Certain mail not getting indexed

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Certain mail not getting indexed

I'm running macOS Big Sur, v11.6. and using Mail Version 14.0 (3654.120.0.1.13). I'm experiencing a kind of terrifying problem where mail search simply doesn't see certain e-mails. Specifically, I can be looking directly at an email in a list, and then type the subject or sender of that email into the search bar and come up with no results. It appears that the affected emails make up a contiguous time block. That is, all... okay, *almost* all of the emails in one of my Trash mailboxes that arrived between about January 13th and January 24th appear to be invisible to search. This is ... really terrible. I have about 200,000 emails in my mailboxes, so search is important to me. Is there a way to force re-indexing of some mailboxes?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Jan 28, 2022 11:53 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

dawngreg08

Community Specialist

Jan 30, 2022 6:57 AM in response to John Clements

Hello Clements,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities!

If we understand your post correctly, certain emails on your Mac are not getting indexed. We'd like to help!

"If you don’t get expected results when you search for email messages in the Mail app on your Mac, try these suggestions.

If one or more mailboxes are selected in the Mail sidebar or the Favorites bar, Mail searches only those mailboxes. To search all mailboxes, click All Mailboxes in the sidebar or All in the Favorites Bar.
Mail may not be looking in the Trash or Junk mailboxes, or searching encrypted messages. To include them when searching all mailboxes, choose Mail > Preferences, click General, then select the options.
You may need to sync the mailboxes on your Mac with those on the mail server. Choose Mailbox > Synchronize > [account].
Mail may be excluded from Spotlight searching. To check, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Spotlight , then click Search Results. If the Mail & Messages checkbox isn’t already selected, select it.
The Mail folder (located in your home Library folder) may be excluded from Spotlight searching. To check, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Spotlight, then click Privacy. If Mail is listed, select it, then click the Remove button ."

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

We also recommend checking out this article for help with searching mail on your Mac: Search for emails in Mail on Mac

This article has steps to rebuild your Mailbox: Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac

"You may need to rebuild a mailbox to update the list of messages it contains. For example, if messages appear to be missing or garbled, or if you can’t find all relevant messages when you search using the Entire Message search option."

Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!

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Answer 2

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Feb 1, 2022 12:46 PM in response to John Clements

Hello John Clements,

At this point, we recommend contacting Apple Support for further help with this issue.

Get Support

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!

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Answer 3

Jan 30, 2022 2:29 PM in response to dawngreg08

Thanks! Uh... for sending me a copy of the FAQ. Okay, yes, in fairness, most people don't actually take the advice of the support page. I did in fact try all of these, before I submitted my request, including the mailbox rebuild. I'd love to know whether there's a way to force spotlight to re-index a mailbox, or to check its indexing progress or completion.

Many thanks,

John Clements

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Certain mail not getting indexed

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