Mail search not finding messages but Spotlight does

emailmail.appspotlight

When I search for a particular message in Mail.app, using the search field, even when I have the message in sight, Mail cannot find it. But, frustratingly, when I use Spotlight, it is able to find the message.

For example, I'll open a folder with a variety of recipes. I can see all the subjects and I see an email with the subject: "Smoothies". Typing in "Smoothies" into the search field brings up 0 results. But typing in "Smoothies" into Spotlight shows the desired message.

How can I get Mail.app to search correctly?

I'm running Mac OS X 10.11.3.

Best Answer

Rebuilding Mail.app's mailboxes fixed this for me. This ComputerWorld article is a great reference for rebuilding and reindexing your mailboxes:

  • Rebuild: Select a mailbox (or several by shift-clicking) and then use "Mailbox > Rebuild"
  • Reindex: Quit Mail, navigate to ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData (on Mac OS 10.12 - Sierra, ~/Library/Mail/V4/MailData) and delete any files where the name begins with Envelope Index. Mail will rebuild the indexes on the next start (which may take a long time depending on the size of your mailboxes)
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