about mac mail search not working
mac mail search not working is a typical mac error that usually occurs after upgrading to a newer version of macos. If you encounter the error mac mail search not working, the search function in your mailbox app will not work properly.
It is not uncommon for mac users to experience problems with the search function of their mailbox application, especially after the recent release of a new version of macos. for some reason the mailbox search feature is buggy with almost every new version of macos until later patches fix the bug. however, there could be other reasons for encountering this error. for example, it is also possible that the cause of this error is that the mac is still using an older version of macos and needs to be updated.
When this error occurs, you will not get any results when you try to use mailbox search or the results will not appear as expected (for example, older emails may not be included in the search results or that the search produces results that you did not expect/look for). In many cases, this problem fixes itself, either after you restart your mac or after macOS automatically updates to a later patch of its current version. That said, we understand that you are not willing to wait for the problem to resolve itself and would prefer to fix it yourself.
For this, we have prepared instructions on how to fix this error and hopefully fix it. Most of the suggested solutions are easy to do, but if you still have any questions and/or don’t understand how to do something, feel free to ask us about it in the comments section. we’ve shown the troubleshooting methods in order of complexity and time it would take to complete, and we suggest you do them in the same order, so you don’t end up wasting time with more advanced solutions when a simpler one might do the job .
fix mac mail search not working
the mac mail search not working method is to use safe mode, switch and start the mailbox app, send mail folders manually, or rebuild your mailboxes. another method of mac mail lookup not working is to reset smc or reinstall macos.
Before you try any of the fixes below, make sure that when you search for something in your mailbox app, all mailboxes is selected in the top right corner of the screen. mailbox window. if something else is selected, you may not get all possible results.
logout and log back in
The simplest repair method is to simply sign out of your email account in the mailbox app, then restart your mac and sign back in. then try using mailbox search to see if it works correctly now.
reboot to safe mode
another thing you can try is to restart your mac in safe mode and try using mailbox search again. There are two ways to enter safe mode on a mac, depending on whether it’s an intel based model or an m1 model:
intel-based macs
turn off your mac and wait about 10 seconds, then press the power button and immediately press and hold shift on the keyboard. once you see the login screen, release the shift key.
macs m1
turn off the computer, wait 10 seconds and press and hold the power button. once the boot options screen appears, release the power button and select your mac’s startup disk. then hold shift, select the continue in safe mode option, and then release shift.
You may be prompted to enter your password twice instead of once. If you successfully entered safe mode, you will see safe mode written at the top right of your screen on one of the login screens.
once you’re in safe mode, try using search in the mailbox app and if it works fine now, restart your mac normally and see if the problem is fixed now.
launch mail change
reboot your mac, go to the applications folder, hold down the shift key and open the mail app. now exit the app, wait a few seconds and run it again. then restart your mac one more time and launch the app normally. changing the launch of any app would cause it to “forget” its state when it was last used, hopefully fixing any minor bugs that might be causing search to not work properly.
select which folders to search
If you have many emails spread across your different mail folders, you can make your search more effective and efficient by manually choosing which folders to search if you know where the letters you’re looking for are located. To do this, open the mail app, hold down the shift key, and select the folders in the left pane that you want to search. after that type your search phrase and see if you get the expected results.
Rebuild your mailboxes
something that can help you with the mail search problem is to rebuild each of your mailboxes. Please note that the following steps must be performed for each of your mail application’s mailboxes.
- Launch the mail application and select a mailbox in the left pane that you want to rebuild.
- If the pane with the mailboxes is not visible, select view from the menu bar and click the show mailbox list option. Alternatively, you can also press shift + command + m.
- Wait for the rebuilding process to complete, and then perform steps 1 and 2 for your other mailboxes. Note that if there are a lot of messages in the selected mailbox, the rebuilding process may take a considerable amount of time (possibly a couple of hours).
reset your mac smc
smc stands for system management controller, and it is a chip in your mac that is responsible for managing different functions of the computer. Sometimes temporary bugs or errors can lead to unexpected issues on your mac like problem with mailbox search. For this reason, resetting the SMC is a common troubleshooting practice for a variety of Mac problems. you can learn how to reset your mac’s smc on this page.
reset nvram
Non-volatile random access memory, or nvram, is a small amount of your mac’s memory that is dedicated to storing certain system settings. errors that occur in it can lead to a wide variety of problems, possibly including the problem with mail search not working. For this reason, you can also try resetting your mac’s nvram as a possible way to fix the problem. you can learn how to do it in this guide.
rebuild mail and spotlight indexes
This troubleshooting method is not used as often to resolve this issue and may not work for everyone. That said, it’s still worth a try if you’ve gotten this far with this guide and the search problem is still there. here’s how to rebuild your mac’s mail and spotlight indexes.
- Close the Mail app and go to the following folder (you can copy-paste its address in Spotlight, quickly go to it): ~/Library/Mail/V8/MailData.
- In that folder, there should be three files with names that start with “Envelope”.
- Start the Mail app again – it will automatically create anew the deleted items. The idea is that if the files that you deleted were corrupted, thus resulting in the search not working problem, their corrupted versions would be replaced with new ones that won’t trigger the issue.
- Next, you must go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Spotlight and there uncheck the Mail & Messages option.
- Close System Preferences, wait for a couple of minutes, then go back to the Spotlight settings and re-enable the Mail and Messages option.
Deactivate and reactivate your gmail account
- Open the Apple Menu and go to System Preferences again.
- Click on Internet Accounts and select your Gmail (Google) account from the left.
- Untick the Mail checkbox in the right panel.
- Close System Preferences and restart your Mac.
- Go back to System Preferences > Internet Accounts > Gmail (Google) and check the Mail option.
exit corespotlightd
- Open Finder and go to the Utilities folder.
- Open the Activity Monitor app and find a process named corespotlightd.
- Select that process, click the X from the top and select Quit – the process will be stopped but would automatically restart itself a second later, hopefully removing any bugs/errors that may be causing the Mail search problem.
reinstall macos
If nothing else has worked so far, it’s possible (if not likely) that the problem is caused by a bug in your macos. maybe the current version of macos didn’t install correctly, or a new patch is required to fix whatever is causing the problem. in any case, it might be a good idea to try reinstalling your macos. the process is quite simple and shouldn’t require too much effort:
- turn off your mac, then press the power button and immediately after this, press and hold command + r on your keyboard.
- once apple logo appears on your screen, release both keys and wait for the charging process to complete (it may take a little longer than usual).
- once you see the macos utilities, select reinstall macos and click continue.
- follow the on-screen prompts to complete the reinstallation of your macos.
Those were all the solutions we know of for the mail search not working issue on mac. hopefully one of them has allowed you to resolve the issue on your mac. As we mentioned above, if you need any help or have any questions, feel free to contact us in the comments section below.