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Apple Mail Search not working fully

In Apple Mail, I've noticed that searching doesn't seem to work as expected or more probably, I am doing something wrong. I've noticed the behavior below for years over different OSX's and just didn't have time to research the issue in case it was user error, and have used Spotlight, which has issues too, but seems way more thorough returning criteria results than AppleMail does.


TEST DONE TODAY: I have an email in my inbox:


From: Hearsay Social <support@hearsaycorp.com>

Subject: Reminder: Action Requried On Your Profile

Date: November 30, 2015 9:09:56 AM EST

To: Steven <shmerl@xxxxx.com>

Reply-To: Hearsay Social <support@hearsaycorp.com>


The email's body text mentions "Hearsay" 6 times, but some are spelled all lower case, some upper "H"


WHAT I TRIED:


TEST #1:

It's in my inbox and with the inbox selected, I typed in "Hearsay" (no quotes) and shows other emails about Hearsay but not the one above.


TEST #2:


From: Steven <sas@xxxx.com>

Subject: Re: Inquiry from Amazon customer Steven

Date: November 26, 2015 7:47:44 PM EST

To: iXCC - Amazon Marketplace <c02gvynrjhzyry3@marketplace.amazon.com>


I sent this email the other day and am looking at it in the Sent folder. I selected "Sent" and typed "iXCC" in the Search field, but only get back 1 email from 2014.

Since I'm getting some returns, I seem to be doing something right, but just not enough to get ALL emails pertinent to my search criterias.


My assumption is that the search checks headers and body. Is this correct? iXCC is in the TO: field, and I spelled iXCC exactly as it appears in the email that I'm trying to have appear in my search criteria results. "iXCC" also appears 4 times in the email body. So I don't get why search isn't finding this email. Does AppleMail Search not check certain mailboxes or only one.


Will AppleMail search folders I've created that are On My Mac? What about folders I've created on on a IMAP server?


Better yet, is there a "how to" or full instructions on using AppleMail and Spotlight searching? If someone can point me, I'd be very grateful.


Thanks.

Steven

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), 4-Core Mid 2012

Posted on Nov 30, 2015 8:36 AM

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Apple Mail Search not working fully

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