Search feature in mail finds nothing with Mavericks

Wait for an update from Apple😟

That's the most encouraging solutions I have found, because that will probably work and now I can quit messi' with this **** thing and go back to my life!

I understand & sympathize, I have had the same problem in earlier versions of mail. Note also that re-indexing takes time. Maybe overnight if you have a lot of mail.

I do think the diagnostic of whether or not you can find the message in Spotlight helps. If not, then it suggests that spotlight has a problem. If so, then focus on mail. Rebuild one and only one mail folder - wait for it to be done and then see if you can find any messages in it.

Still there are obvious bugs with the system, even though it works some of the time for me. Apple, FIX THE PROBLEM!

Would LOVE to know if/when you ever find a solution.. have the same problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5647770) .. very frustrating.

Good luck.

Yes, I often have the same problem... simply buggy. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't even changing in the same session. The search feature which I use, and need, is often simply not working. And this is only one of several major ongoing issues in Mail since upgrading to Mavericks. I have posted about lost messages after moving them between mailboxes.

The particular dissappearing message symptom is yet to reappear. However, yesterday the prelude behavior returned.... when I delete a message, it remains in the inbox. I have to quit and restart mail for it to be moved to the trash. It matters not whether I use the delete key on the highlighted message, use the trash tool button, or the "move to trash" command in the "Message" menu. There is other weird associated behavior with the highlighting of a particular message jumping arround (if other messages were unsuccessfully deleted) when this happens too.

All this started with Mavericks.... what a mess. Any ideas on a fix... what we need here is a serious software fix from Apple!!!!!!

My brand new Macbook Pro would not show any results when searching in Mail.

This is what happened. In the initial install of Mavericks I was given the opportunity to hook up my TimeMachine backup (created on my old white Macbook). That worked swell: every document and setting was available and all applications were functioning. Except for the search function in Mail (and iCal as well). Searching for items that are definitely present gave ZERO results.

Now, you must know, I upgraded the white Macbook to Mavericks just prior to making the backup. On this old lovely white friend, search was also giving no results after the upgrade to Mavericks.

I did everything that is mentioned in several discussions here: reindexing Spotlight, repairing permissions, deleting and re-installing mail accounts, deleting the Envelope files, etc. Nothing worked for me.

Finally I contacted the Apple service guys. It took me 1 hour chatting and 30 minutes on the phone. They let me do several experiments on the Macbook Pro. None worked. The final conclusion was: reinstall Mavericks. (!!)

I had no confidence but did it anyhow. With great results! Search in Mail and iCal are okay now!

This is what I did:

(Also see http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14243)

1. Boot with CMD-R pressed until you see the apple icon on the grey screen (recovery mode).

2. In the recovery screen, go to Disk Utility. Select the Macintosh HD disk, and press Erase. Exit Disk Utility.

3. In the recovery screen, go to Reinstall OS X.

4. When prompted for a user account, enter "test" or something. NOT the real account name you want. Let installation finish.

You may run Mail just for the fun of it. Enter one of your mail accounts. In my case, Mail search was working okay now.

(For the steps 5 and 6, also see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4500)

5. In Spotlight, search for "Migration Assistant". Run the program.

6. Hook up your Time Machine backup, and let it restore the 3 options (programs, setups, documents). Choose the option to replace the current account (otherwise it would leave you with account Test and your real account).

After this, you have a fresh reinstallation of Mavericks and all your stuff is available.

In my case, Mail search was not working anymore (BOO). I did the following:

7. Deinstall Gmail account. Remove the entire iCloud settings.

It's a wonder! Mail Search suddenly replied with the searched items (YEAH!!!).

Alas iCal search still didn't find anything :-(. I did the following:

8. Download and install ONYX (donationware, www.titanium.free.fr)

9. Run it, and do the things on the Maintence/Rebuild tab. I kept all the checkboxes untoched, so it rebuilt the mailboxes en the spotlight index. Then, I waited a couple of hours without touching the computer.

That did it for me! I reinstalled the Gmail account and iCloud connection, and everything kept working!

I'M SO HAPPY!!!!

Happy for you.. Hopefully it keeps working (and I hope you post back if it stops working again, mine worked for ~24 hours or so before it blew up again).. Good luck and fingers crossed though!

I did all this a week ago, and used my macbook every day. Even did some booting. So, I am optimistic.

I have trying reindexing my spotlight as mentioned before (although the search i use is in mail, so I don't know what that was for) AND removing Library/Mail/V2/MailData/EnvelopeIndex and still nothing!!!!
NHC2365 any idea how to help please?

Please everyone pay heed to experience with this aggravating problem. After tyring everything suggested here and coming up with no solution, I went ahead and purchased Apple Care before my 90 day tech support ran out. I did this specicially to find a solution for this email search issue. Once my case was escalated twice, the tech actually apoplgized for this known issue, encouraging me that they had a team of people working on this for the next Mavericks update.

If you had tried all the suggestions here and it has not solved the mail search issue, I am afraid you, along with myself, must wait.

Thanks for this news. I'll wait patiently.

Just in case anyone needs a screen shot to show anyone else, here's mine. I know I have a ton of emails from Trulia, but none appear when searching.

Bump-cause it still hasnt been fixed! in fact it worked at the beginning of the week and now it doesnt work!

I'm getting really ****** with this problem. Taxes are coming up and I'm not going to be happy if I have to manually search mail for tax related things.

What is the **** problem? Why isn't this fixed yet? I'd prefer if Apple sent me a link to go back to the previous OSX where everything was working as it should.

I have tried each of these fixes and still cannot search my mail. I tried the reindexing, the rebuilding, and the envelop files.

I took my new Macbook Pro Retina 13 to Apple and asked them about it. They said it is a 'known issue' and Apple are 'working on it.'

However, since then there have been two updates to the system and no fix. I cannot file my mail as I cannot search it.

About to install Outlook because this is a nightmare and Apple doesn't seem to care one bit about it.

Sad.

Im having to use other email clients that work. Such as Mail Pilot and Unibox. There is also a problem with smartmail boxes acting wacky. Apple got too big and is acting like microsoft. Half assing everything!