Apple mail no longer searches by sender contains

In the past, when I searched in apple mail, there was an option "Sender contains" the search term. Now when I search I see the options "Subject Contains" or "Attachment Name Contains". but there is no option for Sender Contains. I find that very helpful in searching for all emails from a particular domain or for a person when I don't remember one of their names. Is this no longer a feature? Or is there a way I can add that option. It seems to me that that function dissapeared in late summer or fall of 2022, perhaps around the time upgraded to Ventura.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 19, 2022 4:18 PM

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You can search "From: Michael" (hit return)

I think that will be similar to "sender contains"

Posted on Nov 19, 2022 5:19 PM

53 replies

Jun 7, 2023 6:50 AM in response to mikel51

Just to chip in which how I experience and interpret this issue, why its a problem for me and the listed solutions don't really work.


I work with many clients, often with many people from an organisation. Often I can't exactly remember the domain the sender sent a message from, or who sent it.


for example, I work with the company, lets call them Pear. I deal with maybe 5 people from that company. Their domain is something odd like, pear-comms.com - something it's tricky to remember when you also deal with 100 other companies. I also can't remember exactly who sent the message - all I know is that, sometime in the past, I got a request from their organisation.


I used to be able to type "pear" in the search bar and it said sender-contains:pear and I could see all the emails that came from that company. Now I need to find out what the sending domain is from that company is first, it's a pain.


For example, what prompted this search was searching for an email from the local university in my town, named for the town we are in. If I search for the name of the town, I get hundreds of results. The autocomplete contains a lot of TLDs, none of which are the University. I need to go and find out what the actual TLD for them is, which either means searching online or scrolling through my emails, of which there are many.


I don't understand why a feature like this would be removed. it's very odd.


Jun 7, 2023 7:15 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:

<snip>
I don't understand why a feature like this would be removed. it's very odd.

I use an email client that does what I need it to do. If the built-in email client is not doing what you need it to do, Apple has provided the capability for you to use whatever email client meets your needs. Just install an email client that meets your requirements and use it.

Jun 7, 2023 7:31 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

My feeling is that one should offer feedback and engage in discourse before just abandoning a product that previously worked as intended. I like Apple Mail, and don't particularly want to change, I am simply flagging that this feature was useful to me and giving an example of why that might be the case.


On top of that, I work in an organisation where we all share the same software for formatting security reasons. If we, as an organisation, feel it significant enough to change email client, we will - which will present different inconveniences.


With respect, I feel like we should stay on topic and discuss the subject of the OP's message.

Jun 7, 2023 8:01 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:

My feeling is that one should offer feedback and engage in discourse before just abandoning a product that previously worked as intended.

This site isn't for feedback. Nobody here can affect change wrt your "feedback." Send feedback to Apple.

I like Apple Mail, and don't particularly want to change, I am simply flagging that this feature was useful to me and giving an example of why that might be the case.

And, none of us here can do anything about your flagging. All we can offer is workarounds.

With respect, I feel like we should stay on topic and discuss the subject of the OP's message.

It's been discussed. The feature's demise and a suitable workaround has been noted. There isn't any more to discuss unless Apple changes it. There is no more user to user tech support that can be offered.

Based on past performance, I would assume since Sonoma was announced on Monday, the next update to Ventura will be the only possibility of it changing in that OS. You'll then have to wait until Sonoma is released to see if they brought it back.

Jun 7, 2023 8:09 AM in response to Barney-15E

As I explained in my post - I don't feel like the discussions or workarounds suit my use case. It has been discussed. And that doesn't mean all discussion should end.


I have given feedback to Apple, this part is the discourse.


I didn't ask anyone to do anything about my flagging. I'm not sure where you inferred that I expected someone to swoop in and fix it for me. I just wanted to add my voice to this topic. I really don't see why that is a problem. I am of the belief that a topic that gets enough air might get some notice. You might not believe that - but I also understand this to be a community forum.


I apologise, as I seem to have caused you some consternation, but there really is no need to read deeper into the intention or expected outcome of my post.


Jun 7, 2023 8:22 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:

As I explained in my post - I don't feel like the discussions or workarounds suit my use case. It has been discussed. And that doesn't mean all discussion should end.

I have given feedback to Apple, this part is the discourse.

I didn't ask anyone to do anything about my flagging. I'm not sure where you inferred that I expected someone to swoop in and fix it for me. I just wanted to add my voice to this topic. I really don't see why that is a problem. I am of the belief that a topic that gets enough air might get some notice. You might not believe that - but I also understand this to be a community forum.

I apologise, as I seem to have caused you some consternation, but there really is no need to read deeper into the intention or expected outcome of my post.

Yes this discussion should end. We are users trying to help each other with technical issues. Apple is not here. The terms of use for these communities specifically state we can not discuss Apple product policies, decisions, etc. Rehashing whether or not Apple Mail should not have been changed in these communities is of no value and will not be seen by Apple.

Some suggestions have been offered. If none of these suggestions will satisfy your needs, change your workflow or use a different email client.

Again, the place to provide product feedback to Apple is: Product Feedback - Apple


Jun 7, 2023 8:45 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:

As I explained in my post - I don't feel like the discussions or workarounds suit my use case. It has been discussed. And that doesn't mean all discussion should end.

