Ive had this happen earlier this year, searching for mails wont find the mails i look for, only trough Finder.
Dont remember how i solved it last time, but i had to rebuild the entire mailbox to fix it.
Why is this happening, and are there other ways to fix it?
OSX 10.12.5
If there are issues in finder click on apple logo > force quit , select finder and relaunch .
Also enter in user library macOS Sierra: Library folder
Find a folder preferences drag and drop com.apple.finder.plist to the desktop , restart the machine .
Try rebuilding the mailbox.
If that doesn't work, try re-indexing the mailboxes. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.
Reindex messages For El Capitan, try looking in V3. Sierra use V4. High Sierra use V5.
Reindex messages (2) See post by Linc Davis
Hi I had this problem too, and none of the rebuilding, etc., worked. Here is what I did.
I went to my Library by holding down the option key while clicking on File > Go (to reveal the invisible library). Then I went to Preferences and found com.apple.finder.plist BUT I ALSO found an additional file named something like com.apple.finder.plist.XXXXXX (with random capital letters where the Xs are).
That seemed fishy to me, so I compressed both plists into an "archive" (just in case I was wrong) and deleted the uncompressed versions.
Then I restarted my computer so it could make a new .plist to replace the one(s) I trashed. Out of curiosity, I also went back into the Library to see if I had TWO new .plist files and of course there was only one—as I suspected should be the case. How did the other one get in there? Hack? Virus? Glitch? I don't know. Anyway, I trashed the archive to get rid of it and my mail search function is running normally now.
Hope this helps!
Hi,
Thanks, you were right about the plist files, i had one too with random letters, 0byte, last opened May 16, deleted both, and restarted, monitored the plist during startup, a new random plist popped up, but disappeared again a few seconds later, however, search function still dont work, i tested with one spesific mail, and wrote the exact same title, but still nothing, maybe it takes time to reindex?
How about this file? com.apple.mail.plist
That's really weird. My random file was also 0 bytes and I think it was also dated May 16.
I also double-checked my com.apple.finder.plist and I still only have the one without random letters at the end. It sounds like you somehow got both back again. Maybe try deleting the extra one again?
I don't know about the com.apple.mail.plist but you could try just moving it to your desktop (in case something goes wrong) and then restart the computer and see if things get better. If the new fresh one doesn't fix things, you can still put the old one, I think.
Hope it works!
I had same problem today - search would not find anything! I have resolved though.
After quitting and restarting Mail there was no difference, so I will usually go through a standard routine of shutting down, restarting while holding down the 4 keys to ZAP the PRAM (alt, command, P, R) you'll hear a bong... I always hold the keys down till it does another cycle and bongs again!... then once it has started up, I quit any programs and then go to Utilities to open up Disk Utility, and then choose the First Aid repair and run that.
After I did that I opened up Mail and the search then worked. Sorry if I'm teaching to suck eggs on the zapping the PRAM stuff, but I'd sooner be clear than assume people know how to do that.
Good luck.
Letting you know I'm having the same exact problem. I've tried everything listed here and some other things, and I cannot get it to work again. I've spent nearly all my spare time for a solid week trying to sort it out.
I believe it started after I applied a set of updates on Jan 25 - Security Update 2018-001, Safari 11.0.3, Itunes 12.7.3. I can only assume it has to do with the Security update because neither of the other two have anything to do with Mail.
Have you also noticed that your "Flagged" mailbox displays nothing when you click on it?
I made the same updates as you, but not experiencing the same problems. Flagged items seems to work fine - I can select a mail item and set a flag against it, or choose Flags from the drop-down menu and the flagged items appear at the top of the list.
Not help for you though I know, but don't know what else to suggest, Bar a visit to the genius bar.
Thanks for the input Gary. Genius bar isn't an option for us. Nearest Apple store is about 400 miles. 😟
Will just have to keep on trying different fixes and using Spotlight search instead of Mail search - which does find the emails, but doesn't allow that same targeted refinement.
Maybe the next update will fix it. Maybe I will have to upgrade to High Sierra, although I'm reading many people are having the same problem on that OS. Maybe have to switch to a different mail app. *frustrating*
400 miles... where are you - in outer Mongolia?
I am already on High Sierra 10.13.3 so maybe worth an update.
I'm no expert, but I have to think it's something to do with the indexing, as it sounds like it's lost that. There was someone suggesting you dump the preference pList settings for mail I think, which just gets replaced with a new one on restart. But have you tried rebuilding each of your mailboxes? It's the bottom option under the Mailbox menu... can take quote a while depending on the size of your mailbox, but nothing to lose.
I'm using High Sierra 10.12.6 on a Retina 5K 27" late 2015 Mac. I just today have had the some problem for all mailboxes and individual mailboxes. I tried a number of remedies with no success. So I tried something simple. I logged off, shut down, and restarted the computer and now Mail search works normally.
I got here because all of a sudden mine won't find anything in the mail search box either - that's never happened before. MacMini late 2012 Yosemite 10.10.5 - this isn't likely to be a coincidence and I'd love for some answer. Type in something (not finder but right corner mail search box) and nothing even when I'm looking at 12 things with that name. You're not the only one and I'd love for an answer too.
I updated to High Sierra and now I have the same problem.
I called Apple Support and their response was that they are aware of this problem and they don't currently have a fix for it. Hopefully an update at a later date perhaps.
I tried using Outlook instead of Mail and it's same result.
Bummer because obviously searching emails using "search" is a very important function.
Thank you... I had the same issue and it was doing my head in for ages. I deleted the .plist files that had the random letters and numbers at the end, restarted my Mac and now the search function in my email is finally working again 🙂
I don't have any strange-looking plist files, and I am not comfortable just randomly deleting system files. At least I know that this is a Mac OS problem. I will recommend using Windows to my users who need to search their emails until Apple focuses more on Mac OS.
Search function in Mail not working
