Maestro1827
Level 1 (18 points)

Q: Mail Search not working El Capitan

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)

Posted on Oct 1, 2015 10:41 AM

by Maestro1827,Apple recommended
Maestro1827 Maestro1827
Level 1 (18 points)
A:

Go to Sys Pref, iCloud and sign out of iCloud, then sign back in and everything should work fine.

 

If this doesn't work try reinstalling El Capitan: Just power off the iMac, hold command and R and then power the Mac back on.

  Hold command and R until you see the Apple logo and progress bar. 

That will boot you to the utilities menu, one of the options you will see there is reinstall OS X.  
Just click on that, put in your Apple id, and once it completes, try to search.

 

Apple senior advisors tried both the above options with me and the first one worked.

Posted on Oct 16, 2015 11:52 AM

Close
Maestro1827

Q: Mail Search not working El Capitan

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Page 1 of 6 last Next

  • by Ferd II,

    Ferd II Ferd II Oct 1, 2015 10:49 AM in response to Maestro1827
    Level 7 (28,224 points)
    Applications
    Oct 1, 2015 10:49 AM in response to Maestro1827

    Maestro,

     

    Try Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support.

    SmallWings.png

  • by Maestro1827,

    Maestro1827 Maestro1827 Oct 1, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Ferd II
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Ferd II

    thanks Ferd, so which folder or volume should I drag to the list?

  • by Ferd II,

    Ferd II Ferd II Oct 1, 2015 11:03 AM in response to Maestro1827
    Level 7 (28,224 points)
    Applications
    Oct 1, 2015 11:03 AM in response to Maestro1827

    Maestro,

     

    I would recommend the Macintosh HD.

    SmallWings.png

  • by Maestro1827,

    Maestro1827 Maestro1827 Oct 1, 2015 11:35 AM in response to Ferd II
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 11:35 AM in response to Ferd II

    I tried this and when I search mail for a sender it still will not bring up emails from that sender.

  • by fcbjr,

    fcbjr fcbjr Oct 6, 2015 11:36 AM in response to Maestro1827
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Safari
    Oct 6, 2015 11:36 AM in response to Maestro1827

    You need to re-index Mail.

     

    Quit Mail

    Open System Preferences/iCloud and uncheck Mail

    Close/Quit System Preferences

         <Here I would Restart your Mac, but you probably don't have to>

    Open Mail (it should be devoid of all Mail unless you have it checking other Mail accounts like Gmail)

    Open System Preferences/iCloud and check Mail

    Close/Quit System Preferences


    From Message Viewer, look at the bottom of your Mailboxes List

         (you may have to toggle it by clicking on the little icon below the Check Mail Menu Bar Item)

    You will see your Mail being downloaded from iCloud.  This could take some time!


    ...and when that completes, your Mail will be indexed, and the Search function will work once again.


  • by Heinzmac,

    Heinzmac Heinzmac Oct 14, 2015 4:29 AM in response to Maestro1827
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2015 4:29 AM in response to Maestro1827

    I am having the same problem - the search function will not work on my mail after upgrading to El Capitan.  I tried re-indexing my mail via Spotlight with no luck.  I don't back-up my email to iCloud (I have Time Machine backing up to an Airport Time Capsule), so the above method will not work.  I even tried manually re-indexing by using the following method: 

      • Quit out of Mail app and go to the Finder
      • Hit Command+Shift+G and go to the following path:

    ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/

    • Delete every file that begins with “Envelope Index” (optional but recommended: back up these files to the desktop just in case something goes awry)
    • Close the MailData window, then relaunch Mail app to force reindexing

    Unfortunately, my MailData file contains only one file (Accounts.plist), so this does not work, either.  I use the search function a lot, so any suggestions in fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

     

    Thank you

  • by Heinzmac,

    Heinzmac Heinzmac Oct 14, 2015 4:40 AM in response to Heinzmac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2015 4:40 AM in response to Heinzmac

    Is it possible that the path in El Capitan is actually ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData and not ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData?

  • by RN48,

    RN48 RN48 Oct 15, 2015 1:49 PM in response to Heinzmac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2015 1:49 PM in response to Heinzmac

    I'm having the same problem. Tried re-indexing spotlight, manually deleting the index files, etc.. but the search function doesn't work at all. Any ideas?

  • by RN48,

    RN48 RN48 Oct 16, 2015 11:36 AM in response to RN48
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 11:36 AM in response to RN48

    I kept on tinkering both with my Mail and Spotlight searches  since neither was working and discovered that for some reason indexing was disabled (in spotlight), so via terminal I re-enabled indexing and re indexed spotlight. After that, I quit mail and erased all "Envelope...." files from Mail (including the ones from maildata in V2 and V3), reopened mail and now everything is working well. I'm no expert so I have no way of knowing if both issues were related but the bottom line is I had no search in mail and no use for Spotlight either, and now both are working fine.

  • by Maestro1827,Apple recommended

    Maestro1827 Maestro1827 Oct 16, 2015 11:52 AM in response to Heinzmac
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Oct 16, 2015 11:52 AM in response to Heinzmac

    Go to Sys Pref, iCloud and sign out of iCloud, then sign back in and everything should work fine.

     

    If this doesn't work try reinstalling El Capitan: Just power off the iMac, hold command and R and then power the Mac back on.

  Hold command and R until you see the Apple logo and progress bar. 

That will boot you to the utilities menu, one of the options you will see there is reinstall OS X.  
Just click on that, put in your Apple id, and once it completes, try to search.

     

    Apple senior advisors tried both the above options with me and the first one worked.

  • by Michael Wüthrich1,

    Michael Wüthrich1 Michael Wüthrich1 Oct 18, 2015 7:27 AM in response to Heinzmac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2015 7:27 AM in response to Heinzmac

    Yes! ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData -> Delete every file that begins with “Envelope Index” (archive before doing so)

  • by Heinzmac,

    Heinzmac Heinzmac Oct 19, 2015 4:19 AM in response to Maestro1827
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2015 4:19 AM in response to Maestro1827

    Thanks Maestro1827.   When logging out of iCloud, I get a warning that all documents stored in iCloud will be erased from my computer - should I accept and move forward with signing out?  Thanks

  • by Heinzmac,

    Heinzmac Heinzmac Oct 19, 2015 4:21 AM in response to Michael Wüthrich1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2015 4:21 AM in response to Michael Wüthrich1

    Thank Michael, I erased all envelope index files and mail re-indexed itself upon opening (it took almost 45 minutes).  Unfortunately, the problem still persists.  I tried it a second and third time, with the same results.  Very frustrating

  • by Heinzmac,

    Heinzmac Heinzmac Oct 19, 2015 4:40 AM in response to RN48
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2015 4:40 AM in response to RN48

    Thanks.  I tried re-indexing through Spotlight and by erasing the envelope indexes, but neither worked.

Page 1 of 6 last Next