ios 7 Mail Search Problems

Has anyone had a look to see if they can confirm that my explanation of the order below is correct?

pshute wrote:

I've been experimenting to try to see what the logic is behind the ordering. So far it looks like it puts them in date order, but grouped in this order (for searches on a full email address, not a name, in my Inbox):

- Hits in the From field that are flagged

- Hits in the From field that aren't flagged

- Hits in the To field that are flagged

- Hits in the To field that aren't flagged

- Hits in the Cc field that are flagged

- Hits in the CC field that aren't flagged

- Hits in the body and subject line

That ordering applied for hundreds of hits on one email address I entered, but there are a handful I found at the bottom that have a hit in the From field, so there must be more to this. I suspect that it might be putting results in the Cc groups if the sender has Cc'd themself.

Can anyone else replicate these results? Remember, you have to type the actual email address - if you type in a first name and last name then it starts finding partial hits and confusing things. You also need to wait until it's finished searching, as it might insert more results in any position.You might also need to scroll up when it's done, as it might not have the first one selected if it has inserted more results at the top of the list after the initial hits.

Also make sure you have Current Mailbox selected, not All Mailboxes, otherwise it'll be searching your Sent Items too, and confusing things.

If I'm right about this, then it looks like flagging an email from someone could help make sure it'll be in the first group of results.

Apple should be adding some group separators that explain the different groupings, if they insist on having this type of search. The groupings are so complex that it just makes the results look random, and not displaying the times doesn't help either.

I did these test on an iPad, but a quick check looks like the iPhone works the same way. I'm not making excuses for how it works, just trying to make sense of it so I can use the results. I'd much rather they let us specify the field to search.

You appear to be correct, however a noteworthy result I just experienced was that searching by email address for contacts whose actual name populate to the to/from fields (vs their email addresses) because they're saved in my exchange contacts does not pull them thou except at the end of the search results.

Stuartjeffries wrote:

You appear to be correct, however a noteworthy result I just experienced was that searching by email address for contacts whose actual name populate to the to/from fields (vs their email addresses) because they're saved in my exchange contacts does not pull them thou except at the end of the search results.

Do you mean when there's something like this in the To field:

'John Smith <jsmith@xyz.com.au>'

The actual email address has to be in there too, so surely if you search for jsmith@xyz.com.au then it should only be matching on that string, and ignoring their actual name? I.e. every hit should have that address in it somewhere. Unless it's "smart" enought to be looking up the address in the Contacts, and searching for John Smith too.

From what I've seen, searching for John Smith is pointless, there'll be too many incorrect hits.

I just wanted to confirm that I'm having the same weird search results order happening in ios7 mail.

It's utterly useless. At least give us the option of getting the results in chronological order instead of some weird grouping.

I'm using iOS Mail as a front end to my gmail account.

So I add my voice to the complaints about iOS 7 mail being broken.

Same problem here with 2689 end-users........ Please fix asap.

The Mail search function in i0S 6 was great. Could search by "To" , "From", "Subject", or "All". The search function in iOS 7 is not useful at all. I understant they are grouped but this does not work when you get hundreds of emails a week. Bring back the old search function.

iPhone 5s running v7.0.4

iPad 2 running V6.1.3--will NOT update to iOS 7 because of this issue

Wow. I came upon this thread because I discovered a bug in the iOS 7 mail app search only to find that the bug (or removed feature) I found isn't even one of those mentioned here.

If you have an Exchange account set to not download all mail you used to be able to type an asterisk in the search field to bring in older messages from the server. For example, if you have a folder with messages from 2 years ago then it will be empty when you first open the folder. But if you type an asterisk in the search field (pre iOS 7) it will then show those old messages. This was an absolutely critical feature because it is the only way to see older messages at all (unless you have the space to download your entire Exchange mailbox on the device).

This is a complete failure on Apple's part. A decent, functional search feature is core to any good mail software. Anyone, business user or not, needs to be able to find older info in emails at least occasionally. If you have to go look things up on a computer then what's the point of having the smartphone?

