Spotlight won't EXCLUDE mail messages

i am having a terrible time with my searches getting cluttered up with "Mail Messages". seems like since the day i started using Spotlight i have not been able to /exclude/ mail messages from my searches and this means i can never sort big searches the way i need to because there is so many mail messages listed.
can anyone help me as to whether there is a plist i can delete and write over or if i can simply exclude the MAIL folder in Privacy to get this accomplished?
TIA

I had added the email account manually on the iPhone.
I just tried deleting it then setting it up on my Mac, then syncing it via iTunes
Same thing. If the work email is enabled then spotlight doesn't find emails in my .Mac account.
If I disable the .Mac account it doesn't find work emails, so I think it's not multiple accounts per-se but something to do with my work account - that said we do run a very antiquated Sun mail server, so my eyebrows are definitely not moving in an upward direction.
Paul

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Smart Folders, Spotlight comments and Apple mail messages

Hi,
I have a simple question, but couldn't figure it out yet:
I have a workflow that tags specific mail messages according to the specific mail inbox folders I assign them to (be it via incoming rules, or Act-On rules) by automatically adding specific Spotlight comments.
My mail messages, therefore, have text in their comment boxes (if you check via GetInfo).
When I use Spotlight, I can find mail messages by searching for the comments - this is exactly as expected.
I however also have smart folders (searching for a specific Spotlight comment) that list other files that I tag with the same Spotlight comments - but my Smart Folders never find the mail messages with the requested tags (at most they find the folder that contains the messages if this folder is tagged - which it is generally not).
Question: how can I make sure that the Smart Folder does indeed identify and list the mail messages that I have tagged via Spotlight comment ?
Thanks a lot !
D.V.
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Howdy,
I cannot reproduce this problem myself...I see the same results in both the Mail spotlight and the spotlight menu bar item. I'm not sure if after installing 10.5 a new spotlight index is created, but it might be worth a shot to create a fresh index and see if that helps.
I haven't tried this, but it was the easy way I could find to reindex.
Open Spotlight Preferences
In the privacy tab, add the volume you want to reindex
After a few moments, remove that volume from the privacy list
Allow Spotlight to reindex the volume
Please let me know if that works for reindexing.
+R

Spotlight won't search mail with more than one account enabled

Just upgraded to iPhone OS 3. On the whole good.
I have a .Mac mail account for my personal stuff and I have an IMAP account set up for my work email.
When both are active Spotlight on the iPhone won't find any Mail messages. Turn off the work account and it then works OK.
Anyone else seeing this?

I had added the email account manually on the iPhone.
I just tried deleting it then setting it up on my Mac, then syncing it via iTunes
Same thing. If the work email is enabled then spotlight doesn't find emails in my .Mac account.
If I disable the .Mac account it doesn't find work emails, so I think it's not multiple accounts per-se but something to do with my work account - that said we do run a very antiquated Sun mail server, so my eyebrows are definitely not moving in an upward direction.
Paul

Leopard's Spotlight doesn't search Mail messages

Leopard's Spotlight isn't searching email messages. I made a clean install of 10.5, and have two POP accounts. The message files are right there under ~/Library/Mail/... . I rebuilt the index for the system volume by adding and then removing the volume from the Privacy zone in Spotlight preferences. I also tried some of the command-line suggestions posted elsewhere for this problem. I recently added my backup volume to the privacy zone, but other than that the zone is empty.
But the problem remains. Outside Mail.app, Spotlight never comes back with search results that are mail messages. Inside Mail.app, searching "entire message" returns 0 results. Does anyone know how to diagnose this problem? Can I see if a particular file is included in the metadata index?

