Running Lion, mail search function suddenly stopped working

All of a sudden the search function in my Mac mail stopped working. No emails show up when I begin to search in any of me mailboxes. Still able to search in spotlight but not always effective in finding what I'm looking for. Desperately need to fix this as always referring to old emails for work.

You can rebuild your mail search indexes by following these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mail/3.0/en/14019.html
Cheers,
Rodney

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My mail search function has stopped working

A couple of days ago for no 'apparent' reason my mail search function stopped working.
I have 2 IMAP accounts that run through gmail - neither they nor the 'on my mac' accounts are working as they normally do. It's very strange as some things come up on my search, but most things do not.
This happens whether I select 'search all' or pick a particular folder to search in - I can see the email is there, but the search function doesn't pick it up when I test it out.
I'm on Mac OS x, V 10.6.8 in case that's relevant.
Any suggestions would be fabulous - thanks!
Sarah

Mail search uses Spotlight to some extent.
Try re-indexing Spotlight.
Spotlight – Re-index

Mail - search function has stopped working

I have always been able to search Mail.app (v 3.2) messages by using the (top right) Search box. But if I type any search string in that box now, no messages are found. But Spotlight searches are still finding hits.
Is there a way to get Mail.app to "rebuild" it's search database? Is there a plist file (or similar) that could have become corrupted / non-functioning?
Any suggestions as to how I can solve this issue gratefully received.
Julian

You can rebuild your mail search indexes by following these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mail/3.0/en/14019.html
Cheers,
Rodney

Mac mail search function is not working. Any search term returns all records.

Mac mail search function is not working. Any search term returns all records.

hi eric. many thanks.
i will have to read these links closer but what i meant to say is that the hard drive space that was being taken up seemed like it suddenly jumped way up because i had just gotten through a process in the last month where i am storing all my My Documents data on my Mac Pro. i am doing this in order to decide whether i should just keep it ALL on my Mac Pro and use ChronoSync to sync /some/ of it to my MBP.
so if i look in the Documents folder on my Mac Pro i have a ton of folders that i have created with a ton of data. if i look in the Documents folder on my MBP there are NO folders that have data in them that i created. there are other folders such as folders that various software created but what i mean to point out is that there was a LOT of available space on my HD until recently.
i am wondering if there is some way that running the Mail re-index (it then ran some kind of "Importing" routine) or by syncing my Photostream to the MBP caused a huge jump in data on this drive. if it is the photostream sync i can just take this off or see if it will sync more selectively. if it is something to do with mac mail jumping in size i am not sure why this would happen or what to do about it.
does that question make sense?
i mean, before i did these two operations my recollection is that i would have had 130 GB on the hard drive (really just guessing here) and now there is like 218 GB on the hard drive and i don't know where all this came from...

"Save As" function suddenly stops working

"Save As" function suddenly stops working in InDesign and Photoshop CS3. I hvae restarted several times but to no avail. I also can't make a pdf straight from InDesign. It was fine a minute ago. The Save As menu flashes on for a second and dissappears. After that the programlocks up. Does anyone have any suggestions?

As Bob mentioned (indirectly), this also has some of the symptoms of the hidden dialog syndrome (I was reading fast last night) where the dialogs are either hidden behind your other windows or are drawn off-screen. This is more common with multiple monitors.
Since this affecting several applications, and you are able to select the commands, it seems like a good possibility. What happens if you hit escape to cancel the operation after the system "locks up"? If it comes back that would be a strong indicator there is a hidden dialog waiting for you to respond.
Running flat-screens at native resolution helps, as does the little trick with Photoshop that Bob posted. Another trick to try is hitting Alt + Spacebar, then M to see if you can move the dialog into view.
Peter

Mail search function doesn't work

Our Mail Search Function no longer works - does anyone have a fix? the mailboxes have been rebuilt, the envelope files in the library/mail directory have been deleted, and the emails have been re-indexed - still no luck in searching in the mail search feature. This was never an issure before the upgrade. Please provide help if you can ~ Thanks!~

THANKS! Went thru about 90% of the things listed there. Am Currently going thru the suggestion of the spotlight rebuild thru the terminal.
When I looked at the settings as stated here: For server-based accounts (IMAP, Exchange, iCloud, and MobileMe), make sure Mail is set to download entire messages—if it doesn’t, Spotlight can’t index them. Go to Mail -> Preferences, click Accounts, select an account, and click Advanced. Make sure the Keep Copies Of Messages For Offline Viewing pop-up menu says All Messages And Their Attachments.
This option is not viewable or available in my Mail Preference Advance screen and the "Keep Copies of Messages for Offline Viewing...." was not listed in any of the windows - went thru each one. This option was was also mentioned under my "help" - but not finable in the preferences....
Thanks again....

