Mail Search unreliable?

Can anyone point me to a detailed explanation of how the mail Search works please?
I can't make sense of some of the results. For example, assuming it searches for text strings matching the one specified, I'd expect dozens or hundreds of hits for the string I just entered, with From as the filter. I get just one. That was an email received in the last few minutes from someone with that string in their name. But I had several yesterday and earlier this week, and many more over the last few months.
Terry, UK

Thanks, but I'm aware of that and have been searching All Mail.
Terry, UK

Similar Messages

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    What are limits of indexing (number of messages, etc.)?
    Mail is open for many hours/day, so time should be available.
    Entire Mail Folder is now over 1.3 GB, too big to handle?

    I had the same problem but rebuilding spotlight's index fixed the problem. I followed the instructions at
    http://www.macobserver.com/tip/2006/07/21.1.shtml
    Or Onyx can be used...

  • Apple Mail search misses many items

    Regarding searching within Apple Mail
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  • 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.
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    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...

  • Apple Mail Search is acting strange

    Hello.
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    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.
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  • Archive folder missing from Mail & search not working

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    Hello, and welcome to the Discussions.
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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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    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.
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    You should try rebuilding your Spotlight index, as that's what Mail uses.
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  • 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.
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    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.
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    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.
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  • 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).
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    Eric D.

    Eric,
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  • 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.
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    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.
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    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.
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  • 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?
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    Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
    Back up all data before proceeding.
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