With the new mail in El Capitan, when I search for mails from a sender, it does not bring up most of the emails from that sender. This renders the search function in mail unusable.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.0.x)
Sorry, did you also force quit mail? If this doesn’t work you will have to sign out of all mail accounts, move any local folders out to desktop, then log back in everything and add the folders back, this will reindex all messages as well.
I’m not an expert but I would suggest first disconnecting or signing out of those network folders, make sure after disconnecting that the folders are local and on the server with the same number of messages. Once you are sure they are on the server you then delete the local folders. If the local folders disappear (which I doubt) from the local Mac then reconnect to the server.
The basic thing here is that your local Mac needs to relearn so to speak, re-index all the mail once again, the only way besides the shortcut previously mentioned or to remove and reinstall all mail.
A Mac indexes all data so it can be found easily, your search feature too right of your monitor does the same thing but for the whole computer, that search bar will also search all mail for whatever you type. If that doesn’t work for finding mail it’s again an issue you need to fix as described above.
Good luck
Don’t enter anything before the backslash, another solution is to reindex all affected mail folders by moving them out and then copying them back. Both have worked for me but the terminal instructions were less effort.
Remove characters prior to the back slash “\” and make sure you enter the full string, then try again
This is the string that worked for me and is different from what you posted is:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true
Remove characters prior to the back slash “\” and try again.
These folders are not local, the are on an OS X server mounted as afp? Networkusers!
I have the same problem... using Sierra
Tried the command but without success
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true
Any help please?
Starting in terminal mode and entering the below string worked perfect for me in El Capitan, I suggest to close Mail out completely first.
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true
Doesn't work for me!
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true
results in
username is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Thanks. This suggestion worked for me. I was not able to search from either Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook but Spotlight search was working. Running this command and restarting the mail application (Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook) resolved the issue.
I think I am mad! doesn't work for me also!!!
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true
result!
-bash: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox: No such file or directory
I have tried about everything here but search does not work in Mail. I have an IMAP account. Strange thing is that if I setup this account on another mac then search works fine! So it must be something with the MacBook Pro 15" 2015 running High Sierra 10.13.2
- I have applied all updates
- Deleted and rebuilt Spotlight indexes
- Reinstalled OS X
- Deleted the account and added it again
I was thinking there was something with the IMAP account but when I installed it on another machine the search works fine. I am not sure if this has something to do with it but my fans are blowing crazy very often but I can not find out what is causing this. Checked everything in activity and nothing specific is using much CPU.
After I reinstalled OS X it was working partially for a day, now it is back to not working. Any more suggestions? I have read and tried everything here on the thread.
Which back slash \? I have only slash / :-(
my input in Terminal ist exact the same as you entered :-(
It could be worse. I get zero hits regardless of what I search. I can be looking right at an email, search for something that is in it or who it is from and mail tells me there is nothing. So far I have tried each and every thing suggested in this thread, reinstall OS, reindex, unrestrict scope... everything here as of when I am writing this message. Nothing has done anything at all. This is unusual. Typically I find something that works. Not this time. The only thing that has worked is to give up on Apple mail and start using different software.
Given how many people discuss this problem online, and given that it has been a recurrent issue with mail, I find it difficult to believe that Apple is unaware this is and has been is a issue for many customers.
Mail Search not working El Capitan