My Yahoo mail account has suddenly stopped working. Have deleted and re installed but still not working. Recently updated iOS could this be related?

My Yahoo mail account has suddenly stopped working. Have deleted and re installed but still not working. Recently updated iOS could this be related?

Try resetting the Yahoo password. Yahoo not infrequently has problems.

Mac Lion. Search function does not work in mails.

Hello,
I already wasted several hours trying to find solution for a problem which appeared with Lion, search function does not work, in mail at least.
I was not using Leopard before and I am not a mac expert.
(search function was already bad in the normal it was already bad in the normal 10.7 set up but at least it was working in mac mails).
I tried reindexing via spotlight privacy settings (adding and removing HD) but does not work much better.
I don't want to go to terminal, as as mentioned I don't know enough about mac to try this.
What to do?
Thanks,
C.

Anyone? Any ideas?

Mail search function does not work after reinstalling

Hello!
I recently had to re-install Leopard on my MacBook Pro.
I made a clean install so, I manually copied the Mail folder and preferences from my old home folder to the new one.
All mails are present, and everything works great, apart from the fact that the search function does not work.
I can search for new mails (that came after the reinstall) but the old ones "dont exist" as far as the mail.app goes.
What can I do about it ?

It would probably be easier to do the entire hard drive. The App Store also uses Spotlight, so updating it will help there also. It takes some time to re-index and your computer will/may run slower until it is done.
Direct answer to your question is go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Then go to System Preferences/Spotlight per the linked article and in your user folder, select Library/Mail/V2.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Some trackpad functions suddenly stop working

Hello!
I have no idea what causes this, but when I'm working on my MacBook, sometimes a couple of functions of the trackpad suddenly stop working. The functions that stop working are always the same: all of the "More Gestures" found in the "Trackpad" system preferences. Just scrolling and clicking always continue to work when this problem occurs.
When I just log out and log in again or restart my MacBook it works again, however, this can get quite annoying when you have to do this all the time.
I cannot figure out what causes these functions to suddenly stop working. Does anybody know a solution for this?

Is your MacBook one with an easily removeable battery? Some users have noted that batteries, particularly older ones, sometimes expand and interfere with the trackpad. To test for this do the following -
Shut down your MacBook.
Remove the battery. Examine it for signs of expansion. If any are found DO NOT use it again.
Leaving the battery out, connect to the MacBook's AC power adapter.
Start up your MacBook. Test it to see if the trackpad works normally.
If the problem goes away with the battery gone, or if you notice expansion of the battery, replace the battery.
Best of luck.

Junk mail filter has suddenly stopped working properly

I have reset it twice, and put it in training mode. While training, it works just fine...catches the things it's supposed to and let's the safe stuff through. But when I switch it back to have it auto-filter the junk mail into the junk mailbox, it starts misidentifying everything again. Tons of junk gets through, it doesn't filter out the junk it does catch (leaves it in the inbox), and identifies things as junk that aren't - especially annoying for regular items that I receive.
Any ideas on why this has suddenly stopped? I haven't changed or adjusted any of the rules. I tried going in and changing up the identification colors just to see if that would help, but no luck.
I have three email addresses where I receive mail. Two are set up as POP accounts, and one is an IMAP account. It doesn't seem to matter which account is receiving the junk mail, and it actually gets worse with time rather than better.
Thanks for the help.

