E-Mail search misses e-mails

When using the search function in the mail app (IOS 8.1.3) within "all inboxes" using the name of the sender "Smith" the search delivers a long list of e-mails sorted by date from the newest to the oldest. It shows more results when "All Mailboxes" is active, of course less when "Current Mailbox" (I guess in this case "all inboxes") is active.
I am missing an E-mail in the search result. When I try the search in the correct folder "Archive" the search delivers that particular E-Mail.
Why is the search function when used from "all inboxes" with the radio button "All Mailboxes" not delivering that result. Does it only refer to E-Mails within all inboxes? If yes, how do I search all folders of all mailboxes? The general search from the home screen is much less helpful than the search within the mail app.
Thank you!
niefl

I've been unable to search email "message" body ever since getting Verizon. I can search fine by sender, subject, etc, but when I try to search "message" I get a Verizon error message (not a browser error) stating: "We were unable to perform your request. Please try again." I've called tech support, and they tried to say this is some sort of broswer issue. It ISN'T, because again this is a verizon message coming up, and the other searches work fine. This has never worked in MONTHS, and I'm about ready to switch to another provider, since I need to be able to search my emails. UGGGH......

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Apple Mail search misses many items

Regarding searching within Apple Mail
I will search on emails from, say, "Fred Smith" and get a bunch of results that won't include an email that I know that I just got from Fred Smith. Nowhere to be seen. Then I'll scroll down through my messages and find the message... exactly from Fred Smith. But not showing up in Apple Mail search.
Or, and I see this one a lot lately: I'll search "Entire Message" for "Fred Smith" and get a bunch of results that don't include the email that I know is there. Then I'll switch to "From" suddenly the missing message appears.
For me, for years now, Apple Mail is HORRIBLY unreliable in its searching. I still use it, because I like other parts of it, but I don't ever expect the search to actually turn up items that are there...
Anyone know why / what's going on, or how I might fix this, or whether there's a new version of Mail coming with 10.5 that might fix this?

That a message was sent by Fred Smith doesn’t necessarily mean that “Fred Smith” appears anywhere in the message, not even if Mail shows his name in the From column or message header when displaying that message. If you do View > Message > Raw Source on one of the messages that aren’t included in the search results, do you actually see “Fred Smith” anywhere?
and I see this one a lot lately: I'll search "Entire Message" for "Fred Smith"
and get a bunch of results that don't include the email that I know is there.
Then I'll switch to "From" suddenly the missing message appears.
Mail uses Spotlight for Entire Message searches only, and its own index for the rest. What you’re describing here would indicate there is something wrong with Spotlight’s indexing of your mail rather than with Mail itself...
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all the filesystem issues, if any, open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal, type the following command and press <Return> (you can copy the command here and paste it in Terminal):
sudo mdutil -E -i on /
The -E option tells Spotlight to delete any already existing index data (so that it’s rebuilt from scratch all over again). The -i on option ensures that indexing is enabled. Finally, the ‘/’ at the end means “apply this command to the startup disk”.
After entering the previous command in Terminal, you’ll be prompted for your administrator password. Type it blindly (you won’t see any feedback of the keystrokes while you type it) and press <Return>.
Alternatively, you may prefer to reindex the startup disk using the following procedure, but I’ve seen cases where using Teminal worked whereas doing what the article suggests didn’t:
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
While you’re on it, make sure Mail Messages is checked in the Search Results pane of System Preferences > Spotlight and that no folders containing mail data appear in the Privacy pane.
For best results, quit Mail and don’t play too much with your disk while Spotlight reindexes it, i.e. avoid files being created/modified/deleted, mail being downloaded, etc.

Mail search misses many items

Regarding searching within Apple Mail
I will search on emails from, say, "Fred Smith" and get a bunch of results that won't include an email that I know that I just got from Fred Smith. Nowhere to be seen. Then I'll scroll down through my messages and find the message... exactly from Fred Smith. But not showing up in Apple Mail search.
Or, and I see this one a lot lately: I'll search "Entire Message" for "Fred Smith" and get a bunch of results that don't include the email that I know is there. Then I'll switch to "From" suddenly the missing message appears.
For me, for years now, Apple Mail is HORRIBLY unreliable in its searching. I still use it, because I like other parts of it, but I don't ever expect the search to actually turn up items that are there...
Anyone know why / what's going on, or how I might fix this, or whether there's a new version of Mail coming with 10.5 that might fix this?

Ooops. I get it. I got to "Mail, Contacts and Calendar" by searching and never saw that it lived under iPhone...

TS3899 Search missing from mail

Search is missing from my mail and I can't seem to access my other email accounts

Hi,
”After restarting the computer, I ran windows update (windows defender updated), and since then have
restarted a few more times, but the search bar is simply missing from the start menu. It's just gone.“
May I know the preview build version you're using now? I wonder whether you're performing a normal Windows Updates or a system upgrade at that time. If it is normal Windows Updates then check if it has created a restore point before installing the updates,
if it has, then you could restore the system to a previous state with system restore and check if it could help you.
Regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected]

Mail search using e-mail addresses not longer works after 10.6 update?