I have given feedback to Apple, this part is the discourse.

I didn't ask anyone to do anything about my flagging. I'm not sure where you inferred that I expected someone to swoop in and fix it for me. I just wanted to add my voice to this topic. I really don't see why that is a problem. I am of the belief that a topic that gets enough air might get some notice. You might not believe that - but I also understand this to be a community forum.

I apologise, as I seem to have caused you some consternation, but there really is no need to read deeper into the intention or expected outcome of my post.

You seemed miffed that someone would offer the suggestion you use another email client in the discourse. If you didn't want to hear suggestions you don't like, don't discourse.

Jun 7, 2023 8:45 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:

And how do you know that no-one else might have another workaround?

You stated "I don't feel like the discussions or workarounds suit my use case". Given your statement, at this point only Apple can help you. The only way Apple will know their product is not meeting your needs is to use their channel, Product Feedback - Apple, to do so.

It would be great if someone could provide a workable work-around for you but to this point no one has, even though Barney provided what is a very good alternative approach.

I really hope you find an approach that works for you.


Jun 7, 2023 8:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

You seemed miffed that someone would offer the suggestion you use another email client in the discourse. If you didn't want to hear suggestions you don't like, don't discourse.

I'm not miffed! I just don't think it's in any way a useful piece of input - it's kind of patronising, and it doesn't address the topic. The answer to a broken [anything] is rarely to just give up on it.


I've seen through the thread that people seem to think that you would be able to "fix" the issue for them. Those people are different people to me. I am a person who understands how forum works and doesn't really feel like they should be places where gatekeeping occurs.


My case is different to those described, so perhaps by sharing it someone might have a different workaround. The implication from the responses is that the answer you gave (a good one for that person, by the way). Is the end of the discussion. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't.


I don't really see the problem in putting it all out there. You do. Lets agree to disagree eh?

Jun 7, 2023 9:06 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:


You seemed miffed that someone would offer the suggestion you use another email client in the discourse. If you didn't want to hear suggestions you don't like, don't discourse.
I'm not miffed! I just don't think it's in any way a useful piece of input - it's kind of patronising, and it doesn't address the topic. The answer to a broken [anything] is rarely to just give up on it.

No one is giving up on anything here. We are users. We can not reverse a product decision made by Apple by discussing it here.

I've seen through the thread that people seem to think that you would be able to "fix" the issue for them. Those people are different people to me. I am a person who understands how forum works and doesn't really feel like they should be places where gatekeeping occurs.

The way this forum works is we users offer "fixes" suggestions to other users. This platform is provided by Apple. Users have to agree to the TOU and "gatekeeping" policies put in place and implemented by Apple. If these TOU are not acceptable then there are other forums available.

My case is different to those described, so perhaps by sharing it someone might have a different workaround. The implication from the responses is that the answer you gave (a good one for that person, by the way). Is the end of the discussion. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't.

If your "case" is different then start your own thread. It gets difficult to provide user-to-user assistance when a thread gets thread-jacked to a different topic than that being discussed.

I don't really see the problem in putting it all out there. You do. Lets agree to disagree eh?

There is no problem "putting it alll out there" except this is not the venue to do so.

Jun 7, 2023 9:13 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

I will hope that someone might stumble across this topic one day with another solution which is a better workaround for my particular manifestation of the named topic "Apple mail no longer searches by sender contains", which - while being exactly the same topic, presents itself in a way which doesn't seem worthy of a new thread and isn't solved by the offered workaround.


In the meantime, I will continue to evaluate whether I choose to stay with this email client, as we continuously do with every part of the tech stack in our organisation, and eagerly await a response to the Apple feedback form I had already submitted to - though I don't hold much hope.


Have a good day Barney and Bob - you're efforts in maintaining these forums are appreciated, I'm sure.

Jun 7, 2023 9:21 AM in response to JorgeLuisBorges

JorgeLuisBorges wrote:
<snip>
In the meantime, I will continue to evaluate whether I choose to stay with this email client, as we continuously do with every part of the tech stack in our organisation, and eagerly await a response to the Apple feedback form I had already submitted to - though I don't hold much hope.

Apple does not respond to the Feedback provided on the Feedback Site. I believe you were advised of that when you submitted your feedback.

Have a good day Barney and Bob - you're efforts in maintaining these forums are appreciated, I'm sure.

Thank you. I hope you find a solution that works for you. FWIW, I also do not use Mac Mail as it does not meet my needs. I also use third party word processing. I think there is nothing wrong with using apps that satisfy my organizations requirements.

We do not "maintain" these communities.

Jun 7, 2023 1:12 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

By “a response” I mean by implementing a restoration of the previous functionality. I am not expecting a reply. Or, indeed, any action at all - being honest. That’s fine.


By “maintain” I mean reminding people of the terms of service and informing them of what is and isn’t appropriate for them to want to comment, and inform them of the correct use of terminology and phrasing. Perhaps I should have said “unofficially moderate”.


FWIW I’m happy with most of what mac mail offers.

Apple mail no longer searches by sender contains

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