Mail and Messages do not search since upgrading to Ventura

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Level 1

12 points

Mail and Messages do not search since upgrading to Ventura

I am having the same issue (on my M1 Max Macbook Pro running latest Ventura) as a number of users on this forum and have also tried the myriad of spotlight re-indexing fixes, rebuilding mailboxes and so forth provided on various sites such as Mac Observer. Ive been on a call with Apple Support and we tried all of the techniques they know, inc checking the drive with disk utility/reinstalling Ventura etc.

Some other tickets i found the same issue on ..

Mail App Search Woes (Ventura) - Apple Community (unresolved and old)

Mail app won't search emails properly and/or takes very long time (poster had to delete and create new user, not an attractive option)

Mail not searching (unresolved)

mail search does not give results (unresolved)

So this problem seems (a) reasonably widespread and (b) wickedly difficult to resolve!

I have the same issue mentioned in the first link whereby Apple Mail search is no longer showing as many options and no seaerch results (though occasionally one thread might appear after some time)

and the Activity window suggests its indexing but it never gets anywhere (after even a week of leaving the laptop on full time!)

Messages has no search at all and no indication as to why ...

Any help would be amazing - this really kills productivity.

Mac mini, macOS 11.2

Posted on Sep 20, 2023 7:41 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 20, 2023 8:59 AM in response to Deskimo

Deskimo wrote:

Mail and Messages do not search since upgrading to Ventura

I am having the same issue (on my M1 Max Macbook Pro running latest Ventura) as a number of users on this forum and have also tried the myriad of spotlight re-indexing fixes,

Have you shut down and restarted more than once since you "upgraded"...this is always highly recommended.

Verify your Spotlight Settings...includes Mail&Messages this is the only database that Mail search uses

The next step would be a SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

if no insight or resolve— above all others including Terminal, the best way I found to re-index Spotlight is the Macintosh HD drag & drop method...

you can see it working by starting a spotlight search...

ref: Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Sep 20, 2023 9:21 AM in response to Deskimo

Deskimo wrote:

Thanks leroydouglas ive tried all of these techniques multiple times since the issue appeared (its been around since i first upgraded to Ventura).

I havent rebooted lately so i'll try that out of desperation but as another clue the Settings search also doesn't work! .

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/758411ea-2c5e-47ff-ba64-0751d71460fc

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

You can re-install the macOS on top of your existing macOS to sort issues...

How to reinstall macOS

Recovery (both M1/M2 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Deskimo Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 20, 2023 3:37 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks again for your suggestions leroydouglas.

Some extra info (seen this before btw, see below) now appears in Messages when i search when i did the drag and drop privacy exclusion/then removal thing with the HardDrive it did go through the motions of re-indexing but still no functionality improvements.

... So left my laptop running overnight - 6 hours later ...

Mail continues to pretend to Index ...

Some extra info:

My Mail database is HUGE - >100GB total folder size. I have an inbox with 152,093 messages going back to 2011.

But again this is impacting Settings/Messages and Mail (file search SEEMS ok but may not be finding everything of course - har to tell!)

So suggest Spotlight issues. I've tried deleting pref files as per the below instructions in the past but that didn't help ...

The second possible reason why Mac Spotlight Search stops working on macOS Ventura is due to issues with Spotlight preference files. To fix this:

- Open Finder.
- Click Go > Go to Folder.
- Enter ~/Library/Preferences in the dialog and press Return.
- Delete the file com.apple.spotlight.plist.
- Restart your Mac to reset the Spotlight preference files.

Next Apps .. i have CleanMyMac and recently installed Speedify - previously used NordVPN for years with no issue.

Ok uninstalled Clean MyMac - rebooting now to see if anything's changed ...

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Answer 4

Deskimo Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 20, 2023 9:15 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks leroydouglas ive tried all of these techniques multiple times since the issue appeared (its been around since i first upgraded to Ventura).

I havent rebooted lately so i'll try that out of desperation but as another clue the Settings search also doesn't work! .

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Answer 5

Deskimo Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 4, 2023 3:36 AM in response to theorosendorf

How do we escalate a bug like this to Apple to investigate?

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Answer 6

Deskimo Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 22, 2023 4:57 PM in response to Deskimo

Just FYI did the latest upgrade to Ventura 13.6 overnight - which triggers yet another Spotlight re-indexing and still no change to search-ability in Messages, Mail or Settings.

Seems this issue is not being addressed by updates or any of the usual fixes. Getting desperate – but not enough to delete my user account, risk losing data and then have to set everything up manually again (not even sure what that would entail!).

Im wondering if i should try more radical spotlight index deletions or such again, but not sure how far to take it?

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Answer 7

Oct 3, 2023 11:51 AM in response to Deskimo

Hey Deskimo — I too have gone through all of this, resigning myself to searching mail using my phone and forwarding emails to myself.

I hope the OS upgrade to Sonoma that just popped solves this very annoying issue.

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Answer 8

Deskimo Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 3, 2023 3:09 PM in response to theorosendorf

It seems there are quite a few of us. SO far nothing has worked inc. upgrading to Sonoma.

Strangely search has returned to Settings but still nothing in Messages and Mail.

Next im going to try to repeat all of the methods ive tried previously now i have upgraded to Sonoma. But its just a desperate attempt and has low likelihood of success.

After that i thought maybe i'll try deleting the entire Spotlight folder structure - see if it rebuilds more aggressively. BUT im a little concerned i'll make it worse!

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