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
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
You can submit your feedback to Apple here:
To submit a bug report, you need a Developer account.
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
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*
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.
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.
I know how to search.
Im saying it stoped working.
How about reading my original post?
I give up this forum!
Do you use finder to search mails or by opening mail application and in its search bar try to search the mails .
Ok! You're welcome!
Ive tried rebuilding and reindexing, without any luck, cant even find the most recent mails ive sent...
Is there no solution to this?
SO NOBODY IN HERE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?
Search function in Mail not working