I just updated to 10.6 from 10.5. I have also added all the software updates.
The search function no longer works for e-mail addresses. I used to right-click on an address, copy and paste in search. Now, when I do that, it lists like this : NAME <[email protected]> (sample info) instead of just the e-mail address. In this new form, the search function no longer functions. Is there a way to revert to the old way mail copies e-mail address?
I do not want to have to delet ethe name & out of each paste.
input greatly appreciated!

Perfect! Works like a charm.
For others looking for the fix.
In 10.6, it seems someone at Apple decided that Copy Address should really mean Copy Name And Address And Add Angle Brackets Around The Address, because that's exactly what happens when you use Copy Address in Snow Leopard's Mail app. Instead of getting [email protected] on the clipboard, you get Sue Sample <[email protected]>.
Besides now having an incorrect name on the Copy Address contextual menu item (thought admittedly, the alternative is a bit lengthy), this behavior is incredibly irritating if you want only the email address on the clipboard. Thankfully, some engineer somewhere deep within Apple included a hidden preference to change this behavior -- and the fine folks at Mac Daddy World (the Ecamm Network blog site) dug deep and discovered this preference.
To revert to the 10.5-style behavior in Mail, first quit Mail then enter this command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool NO

Can't select mail in BtYahoo mail. Can't compose mail .Search on BTYahoo Mail only works for web- I can't search my mail.

Suddenly BTYahoo mail has stopped working (again!)
I can't click in any box (to select individual mails for deleting or moving)
I can't compose a message, I get the waiting wheely thing in the middle of my screen that never goes anywhere.
Can't search my mail- it just goes straight to a web search.

Clear the cache and the cookies from sites that cause problems.
"Clear the Cache":
*Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"
"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:
*Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

M/lion - Mail folders missing; iCloud Mail preference unchecking

Installed Mountain Lion on my iMac last week. Seems to be working fine except Mail. None of the folders where I store messages are visible. Also, in system preferences, the box for iCloud/Mail keeps unchecking on its own. Any ideas?

I'm having that problem. Don't know when my folder went missing from my new Mac, The folder shows on iPhone, iPad and old Mac running Lion. But in iCloud acct set up on new MacBook Air running Mtn Lion, the folder is missing.

Mac Mail Search

I am having a problem with Mac Mail Search - In the mail search box I am not given the search options To, From, Entire Message etc - I am on a recently purchased macbook that has OS 10.6.4 and mac mail 4.3 -

This forum is for Apple's old productivity program 'AppleWorks': please post your question in the Snow Leopard Forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=263
Where I'm sure people will be eager to help you.

IPhone mail search sorting

I need to sort my mail searches by date Mail on my iPhone and iPad give randomly sorted mail search results. This makes search almost useless when there are many emails in the search results. Ideas as to how to correct this?

did id you ever get as solution to this? Thanks

Mail search field is missing - how to get it back?

My Mail search field in upper right went missing. Anyone know how to get it back?

Hi Pacodog,
In Mail goto "View" then "Customise Toolbar" from there drag the search bar back to your toolbar.
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Lion Mail search: 'All' search missing some mailboxes - anyone seen this?

Yet another Mail search issue in Lion - at least I have not seen this one documented before.
Noticed in searching Mail after move from Snow Leopard to Lion: a search on 'All' mailboxes misses items that are present in one particular (very large) mailbox, although a search on that mailbox alone finds them. Because we have two Macs, one already migrated to Lion, the other still with Snow Leopard, we can see that a search in SN finds everything whereas the Lion search does not.
But there's more: a possible explanation occurred to us: the 'missing' mailbox was titled "INBOX" (some levels down - comes from an Entourage archive). Renamed that OLD INBOX, and results started coming up (with 'All' mailboxes selected) including its contents.
However: changing the search string to different senders produced inconsistent results. Use one name, that person's incoming mail in that folder showed up with search set to 'All'. Change to another sender, still no results from that mailbox, even tho' (as ever) the messages showed up when the search was restricted to that mailbox.
All very confusing!
What's going on?
Thanks.

Seems to work here ok:

Archive folder missing from Mail & search not working

I've been having trouble getting the Archive mailbox to appear in Mail. What's worse, often the search function is broken, and Mail doesn't turn up any search results. I've found some ways to get the Archive folder to reappear, but these only seem to help temporarily. For instance, clicking on the gear at the bottom left and selecting "Get Account Info" then selecting the Archive folder causes it to reappear, but this is only temporary and it disappears after another restart or sometimes after an hour or two. The search not working is the worst, as it sometimes is working and sometimes isn't. I don't have any idea what's causing this, but I am at my wit's end because I NEED Mail to be firing on all cylinders.

Hello, and welcome to the Discussions.
What are your selections in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced for this Gmail account, if using IMAP, regarding keeping message for Offline use? The Mail search can only access the list of messages to search Subject, From, etc, but not the entire message unless copies of all messages are being kept on the computer. This would be true for any IMAP account, btw.
More info, please.
Ernie

Missing Mail Search bar

From time to time my Mail Search bar disappears. Sometimes I remember how to get it back, and sometimes--like today--I don't. Anyway, how do I get my Mail Search bar back?