And for everyone talking about an alternative mail app, I don't want to be dependent on a third-party app for something as critical as email when you never know what might happen to the developer or project. If this is going to be the way it is then I'll just have to start looking at alternative platforms. If anyone from Apple is actually reading these forums, take me seriously. It would be a shame to lose loyal customers to Android-based phones just because you couldn't get your act together over something as simple as an email search function.

dlong500 wrote:

If you have an Exchange account set to not download all mail you used to be able to type an asterisk in the search field to bring in older messages from the server. For example, if you have a folder with messages from 2 years ago then it will be empty when you first open the folder. But if you type an asterisk in the search field (pre iOS 7) it will then show those old messages. This was an absolutely critical feature because it is the only way to see older messages at all (unless you have the space to download your entire Exchange mailbox on the device).

With the old search, in order to access older emails not on the device, you had to tap on "Continue search on server" or something, didn't you?

With the new search, it searches the server whether you want to or not. If you enter a search term, it *will* return older results from the server, if you can find the ones you want with this crazy grouping.

I never realised you could enter an asterisk to access all emails with the previous version. Trying this with the new one brings up a few random emails. I don't know what criteria it's using - at least some of them have an actual "*" in them, but a few others don't. Perhaps it found a "*" in the headers of those. It didn't seem to try searching the server.

Conclusion: You can still access old emails via Search, but not all of them at once.

I agree with dlong500.

The functionality to search emails in whichever manner I choose is critical.

I have 12 business users using apple products on the road. All receive 100+ emails per day and the change from ios6 to iOs7 is a huge backward step. Apple - please please take this seriously and resolve this ASAP. I just dont understand why updates can remove valuable features instead of simply improving areas. If this is not resolved quickly, I will have no choice but to look at alternatives tablets or switch to laptops - this seems such a waste.

Having a lot of email issues with new iPad air and iPhone 5s both on 7.0.4. iPhone occasionally says cannot connect to server or incorrect password whilst I can't send any emails from iPad. Apple have asked for a 2 page questionnaire to be filled out with all my server details so they can analyse. Seems to be an issue with ios7 and servers....

I have had these issues as well. Apple please fix this mail search functionality.

I hate this entire OS. They changed the functionality, it's not MAC-LIKE at all. Why in the heck would Apple want to immitate Windows? This flat design crap stinks. It's hideous. I hate the MAPS app especially. Driving either day or not requires me to invoke the color invert feature in Accessibility. RIDICULOUS!

Not visionary, not all that creative. Designers may have their place in this world, but the designers of this iOS should start over.

Hi, been checking back to this forum for a while as this issue is frustrating the **** out of me too.

Not a corporate user, self employed and heavily reliant on email access for business. I have 3 separate email accounts. All on google mail. One is a regular personal gmail account. The other two are business google accounts set up by the clients I work for (I think they pay a small fee per user) but the functionality to me is the same.

I used to love mail on iPhone as gmail so easy to set up and I find the mail interface a lot simpler than either gmail mobile or gmail app. Especially for multiple accounts.

UNTIL NOW. The search results not returning in chronological order is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. I get a lot of business emails and often need to check back on details. I usually know right when a mail was sent so it used to be a quick search and a run through to the right sort of timeframe and I'd find it.

Search has never been brilliant in mail and sometimes I used to have to still go to google mail mobile site to find specific mails but now increasingly I'm having to use this workaround.

It's very time consuming. Add to this the lag factor with ios7 (don't get me started on the killer lag on my iPad2!!!) and I am just wasting SO much time on this.

I am using an iPhone 4S. Latest version of iOS 7 (I faithfully install every new update in the hope that Apple will fix this fundamental issue). Mail accounts all google.

I hope someone at Apple is actually doing something about this.

I like to think Steve Jobs would be turning in his grave at this sort of thing. But who knows? This doesn't seem to be the first time Apple has failed to deliver.

Exceptionally frustrated lady in UK.

BTW question has 13,794 views, 87 replied and only 31 ticked "I have the same question" on the original post. Do those numbers go back to Apple? Just a thought. Clearly more than 31 have the same question!

Is there any solution for this problem?

am having same issue. until apple fixes this, can someone recommend an email app where the search actually does what its supposed to do?