Search function (Spotlight) not working in Mail

Hi,
This just started happening today on my PowerBook G4. The search function in Mail is not working. No matter which mailbox I go into to search for a term it shows 0 results when I know for a fact there should be multiple results. If I search for any of those terms in Spotlight itself it clearly shows me the results in my Mail messages. Is there a preference that I turned off or something? Anybody know what's going here and can help me?
Thanks.

I should have tried this before posting, but a reboot fixed my problem.

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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.

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...

My search function does not work. How can I fix it?

Hello
I need help I just bough a macbook 13 inch, with snow leopard
and the search function does not work.
The window opens but when I write the name i searh it gives me no results.
How can i fix it?
Do i need really to re install all snow leopard?
thanks
pt

Hello paola t & welcome to the forums
I need help I just bough a macbook 13 inch
It may be that Spotlight hasn't completed indexing just yet - is there a dot (indicates busy) inside the magnifying icon top right?
Also, check System Preferences/Spotlight to see what if any exclusions are configured, etc.

RH9 Webhelp Search function is not working properly

Hi,
My organization is using RH9 for a Webhelp project. My company and our client are restricted to using IE9 for the online help I have created for this project, and our OS environment is Windows 7. When I generate using the Webhelp layout, with the TOC, Index and Search options chosen, my resulting browser window shows two frames. Left for the Contents/Index/Search and right for the content. In the left panel, there are three links at the top for Contents, Index and Search. When I click on the Search link, the only thing I see is the alphabet A-Z (which are links to filter items beginning with these letters (much like the index link) and a list of what I would say is garbage. For example, if I click on H, I see items like "half 1 2 3" or "held" or "honor # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8", etc. If I run my cursor down this list, I notice that maybe the word honor is a link. If clicked it brings up one of my topic pages. I can also click on the random numbers that appear, like clicking on 3 it brings up another topic page. The search function does not allow me to type in a search criteria, since there is no search field as well.
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Rick, Thanks for stepping in. I assumed that was the reason why I was not receiving the search field, and that is fine for now. We have discussed with our client the possibility of having two different help projects one for each, but that decision was kind of put on the back burner.
However, the other issue I am having is still there and I don't quite understand why. Since I only have clickable A-Zs for the search, and it lists links much like the Index section, I'm still seeing lists of just numbers and characters (i.e., "# 1 2 3 4 5", or "%" or "& 1 2 3 4 5" sometimes all the way up to 18 or so). And each of these characters or numbers are clickable links as well to either page that doesn't contain that number or to nothing.
Doing a bit more research, I have noticed that a lot of these links are being picked up by the PDF file we have as part of the project. Our help project has a link to the documented version of the help in the form of a User Guide.pdf file. So the search is listing items from that guide like the heading numbers 1.0, 1.0.1, etc. Also each of these are clickable links that go nowhere. But then there is still the numbers 1, 2, etc that go to pages that don't have this anywhere on the page.
Do you have any insight as to why these types of things are being listed under Search at all? They make that selection look very messy and unorganized. Not professional at all. I have checked and tested the properties settings and can't seem to find what is causing this to happen. Any idea would be most appreciated!!

"Search Entire Message" not working in Mail

This week my company switched to a new hosting provider and now I'm having trouble configuring Mail.app to search my emails.
The new accounts are IMAP accounts hosted by GoDaddy. They connect perfectly, send and receive perfectly. In the account settings for each one I have set it to keep offline copies of all messages and attachments. I've checked the /Users/myaccount/Library/Mail folder and all accounts are listed and all messages are present as .emlx files, which I can open individually. If I search using subject/from/to fields, everything works perfectly.
I have tried rebuilding the mailbox through the Mailbox > Rebuild menu with no change.
I have tried re-indexing the folder using spotlight, by dragging the folder into the Privacy tab and then back out. I did this both with the Mail folder and with an individual inbox folder within that, also with no change.
All five accounts are behaving the same way. I'm at a loss, and this is pretty important functionality when there are hundreds of emails coming through the office each day.
This search function worked perfectly on the old POP accounts.
Thanks!

I should have tried this before posting, but a reboot fixed my problem.

Searching a pdf file including both latin caracters and other (HERE: greek) . Entering words in English works but entering greek words the search function does not work

in a serachable dictionnary ( old greek-English) in pdf format the search function works when entering English words but not when entering greek words using the polytonic Greek keyboard from Windows. Why ? Is there a solution to search for Greek words ?

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when trying the search function in the new forum design, i'm not able to restrict the search to a specific community.
typing in my search words an then clicking the option button i can select a community, but when i then click "search" again, i only get this comment:
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Just tested that in a couple of communities, and it worked as expected.
For example, I entered the term 'search' here in this community, and a popup with ten results appeared.
All looks like this:
Only for ... Communities looks like this:
View All Results takes me to a search page with at least two pages of results from this forum:
Pretty sure that's all the search function can be expected to do ... when it's working.

