Not sure when my Mac mail search stopped working, maybe 6 months ago. I have used it before this time, entering relevant search name for email then pressed Return and nothing happens. Changed search name and isolated one email account and still nothing. Just had an update to current OS Sonoma 14.1.1 and this has not fixed the problem. Also I’ve synchronised all email accounts which also did not help. Any help would be appreciated.
iMac 24″, macOS 14.1
Try to rebuild each individual mailbox one by one: Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. It will take some time before the indexes are rebuilt. After some time, try to do a search again.
Try to rebuild each individual mailbox one by one: Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. It will take some time before the indexes are rebuilt. After some time, try to do a search again.
This seems to be a known problem, certainly in macOS 14.1.2. It also seems to affect searches in calendar for me. I have found that I can make it go away temporarily (typically for a day or so) by shutting down and rebooting- a plain restart won’t do it. Although there may historically been other causes, to me this seems to be linked to os 14. I have been trying to resolve it through Apple support who say a fix is coming through an os update.
I've had the same problem losing the ability to search in Mac mail. Spotlight search was affected too. I have a Mac mini m2 that's running Sonoma 14.3.1. Also, I am a federal employ and have to insert a chipped id card into a usb card reader to access the government network. I just discovered that my problem only occurs when I have my id card inserted when I start up my Mac. I don't know if anyone else has to use an id card, but waiting to insert my id card until after the Mac boots solved my problem. Good luck, all!
I just updated to 14.4.1 and issue is present in my work account. My personal admin account works fine. It is present in calendar and mail apps. Everything worked fine in Ventura. I type search criteria and hit enter and nothing happens. Spoke to Apple Support and they simply said I have to reinstall the OS. seems a bit drastic when the issue is only present in one account.
I have some further observations on this issue. If you shut down and reboot, this problem temporarily goes away, certainly in my case. If you log out the problem is triggered immediately so it's linked to something that happens when your active account logs out. I run a mac studio as my main machine and just bought an M3 air as a travelling machine. The air is set up as a sort of clone of the studio (using migration assistant). I have not seen this issue on the Air in the little time I have been using it. Maybe reinstalling the os is the solution??
Mac mail search not working at all
