Mail search failure

Hello, when i used macos 10.6 i could find everything i needed just by typing a word in the search box and specifying where to search (in the entire message or in the subject only, etc). Now in 10.7 it nearly never finds what i'm looking for, even if the word i type is a part of the subject of an email i received 5 minutes before...
Thanks,

Thanks mate but that’s not it, this erroroccurs after continuing a search which would need to query the server.Searching works for my recent mails just fine the problem is searching for older mail on the server. After posting this I found that others are experiencing the same issues as I, check the below link.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/13383272?messageID=13383272

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Apple Mail Assertion Failure

Hi,
My company uses Office 365 for hosted Exchange email. We have 1 user who uses Apple Mail on OSX 10.7 to connect to the server in Exchange mode (using EWS). This was working great until a few days ago where he has sporadic connection problems. Reproducable situation below:
1) Select 100 emails in any given folder
2) Drag/drop those emails into another folder to move them there
3) They will start moving but it will fail at somepoint and give the message "Cannot execute move operation".
4) After that message appears it is usually several minutes before he can try again or send any emails.
5) Trying to send an email immediately after the error message results in the "Cannot send message using the server" dialog where you are prompted to select a different server to send the message. Choosing an SMTP server results in the message being sent but sometimes (and only sometimes) the message is resent a couple of hours later through the exchange system.
We are getting a million of the following assertion failure messages in the console:
06-06-2012 12:22:05.518 Mail: *** Assertion failure in -[EWSGetFolderResponseOperation handleResponseMessage:withObject:], /SourceCache/Message/Message-1278/MessageStores.subproj/EWSResponseOperation.m: 340
EWS did something wrong: An internal server error occurred. The operation failed. on EWS response <EWSGetFolderResponseOperation: 0x7fb9cb1ae620> (EXECUTING)
0   Message 0x00007fff8f712ef8 -[MFAssertionHandler _handleFailureWithPreamble:description:arguments:] + 116
1   Message 0x00007fff8f71308e -[MFAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 185
2   Message 0x00007fff8f662c64 -[EWSResponseOperation handleResponseMessage:withObject:] + 556
3   Message 0x00007fff8f656eb6 __-[EWSGetFolderResponseOperation executeOperation]_block_invoke_1 + 77
4   CoreFoundation 0x00007fff87979cee __NSArrayEnumerate + 718
5   Message 0x00007fff8f6572ae -[EWSGetFolderResponseOperation executeOperation] + 453
6   Message 0x00007fff8f73397f -[MonitoredOperation main] + 228
7   Foundation 0x00007fff9152e6b4 -[__NSOperationInternal start] + 705
8   Foundation 0x00007fff91541912 ____NSOQSchedule_block_invoke_2 + 124
9   libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff8a798a86 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 18
10 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff8a799965 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 255
11 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8c83b3da _pthread_wqthread + 316
12 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8c83cb85 start_wqthread + 13
06-06-2012 12:22:05.518 Mail: Recieved EWS error: Error Domain=MFEWSErrorDomain Code=94 "An internal server error occurred. The operation failed." UserInfo=0x7fb9cecbb7c0 {NSLocalizedDescription=An internal server error occurred. The operation failed.}
We have tried deleting the account and making a new one. As well as removing the mailbox folder (~/Library/Mail/V2/EWS-*) and the Apple Mail plist file. We have also setup the email on a different Mac (also OSX 10.7) but we still get the same assertion failure message.
This user's email account works fine in Outlook on Windows and Mac (Outlook 2010 and 2011) and it also works fine through the online web portal. Outlook 2011 Mac uses EWS (the same protocol Apple Mail uses) and it's not throwing any errors and everything works properly so that is leading me to believe it's an issue with Apple Mail.
Perhaps related, perhaps not, but the user's iPhone and iPad have also stopped working properly with the account. They will sometimes connect but a lot of the time they give an error message about not being able to connect to the server. This leads us to believe it's an exchange server problem, but then why does it work in Outlook and the online portal without any problems? It's only the Apple products that are falling apart.

I ended up having to reproduce the problem in Outlook 2011 Mac before O365 support would help me. Apparently Apple Mail isn't one of the officially supported clients so they weren't going to figure it out for me. Once they ran out of ideas they just gave me the "Apple Mail is officially supported" excuse and stopped helping me.
Although we weren't initially having the problem in Outlook 2011 Mac it did start giving tons of errors during certain operations (with a -19907 error code) after a while. Not sure why it started doing that ... but it did. This was only happening with one of our user's accounts so it had to be something server-side that was the problem. I eventually got a support ticket in their system (despite being a P1 plan holder) so that they could call me. We did some Wireshark capturing to try to diagnose the problem but by that time the problem had fixed itself.