Hahaaaa! Solved it - at least for me...
Please read the whole explanation first before just gabbing any presented commands and executing them in the Terminal. The solution requires no Terminal.
I had exactly the same problem described by MikeW and JJ. I tried everything like you before at no avail, too. But I tried one more thing that did work and indexed all my mail. Here is what I did at the command line. Don't type the command right away. It will work, but this is not the root cause of your problem, I present it just to explain:
find ~/Library/Mail -name "*.emlx" -exec mdimport {} \;
This searches for the individual message (*.emlx) files themselves and throws them one by one onto the mdimporter which imports them just fine. Still, a plain mdimport ~/Library/Mail would not work which pointed me in the right direction: Spotlight did not "see" these individual message files. But Why?
I fiddled a bit with file/folder permissions since I also simply upgraded from Tiger and ended up with old Tiger permission based user accounts. No result. I discovered, that in Finder the mailboxes, say ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/INBOX.mbox etc. were displayed as package files instead of folders. Strange. So again I tried mdimport -d1 ~/Library/Mail now with a bit of debugging. Aha! Spotlight imports this folder as type 'dyn.ah62d4rv4ge81g45mr3wgn8a', or similar, a dynamic UTI, instead of with 'com.apple.mail.mbox' as what it should have been. Since this unknown dynamic UTI dosn't mean anything sensible to Spotlight, it would simply skip the folder, not scanning it's contents with the well known result that mails cannot be searched by content.
So, what is essentially overwriting these UTIs? Especially because this would not happen in another Leopard-created user account. I felt guilty as I added some custom UTIs in the past, but nothing to do with mail at all. So who carries UTIs for Mail.app? Well... Mail.app! Another Mail.app? YES! I remembered, that I had an older complete pre-Spotlight system backup on my current system, including all applications including Mail.app in version 1.3.something. AFAIK only with Mail 2.0 Apple changed the way Mail saves messages and they apparently also changed the UTI of .mbox to the new format. I simply deleted the old version of Mail.app. Immediately after that the icons of the .mbox changed and I could open these folders in Finder. I tried again mdimport ~/Library/Mail and - boom - Spotlight imported all my mails!
Long story to explain my thoughts, here are 5 steps for you to try:
1. Search your system to find out if you have multiple different copies of Mail.app. You can do that with Spotlight/Finder or enter in the terminal:
sudo find / -type d -name "Mail.app" -ls
(You need to be admin to sudo, type your password when prompted)
2. Locate and check the found versions of Mail.app in Finder via the get info window.
3. Delete all but the actual copy of Mail.app in /Applications from your system (empty trash!).
4. Enter the following line in the terminal to have Spotlight import your messages:
mdimport ~/Library/Mail
Should take much longer now, depending on the number of mails you have.
5. Check the result by searching mail content in Mail/Finder/Spotlight, enjoy!
Note: If you did find and delete old versions of Mail.app, but step 4 did not work, you might have to log out and in or you can even try to restart the machine. In my case the result was instant. If all of that did not work for you - sorry - but probably the above helps you to track your particular problem down.
ecke

Spotlight Searches of Encrypted Mail Messages

Greetings,
Is there a way to get Spotlight to search the contents of encrypted mail messages?
I have a number of messages in my Mail folders that have been signed with Digital IDs. Spotlight will not search the contents of these messages (headers and subjects seem to be ok).
I have tried checking the "Encrypted Messages" in preferences and have reindexed the Mail folder with no luck.
Thanks.
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

On the top of my head, I would suggest that you could search for sender, date, etc., in encrypted emails, but as the contents is encrypted, you would need to know the makeup of the encryption. For example, if you were looking for a message with the word "warning", you would have to type in the encryption, e.g., "%r^:&x$' of that word to find it. Otherwise why encrypt the contents in the first place.
If for example, Spotlight could find by contents in an encrypted message, anyone who can intercept you email would be able to read your mail.

I want to exclude Mail messages from showing up in Finder search on OSX Mavericks.

I went to the SysPrefs > Spotlight > Search Results tab and uncheck Mail but all my email messages still show up in finder searches. How do I exclude finder from searching mail?

Thank you very much, this works! I didn't know about that feature, so your help was really vital!

