Search won't work on mail and notes with monterey

I had a similar issue (though unlike others who posted on this topic, I was able to search in Notes). When I searched in Mail, after upgrading to Monterey, I got no results.

I found a solution that worked for me, and it is in this post:

https://www.macobserver.com/tips/how-to/fixing-broken-mail-search-macos/

I went through the first set of steps, which did not fix it. Then I did the second set (deleting the Mail.app indices - just as the instructions state) though mine were in V9 (for Monterey I suppose) and rebooted. My 78K messages took 11 minutes to load back in, and after a few minutes, Search appears to be working now and I hope this helps you or others.

Hi again. I think I fixed it! I tried a bunch of things, then tried rebuilding each mailbox -- saving the largest one with 96K messages for last. When the app tried to rebuild the large mailbox, I got an error message that said the index was damaged and that I needed to quit, restart, then rebuild again. Which I did. And it worked! Hope this works for you too. Let me know. (And I haven't tried quitting and starting over; so who knows if it will last.)

Hey emiratefan,

Thanks for the update. Another way to isolate the cause is to see if you can recreate the issue in Notes and Mail in a new user. Create a new user and see if the issue persists. Also, the other articles have some more search information for macOS Monterey.

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

If searching doesn’t find the right emails in Mail on Mac

• "Change search filters: If a search filter contains a down arrow, you can click it to change the filter. For example, you can change a search filter to search for messages to or from a certain person, or search subject lines or entire messages.

"

Search for emails in Mail on Mac

Have a good one.

I am now on Monterey 12.1 and the search function is working again. Hope that if you install the update that it starting working for you.

Hello emiratefan,

After reviewing your post, it seems like Search doesn't work in Notes and Mail. If searching works in Finder boot using safe mode and see if the issue persists.

Do you receive an error?

Do you not receive any results?

Are you using Notes on iCloud.com?

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Search your notes on Mac

Search for emails in Mail on Mac

Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need additional assistance.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Have a nice day.

I contacted Apple support since I couldn't search past emails. They recommended that I go into each email account - delete it and then recreate it. It was a somewhat cumbersome job since I have multiple gmail addresses I use for our non-profit organization; however it seemed to work.

Rebuilding mailboxes worked for me, too… until I restarted. After restart the problem recurred. I don't want to have to rebuild mailboxes after every restart! Incidentally, search function works fine in iCloud Mail.

Same issue on mine after this update. The "spotlight" search for trying to locate files has been trash from the moment I took this garbage out of the box, but to be unable to search my emails? This is impossible, not to mention unacceptable on a $2300 computer. I could have had less frustration with a $300 generic computer at this point.

Here's an angle that hasn't been discussed: I have the Spotlight problem on my iMac, but not on my MacBook Air (or in iCloud). I don't know why hardware should matter, even if the iMac is 3+ years older than the MacBook Air. The problem comes and goes on the iMac, both before and since the upgrade to Monterey 12.1.

Did you fix it? I have the same problem! No drop down menu. I need to archive emails, and I can't find them!

Bummer! I'm going to keep trying. I'll post here if I can figure it out! I may call my computer whiz guy too.

why doesn't Apple FIX THIS????????