Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Apple mail cannot search by email good anymore.

Confirmed 100% today Mail search is broken, not working? Is there anything I can do?

If I search with name, Mail will dig down into sub folders and find the email. Also, Spotlight will find it. But if I search with email (which is easier), Mail suddenly wont dig down to subfolders and find emails with that email. Only in inbox. Very frustrating. Was ok for last 5 years, just not last few weeks.

Rebuilding mailboxes may be just the thing. If that doesn't work, read How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

thanks J, those are really big draining fixes, that usually don't fix anything. ANd cause more new problems. So first just trying to find one human being who knows of issue also.

A search of the Apple forums and several other sites all found the same two recommendations to fix search issues in Mail:

1. Rebuild the Spotlight Index
2. Rebuild the mailboxes

But if you are unwilling to do that, another option would be to try a different email client. Spark is an App Store editor's choice that has been around for a long time, I have used Airmail 3 for years with no problems, and there are a number of other options on the App Store including Microsoft Outlook.