Exchange won't get mail messages on iOS

Hi:
Since about 24 hours after my update to 7.1.2, my iPhone (4S running 7.1.2) and my iPad (2 running 7.1.2) will no longer get messages on my Exchange account (Google Apps).
Other apps get my mail fine (like Gmail's own app), and my Mac IMAP client (Apple Mail.app) all work fine, as does web access.
Also, Calendar and Contacts sync fine over the Exchange/Gapps connection. It's just mail that won't work.
I've tried using a completely different Gapps account and also deleting the Exchange account from my iOS devices and reestablishing it. The former worked fine (meaning it's not Google) and the latter did not work at all.
If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or recommendations, I would very much appreciate it!
Thanks.

No, it shows absolutely nothing in the "Inbox" area, even when I had my husband send a brand spankin' new message, that I hadn't clicked on or checked in the browser of the iMac Mail client. I think it's pretty weird, too, but I haven't found anything that will help, other than just checking in the "All Messages" area of the account.

Mail messages won't load in Mail 4.5

After a seeming successful installation of Snow Leopard, my Mac Mail also seemed to update properly (4.5). All my incoming items are listed. However, after double clicking on any e-mail in the inbox, a window opens up with the title of the e-mail, but then I get a spinning-spoke "Loading." No content opens and the "Mail" won't close without a Force Quit. Same result with a single click and "Open" from the Mail file menu. E-mail messages succesfully sent.

Some things to check:
Is the drive still plugged in?
Is the drive visible in Finder?
Is the drive visible in Disk Utility?
Is Time Machine still turned on (System Preferences > Time Machine)?
Is the Buffalo drive still selected as the Time Machine destination?
Assuming all those answer are "yes," look for Time Machine errors in the system log. (Search for "backupd" in the system log using the Console app in /Applications/Utilities; you may may need to log on as an administrator to see those entries.)

Mysterious e-mail message won't go away ...

There is a e-mail message that continually pops up every time I start up mail and every time I send a message. It's a previous e-mail I sent from one of my accounts to another for backup reasons, but it won't go away. I delete it, and it reappears in my in box later whenever I try to send another message.
Can someone help me escape this loop?

I understand your frustration, but it's not always reasonable to expect Apple to fix problems beyond their control. There are lots of ways to set up mail servers and Apple has no more access to the configurations for the servers you use than you do. Mail works, in my case, with both Exchange 2007 and various iMap servers, so I'm sure your problem isn't ubiquitous.
When you have things that don't work together and they both want to point fingers at each other, the best thing to do is to gather all the information that's pertinent and supply it to both sides. Have you asked the mail system administrators about the details of their system, what software they're running, version, protocols, and ports? Apple can't possibly know those details.

Does anyone know how to copy mail messages found in spotlight to a folder?

I can select all, but the copy is grayed out.

Type the search criteria in Spotlight.
Click "Show All".
Click "Kind" to arrange the results by kind, which will group all mail messages together.
Select them all and drag to the folder you want, holding the OPTION key. Otherwise you'll just move them.
Can you explain what are you trying to achieve?
There's a lot you can do inside Mail, separate messages by keywords, subject, sender etc. move them to separate folders... So maybe doing it in mail automatically would be a better option for you.

Have problems with Mail on MacBook running OS X Mavericks. It suddenly became stuck: won't quit and won't display any messages. Please help.

Have problems with Mail on MacBook running OS X Mavericks. It suddenly became stuck: won't quit and won't display any messages. Please help.

Select Force Quit from under the Apple menu and select Mail (it may say that it isn't responding).
Clinton

IPhone 5 won't push Yahoo Mail messages

Hi everyone! I do love the iPhone 5 but I've experienced a problem for about a week now. The problem is that the phone won't push new e-mails instantly. The funny thing is, it will push data on one Yahoo account, but not the other. (I do have two accounts set up.) I noticed that the account that isn't working was set as the default address, which is what I prefer, but I did just switch it to see if that does any good. I doubt it will.
I can get my new yahoo e-mail messages by manually refreshing or pulling down to refresh. It's not that they aren't coming in at all, it's just that I'm not getting them instantly and that can be frustrating at times. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I'm just using the standard mail app for iPhone, not using the Y Mail app. All software is up to date and I am running iOS 6.0.2

first of all, the iphone doesn't do the pushing. Yahoo's mail service in conjunction with apple's push notification server does the job, the iphone receives them.
so the problem may be with the abover 2 services. contact them.

