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iMac27", Mac OS X (10.6.6)
The fact this thread is still alive and driving people insane on the daily screams volumes of how vital it is that Apple fix this issue.
My round about solution has been to consolidate all my non system/application/email files (stuff I create) into a "MyFiles" folder inside my user folder, leaving the outlook/email folder within the documents folder alone. Then I added that MyFiles folder to the Sidebar as a favorite. Then I select the MyFiles folder from the Sidebar just before pressing command-f (or I press command-f to open a Finder window first then I select it...) then if that folder is selected when command-f is pressed it becomes an search location option at the top of the Finder window. I select that option and perform a search. Usually gets me what I need.
Of course if the file I'm searching for is on my desktop or mistakenly in some other folder search is not finding it but at least it eliminates the 33,894 emails and all their content currently in my outlook folder. Plus half the time the Finder can't find stuff anyhow. I can literally be looking directly at the file on my desktop (searching my desktop folder) and the Finder can't find it (despite re-indexing etc). But since Mavericks still hasn't fixed this problem maybe one of these Finder alternatives has a solution.... Pathfinder - Totalfinder - Extrafinder
Good luck.
Allow me to add another voice to the mix... I'm *still* having this problem and it's still driving me insane. Why in the name of god anyone would want to see mail in their search results is beyond me, and it's beyond insulting that Apple would think this is helpful. If I want to search mail, I'll go to mail. Otherwise keep it out of my results!!!
I managed to fix this for a while by un-checking "mail & messages" in the spotlight preferences but a week later they came back! I have no idea why.... very very annoying!
Agree, it is still broken.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
I managed to fix this for a while by un-checking "mail & messages" in the spotlight preferences but a week later they came back! I have no idea why.... very very annoying!
Apple feedback is a sensible thing to do but so is adding your voice to this thread. In these pages you will often read it written that "Apple don't read these forums... send feedback." I could perhaps believe that someone at Apple might claim that nobody reads the discussions, but I don't believe that they would not keep an eye on the very long-lived discussions, such as this one which has been going for 3 years and has 20000 views. That would be really dumb-assed. Kind of like removing the arrows from the scroll bar. 😎
Obviously they make mistakes, introduce bugs and then fix them in an update. However, with something like this I suspect they must have a reason for doing what they do. It may be a deliberate dumb-down but it is probably not accidental after all this time.
My suggestion would be that in additon to unticking the Mail messages in spotlight preferences you also drag it to the bottom of the list so that mail messages are presented last. This works for me in the type of search you initiate from the menu bar at the top right of the screen.
In a finder window, if you initiate a search by typing command-F it does not return mail messages at all. At least not in 10.6.
You might also try rebuilding the spotlight index if you think it might be glitched. You do this by moving your HD to the privacy section and then removing it. You might also use "Find Any File" to locate the spotlight .plist files and delete them.
Unsubscribing from this discussion. I don't need to read the same failed, unworkable solutions from people who have just joined it, even though they may be well-intentioned. Here's hoping that Apple fixes the fundamental problem with Yosemite.
Before you leave, do like me and file your annual bug report and feedback! 😁
Seriously, EVERYONE should be filing this REGULARLY (I choose annually, but may up it to EVERY new dot or full release of OS X). Until, unless a wave of people complain via Apple Feedback (http://www.apple.com/feedback) and/or Apple Bug Reporter (https://bugreport.apple.com), NOTHING will be done. Apple REALLY DOES NOT read these (even if they do, they don't act on anything not in Feedback or Bug Reporter).
Good thinking! I just filed under "OS X" and also on the bug report! Hope many others do this too!
Unchecking the Mail & Messages box in Spotlight Preferences has no effect in my case (running Mavericks). Mails will still appear in Spotlight/Finder search (same thing - different interface: why do people here keep talking as if it were different search apps?)
However, thanks to some comments in this blog I notices one could drag Mail down and set the desired order of results, within the Preferences pane. Thanks for that! Good workaround.
Hi,
What works for me is using adding "-kind:mail" in finder.
Hope this helps.
Greets
Resurrecting an old thread because this problem STILL seems to plague me. Does anyone have a clue how to fix this circa 2015? I'm absolutely stunned that apple would think it's remotely useful to have mail turn up in ANY search results unless I was explicitly searching mail.
First of all, this is a Snow Leopard thread, so I assume you are using SL like me. Also, we need to distinguish between the two kinds of searches:
1 the kind you do form the search box at the top right of a finder window (folder) and
2, the kind you do directly with the Spotlight (magnifying glass) icon at the very top of your screen at the right.
For the spotlight search the best you can do is to open the spotlight preferences and drag the "mail" down to the bottom. That at least will return the mail hits at the end of the list.
In the finder search which you initiate with command-F, I used the keyboards shortcut preferences to map "command-F" onto the "Find by name…" command.
This initiates a search by file name which rarely returns hits to emails, if you know roughly what you are looking for, which I almost always do. I can honestly say that it is years since I noticed hits to email in my search results. Occasionally, I use the find-by-content search but almost always I restrict it to my working folder. If I ever did want to get rid of contaminating mail-hits I would just hit the + button on the finder-search and add another search term restricting it to the particular kind of object I am looking for, such as "document". It is really not too hard to deal with this problem as long as you don't become angry about it, like I did at first. I really don't notice it any more. However, I agree that Apple SHOULD KNOW BETTER!
Note that the three dots are not three periods, but an ellipsis which you get by pressing option-;
the dash indicates that you press option and the semi colon at the same time.
Outlook 2016 came out. Problem still exists. It's been over 10 years.
Both of the links have been deleted
This is a disaster.
No longer can you adjust the column widths in finder
Bringing mail searches is makes the tool useless. Does anyone there listen ?
Turn off email search in finder search
