Calendar search only finds recent entries, re-indexing Spotlight doesn't help

I found this from someone else and it worked for me:

go to System settings

click on you name

click on iCloud 

bottom right click on "show more apps..."

Turn off iCloud calendar

verify in your calendar app that all the events are gone

turn back on iCloud calendar

Go to your calendar and watch your events repopulate.

search should now work

Same for me. On my new Mac Mini M2 running Ventura 13.6.1, I am unable to use the search function to see past Calendar entries, though future entries show up. I have tried refreshing Spotlight — that didn't fix it. I don't have my Calendar backed up in iCloud, but that was never a problem before. I see a lot of queries in the Apple Community about this Calendar problem, going back a year. I haven't found an actual solution, though.

Maybe the solution to the original poster's problem is to turn off the local calendars in the left sidebar, then turn them on again. As a test, I created a local test calendar, which appeared in the sidebar under "Other," and then added a calendar entry for a day back in 2020. This was immediately searchable in the Calendar app and also showed up in a Spotlight search. Maybe a re-load is all that's needed.

I was having the same Calendar search under MacOS 14.1.2. I tried suggestions/opinions from many people across the internet and in this community. I then went to System Settings>Siri & Spotlight. Under "Search results" I unchecked "Events & Reminders", then checked it back on again. After that my Calendar search could find all entries past, present, and future.

I just tried a Calendar search in a test account on my Mac. I linked the Google account where my calendars are synced to my mobile devices. In the test account, search worked perfectly. It found entries going back many years. Now I need to figure out why it works on that account and not my main account. Ideas, anyone?

I found a solution for my own situation, and it's quite simple. I disconnected my Mac Calendar from my Google calendar, then re-connected the two. It took several minutes to repopulate. Now I can search all the entries, going back to 2006. I know this doesn't directly address the original poster's problem, but maybe it's a clue.

Same issue here, command line rebuild, sync and unsync, settings off and on still no solution.

This worked perfectly for me. I had to do it in each individual device (iPad Pro and Phone 15 pro max).

all my entries came back and show up in search.

Thankyou to @kwchanusa

A huge THANK YOU! I have been so frustrated trying to figure out what is wrong with my search... it works on my iPhone, my husbands Mac, but not mine. But, I followed your lead and it's working again! So happy! Thanks!

Reposting this as I saw this in another thread and it worked for me

lambshift

Author

User level:

Level 1

12 points

Search function in Calendar with no results - solved

Hi there,

on my Mac, the problem in Calendar / iCal (macOS Ventura 13.3.1) - where no results are displayed when using the search function in the top right corner of the app - could not be solved by reindexing "Macintosh HD".

However, there is a "Calendars" switch in "Settings -> Apple ID -> Apps using iCloud". If you turn that switch "off" and "on" again, then all Calendar items disappear and reappear within a few minutes: all Calendar items are thereby imported again from iCloud and in turn indexed by Spotlight.

After this simple procedure the Calendar / iCal app again correctly displays all search results !

Mine is almost a "me, too" situation. Running Sonoma 14.4.1 on my MacBook Pro, I noticed Calendar searches for previous entries weren't working several months ago. But today, I discovered that — unlike most previous posts here — I also cannot search for future events. Searching for an activity for which I know I have both past and future entries, the search function now returns _only_ the one from the current month. None of the previous or future entries are shown. :-( The small piece of good news: Calendar searches on my iPhone still show both past and future entries.

Given the number of entries here and the time over which they've been reported, this almost certainly has to be a Mac system issue — one I sincerely hope will be resolved soon, as the Calendar search function is a very important and useful one. Having it effectively not working, at all, on my Mac is a serious disappointment.

Worked for me, thank you!

This has been a frustrating problem for months — calendar searching is so useful and it's been so frustrating when it stopped working — very thankful to have it working again, thank you!

Me too. I also noticed that the Mac only finds entries that were entered on the Mac.