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Search in Mac Mail No Longer Working Properly

I use the search function in Mac Mail all the time -- to remind myself about old e-mails that I've sent or saved (e.g. what was the name of that rhododendron that Mom recommended? What year was I e-mailing folks back and forth about Dacor appliances?). Suddenly those searches just show results that I know are wrong -- e.g. almost nothing shows up in the searches. For example, I search for the word "Leif", knowing that the guy who runs my kids' tennis program is Leif something and I've sent him tons of e-mails... and nothing shows up. If I start a new e-mail his name comes up immediately when I start typing "Leif," and there are definitely e-mails in my "Sent" folder with his name on them. Yet nothing shows up in the search.


HELP! This is a vital tool that I use all the time to remind myself of things I've e-mailed about. I don't want to lose it.

iMac 27″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 16, 2021 3:47 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 16, 2021 5:29 PM

Nancy Trainer wrote:

I use the search function in Mac Mail all the time -- to remind myself about old e-mails that I've sent or saved (e.g. what was the name of that rhododendron that Mom recommended? What year was I e-mailing folks back and forth about Dacor appliances?). Suddenly those searches just show results that I know are wrong -- e.g. almost nothing shows up in the searches. For example, I search for the word "Leif", knowing that the guy who runs my kids' tennis program is Leif something and I've sent him tons of e-mails... and nothing shows up. If I start a new e-mail his name comes up immediately when I start typing "Leif," and there are definitely e-mails in my "Sent" folder with his name on them. Yet nothing shows up in the search.

HELP! This is a vital tool that I use all the time to remind myself of things I've e-mailed about. I don't want to lose it.



Mail search is dependent on the Spotlight data base...


Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support


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5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 16, 2021 5:29 PM in response to Nancy Trainer

Nancy Trainer wrote:

I use the search function in Mac Mail all the time -- to remind myself about old e-mails that I've sent or saved (e.g. what was the name of that rhododendron that Mom recommended? What year was I e-mailing folks back and forth about Dacor appliances?). Suddenly those searches just show results that I know are wrong -- e.g. almost nothing shows up in the searches. For example, I search for the word "Leif", knowing that the guy who runs my kids' tennis program is Leif something and I've sent him tons of e-mails... and nothing shows up. If I start a new e-mail his name comes up immediately when I start typing "Leif," and there are definitely e-mails in my "Sent" folder with his name on them. Yet nothing shows up in the search.

HELP! This is a vital tool that I use all the time to remind myself of things I've e-mailed about. I don't want to lose it.



Mail search is dependent on the Spotlight data base...


Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support


Nov 21, 2021 10:26 AM in response to Nancy Trainer

Mail has broken in multiple ways I have noticed.... on both my Mac's the search is very broken (after Rebuilding Spotlight it appeared to help but I have noticed that it showed different results but not all) but I noticed that all my signatures were gone and went back to settings of years ago... suddenly old signatures were back and all new were gone. I also have found that the junk mail settings are not working as I have set it and rules I've put in place for spam are also not being followed by mail.

Search in Mac Mail No Longer Working Properly

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