Mail Search not working El Capitan

Wow, I have tried everything in this thread except for reinstalling OS X, and still I am unable to search my email on my Macbook Pro and 2011 iMac. Both running El Capitan. I just ordered a new 4k iMac, I hope I don't continue to have this problem!

1. /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true

-bash: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox: No such file or directory

2. Removed all files that begin with Envelope* in ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData.

3. Rebuilt all of my mailboxes.

4. Signed out of then back into icloud.

5. Tried disabling my gmail account.

version 10.11.5 Beta (15F31a) of El Capitain; this does not work.

THIS FIXED IT! After much difficulty, this post fixed it. Thank you. RIck

Reply by matt buswell on Dec 8, 2015 1:57 AM Helpful

Open terminal from the utilities folder.

Paste this in sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.appsandbox UnrestrictSpotlightContainerScope -bool true

Press return

enter your password.

open mail

Mail search will now be back to normal

See the answer in context

So being another person who tried everything listed and nothing worked...I finally found something that did. The issue seems to be with Spotlight and the index of Mail. This is what worked for me:

Open Terminal found in /Applications/Utilities

Inside terminal run the command below and then enter your admin password when/if prompted:

sudo mdutil -E /

You will then see the following output in Terminal:

/:

Indexing enabled

For those not familiar with the mdutil command, here is information from the man (manual) page:

mdutil -- manage the metadata stores used by Spotlight

-E This flag will cause each local store for the volumes indicated to be erased. The stores will be rebuilt if appropriate.

What you are effectively doing via mdutil is telling it to discard and rebuild the index for / (or "root" aka Macintosh HD). After running the command, you can activate Spotlight (CMD + Space) and try and search for something and you will see the indexing progress.

I noticed Mail search was fixed a few minutes after I executed the command in Terminal (Maybe Mail gets re-indexed first?). I did not have to wait for Spotlight to complete the index of the entire drive before Mail search worked. Note, Spotlight searches will be limited until the complete index is completed, but Mail worked pretty much right away.

Hope this helps!

I've done this, and still run into issues. When Mail search (and/or Spotlight) aren't responsive, an easy fix I've found:

In Terminal, enter:

$ sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

(You will be prompted for your admin password)

Then:

$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Unlike other methods, this doesn't take much time at all, and I haven't come across any adverse effects when using it.

Good to know. I'll try this next time and see if this is a more immediate fix. It would be nice to not have to reindex root every time it happens.

I tried all the commonly recommended solutions and none of them worked - deleted envelop folders, reinstalled OS X, tried the terminal command. No luck.

After I saw the post suggesting that Cocktail may have been causing an issue I decided to try updating Onxy. (I use that instead of Cocktail.) I had tried using Onyx to rebuild the index before but no luck (was using an older version). When I updated to 3.1.6, and had it rebuild, and delete the old version... it worked. It had to reimport the mail, but I now get results when I search mail again. (YEAH!)

After updating to 10.11.6 search/spotlight would no longer work in Mail. I tried everything like re-indexing to reinstalling the Combo update but nothing worked. Then came across this terminal command. Works now! Thanks Rick!!

Had to do all of this, plus the stuff in the post at the bottom:

https://www.boxaid.com/blog/search-not-working-mac-el-capitan/

Only this worked for me..nothing else did..simple and easy. Was driving me up the wall - thanks!

I was having this problem in Yosemite. After trying all the other options out there (redbuilding/reindexing mailboxes, changing the Spotlight Preferences, deleting the Envelope Indexes) without any success, your suggestion regarding the Terminal command worked for me. Thanks!

When I log out of iCloud the system wants to delete my files on the mac....? will I have to reload all data?

I did the sign out then sign into iCloud, and it didn't help. Did I need to restart my computer, or anything else?

And if the Apple senior advisors told you only that option worked, why might reinstalling the OS work?

Well, I unchecked mail & messages with Mail in privacy, and it still didn't work. However, when I removed Mail from the privacy folder, AND checked Mail & Messages in the Spotlight preferences, it now works!
So, doing the opposite of what you did, fixed it for me, how odd....

OK - I have exactly this problem in Sierra, but only for the last 48 hrs (Sierra having been installed for weeks). I have tried all of these methods including re-installation of Sierra, in/out of iCloud and the Terminal code - and nothing works. This is a HUGE problem for me as I get 100's mails/day and really need to be able to track topics.

FWIW the mail search on my iPhone (7) still works, presumably via the server but this is very clunky as a way to live!

Help urgently needed!

Thanks

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), 8GB