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.

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

Spotlight & Mail Search Not Working After Deleting email Account's '.OfflineCache' File. How Do I Get Back to Normal?

Running OSX 10.7.4 and Mail.5.2.
One of 3 email accounts was constantly trying, but unable to synch. The rotating splines were turning non-stop but not synching (other two email accounts worked just fine.) After doing some searching on the internet, I found several articles about this. Many included the symptom of the "Recovered Messages" constantly being recovered/generated. I had noticed that I would get some recovered messages on occaision, but had never noticed it to be problematic. These articles suggested that the ".OfflineCache" file for that email account had been corrupted or the root of my problem. So, I deleted the .OfflineCach file as per this article...
Fix OSX Mail Creating Multiple 'Recovered Message
Well that got my mail working again. However, I soon noticed that spotlight no longer works and when I try to search mail, it doesn't work. It will only return a complete email address/contact; it doesn't search the contents of the email.
I tried to get spotlight to re-index the hard drive. However, when I try to drag a folder or volume to it, I get the error:
Since spotlight and mail search have always worked flawlessly for 5 years, I'm confident this is related to having deleted " .OffflineCache" for that particular email account. However, it seems strange that mail search won't work for the other email accounts.
Any other tips for getting spotlight back online?
How about the .OfflineCache file. Will Mail restore it, replace it on it's own?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, looking back, not long before this problem started, I was trying to send a single email with numerous pictures ( around 50 or so.) I forgot to select "medium" for the picture size and it started trying to upload them at full size. I realized this after a minute or two and cancelled the upload, changed to 'medium' and sent the email with no problem. I point this out because the "Multiple Recovered Messages" error seems to be related to or being induced by having an excessively large file in the particular mail account's .Offline.Cache file.

Well, a couple days later and it seems that the .offlinecache has been rebuilt. Finder, Spotlight, & Mail search all seem to be working normally now!

Mail search not working

I've tried several times to perform a search for the word "marin" in my emails... I know that a guy emailed me a week or so ago and said he was in Marin county, so I know that it's there...but for some reason when I search for it within Mail, no results come up.
I decided to try this with a bunch of different words... none of them work. The only way I'm able to search for content within my messages is to search by name in the "To" or "From" sections of the search menu...
Any suggestions?

make sure your Mail folder is indexed by spotlight. go to system preferences->spotlight->privacy pane. what do you have there? if Mail folder is not excluded try reindexing your home directory. add your home folder to the privacy pane for about 5 seconds and remove it from there. it should be reindexed. if that does not help reindex the whole hard drive in the same way. try mail search then.

Mail search not working properly

Just upgraded to ML and the search function in mail just isn't working properly, I didn't think the Lion mail search was great but this one seems 10 times worse. If I search for words contained within a message, the results only show messages from the last couple of months even though I know there's dozens of messages containing the same word from the last couple years.
I tried repairing permissions and rebooting. Still same issue.
If I manually open an old message, and then perform a search, that particualar message will get included in the results, but I can't open thousands of emails just for the search to index them.

You should try rebuilding your Spotlight index, as that's what Mail uses.
Go to Spotlight preferences, and drag your boot drive (probably called "Macintosh HD") into the privacy pane. Say OK to the warning. Then after about 10 seconds, remove it. The whole drive will be re-indexed (this will take a couple hours) and then search should work again.

Mail search not working + Spotlight keeps indexing

I have an old problem that has resurfaced after creating a new user on my Mac. Mail search brings no results and Spotlight is constantly indexing - day in, day out. It never seems to get there. I tried turning my hard drive to private in Spotlight settings and then taking it out. Previously Spotlight seemed to get bogged down with external drives now it's stuck indexing my Mac.
Any advice? Is there a way I get unstick this?

I can't believe that Apple have STILL not sorted this out. I haven't created a new user (so it's nothing to do with that), but Mail.app won't find anything when searching "Entire Message" in the current Mailbox or in "All Mailboxes". This has been ongoing since Leopard was first released, and we are now up to 10.5.8 without this being fixed.
Here are some of the reports:
Topic : Spotlight does not search Mail messages
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1366101
Topic : Search "Entire Message" returns "0 Found" in mailboxes
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1341832
Topic : Spotlight died on me
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1226645
Topic : I can't search through my inbox!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387827
Topic : Leopard's Spotlight doesn't search Mail messages
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1219030
Topic : Mail Search
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1347387
Topic : Mail Won't Search
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1204827
Topic : Search does not work
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1254966
Topic : Mail search not working
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1289253
Topic : Unable to Search Mailbox
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1232504
Topic : Why is Search in Mail.app busted?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1403758
Topic : Mail Search comes up empty
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1378473
Topic : Search "Entire Message" not working with Smart Mailboxes?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6548355&#6548355
Topic : Mail searches yield no results! Smart mailboxes also yield no results!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1395508
Topic : 10.5.2 Mail.app search still not working (Entire Message)
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1389466

Mail search not working after clean install of 10.5.4 on new 20" iMac

Apple Mail search is not working. Search on "subject line" works, but search on "entire message" does not. For example, searching with "parking" yields NO results, and there are many messages with the word "parking" in their body in the mailboxes. It happens with both "In Box" and "All Mailboxes" checked.
What's going on?
I did a clean install of Mac OS X on a 20" iMac using the Install disk shipped with the machine. Then I ran Software Update. Still, the problem happens, on a clean baseline system.
Argh.

