the finder insisting on opening new windows and changing its focus every-time you returned to it via the dock icon.

11.1 didn’t fix it for me for long. After a reboot the problem was back. I did try reinstalling the OS and that, too, fixed it for a reboot. What seems to have worked (so far) was re-indexing by turning off mail search in Spotlight settings and then turning it back in. It took hours to reindex (I checked the progress by typing anything into Spotlight). When it finished, mail search worked well and survived a reboot.

will report back if the problem comes back.

I was about to say it didn't work ...

... but before posting that decided to read some of the other replies. As i was reading those, I notice the Mail window update, and now it's showing the search results.

That first time, it took probably 30 seconds or so to update; however, that can seem like an eternity in macOS world. Maybe it was longer? It's no performing just as fast as it ever did.

I still have the problem after the 11.1 update. Something seems to have gotten better as I have seen SOME searches execute quickly and flawlessly as expected. However, this is very intermittent behavior with no rhyme or reason to when it will or will not happen.. Often after putting in the search information it just hangs and does nothing for a long time if not forever. Way more than 30 seconds I have waited. Probably not more than 90 seconds before I just gave up. I have tried all of the techniques in this thread and none of them seem to resolve on any permanent or consistent basis. Apple, please fix this ASAP!

NevadaDan,

Has the issue fully resolved for you? I tried re-installing OSX and it worked for a few days but the issue returned... I think after a reboot. So far I've received initial results from re-installing OS X, rebuilding mail indexes and logging out of my user account, followed by logging back in. I didn't have positive results from rebuilding my mailboxes nor the close-ShiftClickOpen-close-ShiftClickOpen-reboot suggestion. I tried rebuilding my mail indexes but it crashed after 3 hours so I just restored my old indexes.

If your reinstalling OSX fix has fully resolved the issue (surviving reboots and time), perhaps it was the combination of some of the things you've done rather than just that one thing. If so, I may try doing what you did sequentially.

I still have the problem after the 11.1 update. wouldn't that be comparable to reinstalling the os? It was a very long update. As noted in my post above. Pretty much still have the problem though right after the update it worked flawlessly and seems more intermittent since the update (i.e. sometimes functional, more often not)

Gregg,

Ditto... I initially was encouraged from the 11.1 update but the problem returned. I then took many of the steps throughout this post and have not yet found a fix that fully resolves it. NevadaDan indicated that reinstalling OSX worked for him but it only worked for me for a short while.... he had tried a number of other steps preceding that, so I'm wondering if he's still finding that the issue is fully resolved. If so, perhaps it was the combination of those steps rather than the final.

Exactly but I can't just keep rolling the dice on combos of all these suggestions. Turning off mail in spotlight prefs seemed to work for me but again only momentarily. This thing is stubborn. the only thing I haven't tried is a full reinstall but again, the 11.1 should have been equivalent to that. Its really frustrating, I've been down loading third party search apps, trying other imap clients, etc but its such a waste of time. Had I known of this I would have sat tight on Catalina. Surprised we are not hearing more about it,. Could it be my hardware? (Macbook Pro Retina 13" - early 2015) .

I did a full OSX reinstall before installing 11.1. Which is what NevadaGreg suggested worked for him. So, I doubt that, by itself is the solution. Perhaps doing everything NevadaGreg did is the solution but only if it “stuck” for him.

waiting to see if he responds.

A factor seems to be whether you have multiple users on your device.

If you don't, various 'solutions' seem to work. However, if you have multiple users, this seems to trigger the issue.

I believe this is part of the reason why certain workarounds appear to work permanently for some people.

Not sure if NevadaGreg (or other commenters) are the sole user of the computer.

I had the problem come up again briefly, but a reboot cured it. FWIW, it only happened on my iMac with multiple users logged in, but not on my MB Air with only me logged in. Also, the iMac is "descended" from a PowerMac 7600 running MacOS X beta and 10.1 via ExPostFacto which had my accumulated data from Systems 7, 8, and 9. That was superseded by a PowerMac G5, which was replaced by a 2010 iMac, which gave way to my current 2018 iMac. Each new machine inherited the prior one's configuration and data via Migration Assistant or whatever. So, there's a lot of cruft there and that may explain some issues, but I still find myself looking for old emails and stuff from way back now and then so a clean install is out of the question. Pretty amazing that things still work.

When it occurred originally, I was getting one result from a search that I knew should have many more. Now that it appears to be fixed, I seem to be getting everything, but I don't have complete confidence since this thread keeps going on with people having issues.

I started this posting thread on November 13th. Since then I have been involved with Apple Tech Help in over three hours of phone conversations and computer sharing, diagnostic scans and Terminal programs trying to get this problem resolved. Nothing they tried has worked and they seem to have given up with me. In the meantime I have found the quickest way to deal with it. As a reminder, my problem, and that of many of the others posting here, is when switching from one user account to another and then returning to the first user. That is when the search function in Apple Mail does not work anymore. What I have been doing now is logging out of the first user before switching to another user. Then when logging out of that second user I am given a choice of user accounts to log into. Choosing to log back into the first account gives me a functioning Mail search again. It is a small annoyance now and does not require a restart. Oh, and the new version of Big Sur 11.1 does not fix this.