Search feature in mail finds nothing with Mavericks

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Level 1

0 points

Search feature in mail finds nothing with Mavericks

If I try to find an email in Mail by searching by someone's name or the business name that I know is in the email address it comes up with nothing. I have tried it with all of the different search options. For instance, I was trying to find an email from someone named Katherine. I start typing her name in the search field, and Mail immediately makes a list of people whose names have the same letters. If I select her name, it shows up with zero messages, but I know I have mesages from her in there. Then I tried not selcting her name from the list Mail provided and just typing it in and hitting enter and it still doesn't show up. I am assuming this is a bug. But if someone can tell me something I can change to make it work that would be great. Thanks!

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), Mac Mail

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 3:35 PM

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Answer 1

jaydisc

Level 4

1,464 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:00 PM in response to defghik

Same problem here. I tried rebuilding Envelope Index to no avail. I really don't want to rebuild my entire Spotlight index, but I guess that's the next option.

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Answer 2

NHC2365

Level 1

20 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:03 PM in response to defghik

Spotlight can take a while to index fully and searching email wont find full results until completed. To reindex spotlight just google it.

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Answer 3

jaydisc

Level 4

1,464 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:05 PM in response to NHC2365

That's not the problem for me. My indexes are complete. I can find email messages in the spotlight menu... just not in Mail.app.

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Answer 4

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:09 PM in response to defghik

Try this: Quit Mail > then > Move ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index to the desktop > Re-open mail and see if that fixed it.

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Answer 5

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:13 PM in response to NHC2365

Thank you NHC2365. I will see if I have better results tomorrow. It seems to be working fine on my MacBook Pro, and I installed Mavericks on that one first. It's not finding any older messages on my MacPro yet. If it's not finding things by morning I will check into reindexing. Thank you for the tip!

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Answer 6

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:28 PM in response to Miska_FL

Miska_FL, I don't have those files. Could that be the problem?

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Answer 7

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:31 PM in response to defghik

Very possible... Lets trying this in terminal: "mdimport -r /System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter"

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Answer 8

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 5:57 PM in response to Miska_FL

Miska_FL,

I am not super familiar with terminal, but I entered in

"mdimport -r /System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter" (including the quotes)

and I got back:

-bash: mdimport -r /System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter: No such file or directory

If I follow that directory structure into the Spotlight folder, these are the only files I have in there:

AppleWorks.mdimporter

GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter

iWork.mdimporter

LogicPro.mdimporter

Microsoft Office.mdimporter

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Answer 9

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:03 PM in response to defghik

Leave the quotes out.

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Answer 10

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:12 PM in response to Miska_FL

I should have mentioned. I tried it without the quotes, too. I get nothing, it just sets up a new prompt.

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Answer 11

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:20 PM in response to Miska_FL

That list I gave above is incomplete. I entered the Library folder, but not from the system level. I looked again in System/Library/Spotlight and I did find Mail.mdimporter.

I still don't get anything in terminal. Is there something I should do with the "Mail.mdimporter"?

I am so sorry this is draggin on and on. I am out of my element with this.

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Answer 12

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:20 PM in response to defghik

Okay perfect that means it worked. Did you quit mail > re-open and tried to search again?

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Answer 13

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:25 PM in response to Miska_FL

I have quit mail a few times, re-opened and tried to search and nada. What worked?

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Answer 14

Miska_FL

Level 2

390 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:26 PM in response to defghik

Okay I think I found a way. I was able to reproduce the issue you are having by messing with the index files and then ran this command in terminal: "sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum" without quotes while mail app is closed.

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Answer 15

defghik Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2013 6:36 PM in response to Miska_FL

You are so great for contining on with this. I closed mail. entered "sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum" (without quotes) and reopened mail. Same problem. It's not finding all older messages. I thought it was all messages from before the Mavericks install, but there are a few older ones that will come up, but not from people, just companies.

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