Are you really using Mac OS X 10.4.2, as your profile indicates?
There is probably some corruption in one or more of the files used by the junk filter. The following procedure should fix the problem:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/.
3. Locate LSMMap2 and move it to the Trash -- deleting this file is what clicking the Reset button in Preferences > Junk Mail does. If you see an LSMMap file there, move it to the Trash too.
4. Locate DefaultCounts and move it to the Trash. This file keeps statistics about the number of messages that have been marked as junk, either automatically by the junk filter or manually by the user.
5. Locate MessageRules.plist and move it to the Desktop. This is where Mail 2.x stores all rules, including those used by the junk filter. If there is a file called MessageRules.plist.backup, move it to the Desktop too. You may also see MessageSorting.plist files there; this is where Mail 1.x stored the rules, and they are no longer used by Mail 2.x, so just move them to the Trash if you see them.
6. Look for the account folders. The name of each account folder starts with the account type (POP, IMAP, Mac), followed by the account username and the incoming mail server. Open each of the account folders, locate the Junk.mbox or Junk.imapmbox folder within it, and move it to the Trash if present.
7. Go to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/. Locate any Junk.mbox folders there (their name may include the account name in parenthesis), and move them to the Trash.
Note: Messages in Junk folders with an .mbox suffix are stored locally, and will be lost forever as a result of doing steps 6 and 7. If there is a chance that you have legit messages there and you want to preserve them, move them to another mailbox in Mail first. Messages in Junk folders with an .imapmbox suffix are stored on the server and can be ignored (Mail will rebuild those mailboxes automatically).
8. Open Mail. As a result of removing the rules file, the junk filter will be disabled now. You may want to either tell Mail to go offline immediately after opening it, or shut down the Internet connection before opening Mail, to prevent it from downloading anything until the junk mail filter has been enabled again.
9. Go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail, enable junk filtering, and configure it however you wish.
10. Go online again if you went offline in step 8.
If the above solves the problem and you don't have any rules you'd like to preserve or recreating them is not a daunting task, just delete the MessageRules.plist files that were moved to the Desktop and be done with it.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the file path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the file path there.

N 'Mail' my 'Get Mail' function suddenly stopped working.

I have ascertained that I have Mail to be downloaded by checking on the Bigpond mail server. The usual 'Mail Activity' bar is not present when I attempt to 'Get Mail'. I have tried 'Mailbox' ---. 'Get New Mail' but to no avail. I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
ReggyB

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
Try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear and again when you log in. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don’t do them all at once.
Safe Mode - Mavericks
Safe Mode - About

The screenshot function suddenly stopped working on my Iphone 5

A few days ago, I tried to take a screenshot on my Iphone 5. It did not work. What I mean by it not working is that it did nothing when I pressed Power + Home buttons simultaneously. I tried resetting the phone multiple times (Holding down power+Home) but it still didnt fix it. I have yet to Restore my phone from backup. That is my next step but I wanted to check here to see if anyone else is having the same problem or knew a solution before I try the Restore. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks any help is appreciated.
T

Restore iPhone with iTunes on your computer. See if this helps. If still problem, make genius reservation or set up service and take or send iPhone to Apple for Warranty evaluation.

TS3276 Accessing Gmail suddenly stopped working on both my Powerbook pro running latest OS and Mail versions and on my iPhone. I can access via the web. I get the error that my password or username is incorrect. I reset my password in Gmail and confirmed

Accessing Gmail suddenly stopped working on both my Powerbook pro running latest OS and Mail versions and on my iPhone. I can access via the web. I get the error that my password or username is incorrect. I reset my password in Gmail and confirmed it works on gmail, I then changed it on my Iphone and Mac Mail. It still does not work. I deleted the gamil account on mail on my mac and reinstalled it and it still will not work

I too started having my password rejected in MAIL.app for imap.mail.me.com for my icloud email address. Can login to icloud with web browser fine. This has been happening off and on for several days.....if I wait 2-3 hours it will suddenly start working again, but then problem re-asserts itself ;-)

Mail Suddenly Stops Working

I'm helping a client who's email suddenly stopped working. So I did all the usual, and atypical fixes. Nothing worked.
So I enter all the account information on my Mac Mail, it it does not work. I go over to my Ubuntu box and fire up Thunderbird, it works. The Ubuntu box is on the same subnet as my Mac, so that eliminates DNS or network issues. I dowonload Thunderbird to my Mac, and email account works just fine. Hmm!?!
No matter what I do, I can not get Mac Mail to work on this one account, though other accounts work without issue. I have a feeling that it has something to do with how the password is encrypted, and that Mac Mail has changed this encryption. The other possibility is that the ISP, Verio.com, has changed something with their password decryption.
My client does not want to continue using Thunderbird as they really like Mac Mail. And calls to Verio just get the standard response that everything works for them (and it really does).
Any ideas what may have changed in the latest updates that would cause Mail to suddenly stop working?

Hi obzidian.
If this started to happen as a result of installing a software update, chances are that you didn't install it properly.
Verify/repair your disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, reinstall the latest update (the one that appears to not have been installed properly). You may also need to reinstall the latest Combo Update for the type of machine and the version of Mac OS X you're using:
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel
Take a look at the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates
Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.

Running Lion, mail search function suddenly stopped working

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