Niku wrote:
From time to time my Mail Search bar disappears. Sometimes I remember how to get it back, and sometimes--like today--I don't. Anyway, how do I get my Mail Search bar back?
That did it, although I did have to try it twice. Anyway, it's back now. Thanks, until next time, and there will be a next time

Apple Mail Search is acting strange

Hello.
I have been having some major issue with Apple Mail (6.5) in its search function.
I have been a heavy user of Apple Mail (over 15,000 emails on the program- and archived every year) for many years, and never had this issue.
When I search for a key word it does not find it! I noticed that this not to work on emails in my In Box or Sent Boxes (Gmail email POP). If I move a specific email to a newly created folder On My Mac and then search, the keyword will be found in the email in that new folder- but never on the orignal Inbox or Sent Box! Also, the search works fine for senders of emails (by name) if I search for them.
The issue is mainly in finding a key word in the content of an email and particurly in the In and Sent boxes!
I tried EVERYTHING I could find online from reindenxing the whole Macintosh HD, deleting Envelope Files... I even deleted Apple Mail and then reinstalled it from Mountain Lion DVD! STILL same issue.
To test things, I exported Mailboxes to another Macbook Air I have (brand new) and then imported these mailboxes into the correct location (Inbox, Sent...etc), and the search there worked fine!
ANY IDEAS, as this is frustrating and I am seriously considering switching to new email client after all these years.
Thanks,

The mail search uses Spotlight to find results, so your problem may be more of a corrupted Spotlight index. To recreate your Spotlight index, go to System Preferences->Spotlight, click the Privacy tab at the top, and add your Boot drive here (usually Macintosh HD). Close and re-open this preference page and then remove the Macintosh HD from the privacy tab.
Within about 30 seconds, you should notice the Spotlight magnifying glass icon in the top menu bar will say it is indexing, and it may take about 15+ minutes to complete. Hopefully that will return your missing search results in the Mail.app.

Mail and mail search horrible since 'upgrade' to 7.5.2

no idea what cat i'm dealing with. went from 7.2.x (might have been 11, can't remember) to 7.5.2. this whole feline thing is beyond me , like going to starbucks and being supposed to order a vente. i get large.
getting used to the new offerings on search (which i imagine they think are better, i'm dubious). the problem is, while they help you narrow in they circumscribe your choices.
if you are looking for ralph waldo emerson but might have emails with and without his middle name it doesn't just allow you to populate the 'from' search with "emerson". it insists on offering you a specific person, and if the mail program has not identified these multiple personalities as one entity then you have to search each individually.
ditto for the subject search. it offers you very specific subjects but suppose i just want to find a word in the subject and not a specific subject title?
although generally it offers you the less helpful option to choose entire message which, many of my searches aren't even offering that option anymore. maybe that is because it doesn't see those words in any email but i know they are there. it often skips over emails that i know have the required word in them or in the subjec. This is just driving me crazy.
may be some kind of an indexing problem but i have no idea how it indexes or searches.
i tried the rebuild command and that slightly improved results but did not fix the fact that it ignores some emails that have the search indecie in them. and itt simultaneously threw away my last three weeks of emails. they are still out there on my providers server, but i can't get it to repropagate into the email program. when i check mail it just gets new mail but not the mail sitting there that it does not have. maybe it put it somewhere and still has it, or maybe it informed my email provider that it had already downloaded the email to this computer so it won't do it again even though there is no version of that email currently in my inbox.
and i'm not sure what else it did. i used to have 89000 emails in the count showing next to my inbox in the left column (although i'm never clear if that number was the total or the unread) and now I have 49000 although i don't notice any other date range or obvious category of missing emails, who knows.
I used to think that mail kicked *** for keeping track of and finding emails in this large archive. i'm always looking back to things i ordered 3 years ago to order them again, etc. it has just been abyssmal since the upgrade. i have occasionally pushed my onboard memory because this is an Air with 64MB storage. I'm using 64 GB low profile cruzer "fit" usb memory for all my documents and i have plenty of space on there but no idea if i could move the target email folder off the internal HD and tell mail how to find it. This would help prevent my occasional low memory issues.
in any event, never had these troubles when i was running 7.2 . Didn't even know it would 'upgrade' ???? Mail when I got the later version because some program said it would not run with 7.2. Mail is only the half of what i hate about 7.5. But it is today's problem so i'll try to keep my bellyaching on one topic.
thanks,
brian

search does not find messages that meet the criterion. it finds some but not others. i haven't been able to detect a pattern.
the search funtion itself has been kludgy from the get go with this update forgetting the learn curve for the 'improvements'
sometimes it won't even let me put a search in for entire document.
i've tried "rebuild" command and that got me a few more results but not complete and lost 3 weeks of email somewhere. (it is a recent 3 weeks, still on the server of my mail provider but i can't get the program to repropogate it.
basically it hasn't been sound since i upgraded a year ago and i've just been living with it but it is really getting intolerable when i need to find emails i know exist and it can't find them. better handling of large volumes of mail is one of the reasons i use the mac in the first place.
thanks,
brian

E-Mail search misses e-mails

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