I've had this problem since Tiger. Various solutions have been posted, but none have worked for me. It really cripples Mail--I've used emails as my personal database for years, kind of a history log, which worked great in Eudora but Eudora isn't being supported anymore.
After updating to X.5.5, I can search "entire message" for "All Mailboxes" and find everything including emails in the mailbox I was viewing (often finds 60,000 occurences, but doesn't take very long--it's just incredibly tedious to find the one I want from such an enormous set of results). I can also find everything using Spotlight, outside of Mail. But if I am looking at any mailbox, like Inbox, search "entire message" never finds anything at all. Searching for subjects etc works fine.

Mail search no longer looks past last 30 days or so

Using the search function in the same manner as ever, the results no longer go back further than early July (today is the 31th).
This also affects the Smart Mailboxes, which sort out client mail, etc.
Restarting does nothing. Mailbox rebuild option is grayed out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Eric D.

Eric,
I do not experience this, and Mail Search is working normally.
What type of account are you using -- POP, IMAP or .mac?
If you have two or more accounts, then Rebuild will not be available until you click on the black triangle beside each standard Icon section to reveal, for example, the Inbox for each separate account.
More info, please.
Ernie

Mail search not working, at all

Mail search is not working AT ALL for me. 0 results for things that should have hundreds of results. Have tried most of the suggestions here already - repaired permissions, deleted envelope index files, rebuilt mailboxes, etc.
Just broken. Also, these "support communities" seem to be a downgrade from the old discussion boards IMO. Harder, not easier, to find info.

I am having the same problem, I can search last names and sometimes get a couple of results to show up, though for the most part I get nothing, even when I know the word is in the subject line and email address.

Paypal email message content not found in Mail search

I've looked on the net and can't find any one else reporting this problem so it has to be something at my end.
My Mail search cannot find any word found in the message body of an email from Paypal.
I just upgraded to Yosemite so thought it was a problem with the new OS as I've been able to search message content in OS 10.8 (and previous) for years.
However...
I just re-started using a cloned HD with my old 10.8 OS on it and the search isn't working now.
It finds everything else asked but nothing in a Paypal email.
This includes messages in my inbox and messages stored in various "On My Mac" folders.
I seem to remember this happened before, maybe 2004/2005?? Which ever OS version I was using then?
It couldn't be worked out so I moved over to Microsoft Entourage.
I don't want to switch email software again but the lack of ability to search is causing me some problems.
I did open an Apple support case on this and they couldn't give me an answer but said it had been reported already and may be looked at for a fix in forthcoming OS revisions.
Funny how no one's asked this on any community pages.
Any ideas?? Am I missing something. I don't understand how it's worked on my older OS for years and now suddenly it's stopped.
Does search need anything to find words in content that I may have inadvertently changed?

I have now gone back to my OS 10.8 disc and re-built the folder with my paypal emails in and it is now searching ok so forget what i said earlier.
I'd edit the original post but it won't let me???

Mail search doesn't work

Hi
After upgrading to Yosemite, when I go into the search box in the upper right hand corner it doesn't select mail that meets the criteria. I can type anything in and it will find 5462 items and many of those don't contain the search word(s). What can I do to get Mail search working?
I run a Mac Book Pro about 3.5 years old.
David

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data before proceeding.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.
A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
          Envelope Index
          ExternalUpdates.storedata
Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

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.

Mail search not working mavericks

Mail search function is not working in any of my mail accounts...gmail, godaddy hosted domain or icloud.
Tried deleting envelope index files and re-index...still doesn't work. Bummer to have brand new 15" retina mbp all in at $3800 and have these type of issues.

This fix worked for me:
Mail uses Spotlight for search results, so you may want to rebuild the Spotlight index. I tried to just rebuild the mail index first but no success. Rebuilding the entire hard drive did the trick.
Note you can rebuilding Mail's spotlight index by going to the Spotlight system preferences, dragging your hard drive to the privacy pane, waiting 10 seconds, and then removing it. Re-indexing your drive may take an hour or more.

Mail search failure

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