Search entire message not working in Mail, but Spotlight works.

I am having a problem where my mail App is not searching the entire body of the message any more. I installed Lion soon after it was released, and I believe that it has been working up until recently.
If I do a search, it won't search the message body, and gives me no option to search for "Message contains" (just "People" and "Subjects"). If search for subject "foo" and then click on the "Subject" pull down menu, it shows "Subject" and "Entire Message", but "Entire Message" is greyed out.
I've done a lot of web searching and most people with similar problems had problems with Spotlight.
If I do a Spotlight search, it does find all of the mail messages correctly. Its just the Mail app that won't let me search.
I haven't tried re-indexing spotlight yet because spotlight seems to be working okay.
Note that all of my mail accounts are "POP" accounts with the mail stored locally on my machine.
Has anyone else encountered this?
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Ron

I should have tried this before posting, but a reboot fixed my problem.

Search function no longer works when Mail folder is encrypted

I posted a reply in another forum that has already been marked as answered...BUT I was not satisfied with the answer...Here is the link to that forum for some context:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6362207&#6362207
And here is basically what I posted there:
This problem is a result of my attempt to put my User/Library/Mail folder onto an encrypted disk image, so that my mail images would be encrypted without having to encrypt my WHOLE Account with FileVault (rendering Time Machine virtually useless). Like many, I had to create a symbolic link from the terminal rather than use the Alias...that wasn't a problem. I can send/receive/read/write email all while it stays safely encrypted on the Sparse disk image that I created (by the way THANKYOU for making creating the sparse BUNDLE image an option, this makes it useable for time machine so it doesn't back up the whole thing)...Mail appeared to work perfectly with my folder in the new location
HOWEVER...I quickly discovered that the search tool in the upper right hand corner of the Mail View no longer works...It will allow me to search the "from", "to" and "subject" lines like any old mail program would, BUT the "Entire Message" option returns on results. There must be something special about the Library folder in my Home folder, because I haven't restricted my spotlight settings. In fact with the disk mounted, I even re-indexed my WHOLE computer just to see what would happen. Spotlight is able to search for FILE names on my encrypted disk, but the search "Entire Message" still doesn't work...are there any solutions? I've spent a great deal of time searching the internet for a solution to no avail. I feel like this question requires a real mac genius, but there are other people throughout other forums posting the same question with no answer. I'm no genius, but I'm not afraid of using Terminal if I'm told the basic gist of what should be typed there. I would love to see his answered fully. Thanks!
Message was edited by: jennings

Ahhh! The proverbial missing information. Thanks for clarifying. Apple always has plans to fix problems, but their timetable might not meet your expectations. I strongly suggest that you report this to Apple. Send Feedback and send bug reports and enhancement requests via its Bug Reporter system. To do the latter, join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Since you already have an Apple username/ID, use that. Once a member, go to Apple BugReporter and file your bug report/enhancement request. The nice thing with this procedure over submitting feedback is that you get a response and a follow-up number; thus, starting a dialog with engineering.

Finder Find function / Spotlight not working

hello. After a complete reinstallation of my computer and a migration of everything migratable from a backup, both the cmd-f function from within finder and Spotlight are severely not functioning. It's not, as one might expect, that they take long time for their search—they are very quick. But they don't find anything. Like, they find 4 files with a .indd file extension, while in fact there are at least 2000 of them on my machine. Any idea?
thanks a lot

Hi nikolai:
Try reindexing the hard drive:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301562
Barry

Search Function does not work in Community Help

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help.
I use the Adobe Master Suite and have enjoyed the Community Help Application/Client. I could do online searches for information with no issues. In checking were I stood as far as offline documenation, I decided to download all of the Suite Documentation through the CHC Perferences through the Updater Settings and doing a manual download. I believe (though not positive) is when my problems began.
First, I have a MacBook Pro runing OSX 10.6.8 with FireFox Browser 9.01 (not sure the browser information is needed). Adobe Community Help Version is 3.5.0.23 and the Adobe AIR application is version 3.1
At this point I am able to view the online help files in the main viewing screen. However, when I try and do a search, nothing shows up excpet a little dynamic clock icon showing that it is working and eventually it comes back with a dialog that says: "An unexpected error has occured. Please try your search again."
Here is the screen shot before the search:
And here is the image after trying a search:
After several attempts to fix this myself, I am not asking help on the forum. The last attemp I made was to
- Uninstall AIR using the uninstall app under Applicaitons/Utilities/Adobe AIR Uninstaller.app
- Deleted the folder "user"/Library/Preferences/chc.4875E02D9FB21EE389F73B8D1702B320485DF8CE.1
- Running the AIR installer (I downloaded the most recent version): Adobe AIR Installer.app
- And then running the Adobe CHC help application directly: Adobe Help.app
If I set preferences to open up in a Browser, that works just fine yet would prefer to use the CHC interface.
Thanks in advance for any help including pointers on how to dig myself out of this hole I seem to be in.
John
ADDED EDIT: When I click the OK button on the error dialog, the main view window again shows the Adobe help information as in the first image.

