Calendar Search not working on Monterey 12.6.7

Monterey 12.6.7 & Calendar 11.0(2855.6.1). The Search Field top right of Calendar window does not work properly. Spurious results, most of the time nothing. However, a Spotlight search using 'Cmd + Space' to get a Spotlight Search Field does work and produces the expected results list. Any ideas why the Calendar Search Field doesn't work? Is this a bug? Can it be fixed?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 24, 2023 2:49 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 11:49 AM

Me too. M2 MacBook Air, Monterey 12.6.8, Calendar 11.0 (2855.6.1). I'm searching for "hair", as in haircut appointments.


* Calendar (MB Air) search results only shows "TODAY", with no hits


* Spotlight (MB Air) lists 4 calendar items under "Events & Reminders", 2 each in 2 different calendars. The oldest is 8/16/2022.


Tried booting in Safe Mode as suggested in other threads; no change.


* Interestingly, my iPhone Calendar (iPhone 13, iOS 16.6) lists *many* hits going back to year 2003 (20 years ago). iOS Settings / Calendar / Sync is set to "All Events" (i.e. no limit to how far back in time)


* Rebuilt Spotlight's index for "Macintosh HD" using System Preferences / Spotlight / Privacy technique (added "Macintosh HD" to "do not index" list, then removed it, then quit System Preferences). To confirm that Spotlight was re-indexing, I did that same Spotlight search ("hair") and observed the "Indexing..." progress bar at the top of the Spotlight window. Indexing took a long time. Afterward, Spotlight still finds only those same 4 hits for "hair".


* Now it gets weird. In Mac Calendar, I went back in time and manually found my most recent haircut, on 6/7/23 (today is 8/7/23), in my "J Personal" calendar. Event title = "J Haircut". Opened the event, and for no particular reason added just the word "haircut" in the Notes field. Now Calendar search finds this event! Went back to 3 earlier haircut events and did the same. Now Calendar search finds all 4! Then, revisited all 4 events and *removed* "haircut" from their Notes fields. Calendar search *still* finds all 4!


This smells like a "cache" or "plist" issue -- two ways that MacOS keeps records of changed information for easy internal reference. So I searched the web for "mac calendar plist" and found this on MacRumours:


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/calendar-now-only-searches-in-today.2280720/


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Post #21

Manofdogs

Aug 8, 2021


I had exactly this problem. Solution for me was to:


    1. Delete all 'cache' files in Library>Calendars and
    2. Delete 'com.apple.iCal.plist' from Library>Preferences

(Good idea to drag them to the desktop in case of unexpected consequences - delete later when you're sure all is OK)


None of my calendars would then show (except birthdays and holidays) so I

switched calendars off and then on again in System

preferences>Internet Accounts>iCloud and all accounts quickly

syncronised and everything returend to normal.

----------


Following "Manofdogs" guidance only for the plists (I didn't touch the caches):


* In Finder, navigated to "john / Library / Preferences" ("john" is my user account)


* In that folder I found 22 plist files with titles that began "com.apple.iCal.", plus one with title beginning "com.apple.iCalExternalSync.plist".


* Moved all 23 files to Desktop


* Restarted the Mac


  • Launched Calendar. Calendar displayed "Updating calendars" for a while (presumably resynchronizing with iCloud). After that finished, I re-tried the Calendar "hair" search. Now it finds *all* of the many "haircut" events dating back to 2003 that my iPhone Calendar search displays!


* Just to be sure:


* Deleted all 23 plist files from Desktop, Quit Calendar, Open Calendar, still can find all "hair" events back to 2003.


* Finder / Empty Trash, Quit Calendar, Open Calendar, still can find all "hair" events back to 2003.


* Interestingly, Spotlight still finds only the 4 events it found earlier. Perhaps that will change in time as Spotlight re-indexes.


Mission accomplished (at least for MacOS Calendar)!

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 7, 2023 11:49 AM in response to PeteM4

Me too. M2 MacBook Air, Monterey 12.6.8, Calendar 11.0 (2855.6.1). I'm searching for "hair", as in haircut appointments.


* Calendar (MB Air) search results only shows "TODAY", with no hits


* Spotlight (MB Air) lists 4 calendar items under "Events & Reminders", 2 each in 2 different calendars. The oldest is 8/16/2022.


Tried booting in Safe Mode as suggested in other threads; no change.


* Interestingly, my iPhone Calendar (iPhone 13, iOS 16.6) lists *many* hits going back to year 2003 (20 years ago). iOS Settings / Calendar / Sync is set to "All Events" (i.e. no limit to how far back in time)


* Rebuilt Spotlight's index for "Macintosh HD" using System Preferences / Spotlight / Privacy technique (added "Macintosh HD" to "do not index" list, then removed it, then quit System Preferences). To confirm that Spotlight was re-indexing, I did that same Spotlight search ("hair") and observed the "Indexing..." progress bar at the top of the Spotlight window. Indexing took a long time. Afterward, Spotlight still finds only those same 4 hits for "hair".


* Now it gets weird. In Mac Calendar, I went back in time and manually found my most recent haircut, on 6/7/23 (today is 8/7/23), in my "J Personal" calendar. Event title = "J Haircut". Opened the event, and for no particular reason added just the word "haircut" in the Notes field. Now Calendar search finds this event! Went back to 3 earlier haircut events and did the same. Now Calendar search finds all 4! Then, revisited all 4 events and *removed* "haircut" from their Notes fields. Calendar search *still* finds all 4!


This smells like a "cache" or "plist" issue -- two ways that MacOS keeps records of changed information for easy internal reference. So I searched the web for "mac calendar plist" and found this on MacRumours:


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/calendar-now-only-searches-in-today.2280720/


----------

Post #21

Manofdogs

Aug 8, 2021


I had exactly this problem. Solution for me was to:


    1. Delete all 'cache' files in Library>Calendars and
    2. Delete 'com.apple.iCal.plist' from Library>Preferences

(Good idea to drag them to the desktop in case of unexpected consequences - delete later when you're sure all is OK)


None of my calendars would then show (except birthdays and holidays) so I

switched calendars off and then on again in System

preferences>Internet Accounts>iCloud and all accounts quickly

syncronised and everything returend to normal.

----------


Following "Manofdogs" guidance only for the plists (I didn't touch the caches):


* In Finder, navigated to "john / Library / Preferences" ("john" is my user account)


* In that folder I found 22 plist files with titles that began "com.apple.iCal.", plus one with title beginning "com.apple.iCalExternalSync.plist".


* Moved all 23 files to Desktop


* Restarted the Mac


  • Launched Calendar. Calendar displayed "Updating calendars" for a while (presumably resynchronizing with iCloud). After that finished, I re-tried the Calendar "hair" search. Now it finds *all* of the many "haircut" events dating back to 2003 that my iPhone Calendar search displays!


* Just to be sure:


* Deleted all 23 plist files from Desktop, Quit Calendar, Open Calendar, still can find all "hair" events back to 2003.


* Finder / Empty Trash, Quit Calendar, Open Calendar, still can find all "hair" events back to 2003.


* Interestingly, Spotlight still finds only the 4 events it found earlier. Perhaps that will change in time as Spotlight re-indexes.


Mission accomplished (at least for MacOS Calendar)!

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Calendar Search not working on Monterey 12.6.7

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