Mail won't save sent messages

I just got this computer- a hand me down from my boyfriend- and I am having trouble adjusting to Mail. It does not save the mail that I write, and in fact tells me so every time I start writing a new mail message. The preferences are enabled to save sent mail-- but the computer also tells me there's an error every time i start up the computer.
Can anyone tell me what I can do to remedy this? What is going on?
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)

This whole thing is very confusing to me and I'm sorry if I seem vague. This new computer is fabulous- but I'm used to my ancient blue G3 and Entourage.
I believe that my account is an IMAP account. I followed your directions, substituting "IMAP" for "POP." I sent a sample email, and a pop down menu did not appear and warn me that my mail could not be saved. However, it is not in the saved messages folder.
Just to clarify, on the left of the Mail screen there is an Inbox, with smaller subfolders: Drafts, Sent & Trash. These folders mirror what is on my account online. Under this is a little paper airplane icon that says Sent. This continues to be empty, no matter what I do. The preferences are set to Never delete sent messages. Also, if I hit "save as draft," I get a message that says, "The message could not be saved."
Would trashing the Norton stuff help? I'm not sure if that is related to this question.
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Mail messages not moving to trash seemingly until reopening Mail

I have posted about mail messages disappearing after moving them between mailboxes (a nightmare!). I tried several things, deleting preferences, rebuilding mailboxes, etc. The particular dissappearing message symptom is yet to reappear.
However, yesterday the prelude behavior returned.... when I delete a message, it remains in the inbox. I have to quit and restart mail for it to be moved to the trash. It matters not whether I use the delete key on the highlighted message, use the trash tool button, or the "move to trash" command in the "Message" menu. There is other weird associated behavior with the highlighting of a particular message jumping arround (if other messages were unsuccessfully deleted) when this happens too.
I also have the funky search problems in Mail others have described (sometimes working, sometime not).
All this started with Mavericks.... what a mess. Any ideas on a fix... what we need here is a serious software fix from Apple!!!!!!

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Mail/Provide Mail Feedback
Try re-indexing Spotlight.
Spotlight – Re-index

Mail: "Message contains NUL characters," not listed in ANY folder

On occasion, I will hear a new message sound in Mail, and I will see the little progress indicator showing an incoming message, but there is no trace of it in the inbox. If I am there to see the incoming notice and remember the message content, I can search for the message content in Spotlight and it will open the message. But if I then click "Show in Mailbox," it opens a Mail list window that is empty and labeled "No mailbox." If I try to move the message by dragging its title bar icon, nothing happens. If I try to use the Move command, I get "Append failed: Message contains NUL characters." If I command-click the message title bar, it tells me it's inside the inbox, but again it won't list it in the inbox. The physical message file itself resides in the Inbox folder in the Mail folder on the desktop. Rebuilding the mailbox does not make it appear in the list.
I've found various workarounds for shaking Mail into realizing the message exists and listing it, but my real question is this: The above is when I notice that a message has come in but is not listed. But what about messages that come in and are not listed, and I do not know they are there because I wasn't around when they came in?
How can I use a mail rule or other tool to locate messages that are not listed in any mailbox, or contain NUL characters?
I would really like to know if I've missed any important messages because they never appeared in the list, even though they exist somewhere.
Mail will not allow me to set up a mail rule on folders when no folder is specified.

One thing I can suggest you try is to move the Envelope Index files from your User Library>Mail Folder>MailData.
Quit Mail first, navigate to those files and move them to the desktop. Restart Mail. It should give a message that you need to Import your mail. Click continue. That should reindex all your mail messages.
This should help with wrong message counts, ghost messages, and hidden message problems.
Once Mail is running and OK, you can trash those files.

Spotlight won't EXCLUDE mail messages

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