There is a thread on the topic on the Photoshop forum: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4124703#4124703
Strange, it works in CS4
But you guys are able to go to http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/index.html right?
It might be useful to know that you can set Community Help Sites as a search engine in your browser (it should offer you to register itself as a search engine, while Safari users have to add Glims to add additional search engines.) http://blogs.adobe.com/communityhelp/2009/01/opensearch_plugins_available_f.html

Search function does not work, shows ( ) results but won't expand, javalangnullpointer error message

I have a storm 9530 , verizon, v4.70.75 platform 4.0.0.94
3 apps installed, facebook,, weather channel and live strong calorie counter, 44.7 mb free space.
I just got this phone because I beat up my curve.
I tried to search my device so find something on the calendar. I opened the search, clicked the calendar and unclicked evertything else. hit the menu button, highlighted search.... now it goes weird..... either NOTHING happens and the phone locks up. PULLED the battery and started over.... sometimes it WILL search.... shows (3) results, but not what the results are, hit menu and EXPAND and nothing happens..... OR I get the uncaught exception, javalangnullpointer error.
Please help! I rely heavily on my calendar and the search funciton.

Hello,
You are running an extremely old (and EOL, btw) device, further hampered with a very out of date OS (they offer into the 5.x.x.x range OS for that model). The device was never known for it's stability (I had one for a while), and may indeed never function well for you. (And I never bothered with any of the search capabilities, especially in older OS levels.)
What I'd recommend is a clean OS reload...the simplest way is to, on a PC (you cannot do this on MAC):
1) Uninstall, from your PC, any BB OS packages
2) Make sure you have the BB Desktop Software already installed
http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/desktop/?lid=us:bboftwareesktopSoftware&lpos=us:bboftware
3) Download and install, to your PC, the BB OS package you desire:
http://us.blackberry.com/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp
4) If that OS package is from a carrier other than the carrier for which your BB was originally manufactured, then delete, on your PC, all copies of VENDOR.XML...there will be at least one, and perhaps 2, and they will be located in or similarly to (it changes based on your Windows version) these folders:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader
C:\Users\(your Windows UserName)\AppData\Roaming\Research In Motion\BlackBerry\Loader XML
5) Launch the Desktop Software and connect your BB...the software should offer you the OS package you installed to your PC. If, during the process, your BB presents a "507" error, simply unplug the USB cord from the BB and re-insert it...don't do anything else...this should allow the install to continue.
Don't forget to backup.
If you are on MAC, you are limited to only your carriers sanctioned OS packages...but can still use any levels that they currently sanction. See this procedure:
KB19915How to perform a clean reload of BlackBerry smartphone application software using BlackBerry Desktop Software
You may also want to investigate the use of BBSAK (bbsak.org) to perform the wipe it is capable of.
You may also want to try this procedure to perhaps narrow down the precise causal item:
Load your OS "bare bones"...if anything is optional, do not install it.
If the behavior presents immediately, then try a different OS with step 1
If the behavior does not immediately present, then run for as long as it takes for you to be sure that the behavior will not present.
Add one thing -- no matter how tempting, just one.
If the behavior does not present immediately, then again run for long enough to be sure it will not have the same problem
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all things are loaded or the behavior presents
When the behavior presents, you know the culprit...the last thing you loaded.
If the behavior does not re-present, then you know that either step 1 or 2 cured it.
If the behavior presents no matter what, then you likely have a hardware level issue for which no amount of OS or software can cure.
Good luck and let us know!
Occam's Razor nearly always applies when troubleshooting technology issues!
If anyone has been helpful to you, please show your appreciation by clicking the button inside of their post. Please click here and read, along with the threads to which it links, for helpful information to guide you as you proceed. I always recommend that you treat your BlackBerry like any other computing device, including using a regular backup schedule...click here for an article with instructions.
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My search function doesn't work on my PPC - it did at one time - can someone help?

My search function does not work at all - it did at one time - can someone please help?

DeeCeeGee wrote:
My search function does not work at all - it did at one time - can someone please help?
Hi and welcome to the discussions. This happens once in a while for no apparent reason. When it happens to me, a simple log out/log in usually gets things going again. I haven't researched to see what process died when this happens.
If that doesn't, then a restart, but first check Spotlight in System Preferences and make sure that the Privacy list is empty.

Search function (Spotlight) not working in Mail

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