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Is there SERIOUSLY no way to search through email message text?

mkrishnan said:
Mine is set up as IMAP using the "GMail" default option that one gets one when first selects "add an account." (FWIW, that also doesn't explain why iOS itself gives a different set of search results from the "Spotlight" screen than it does from the Mail app.)
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I think there are three reasons for different results:

1. I'm pretty sure Spotlight does not search email bodies, only subject/to/from. Tried it just now and that seems to be the case.

2. Spotlight only searches local content. So if you tell Mail to keep 50 emails locally, you only get those 50 when you search via spotlight. It does not perform a server-side search on your email account(s).

3. Spotlight searches all your email accounts/mailboxes/folders/etc, whereas Mail searches are context-specific. (If you are in your inbox when searching only the inbox gets searched, if you are in "All Mail" folder, it searches everything, etc)
 
mattraehl said:
I think there are three reasons for different results:

1. I'm pretty sure Spotlight does not search email bodies, only subject/to/from. Tried it just now and that seems to be the case.

2. Spotlight only searches local content. So if you tell Mail to keep 50 emails locally, you only get those 50 when you search via spotlight. It does not perform a server-side search on your email account(s).

3. Spotlight searches all your email accounts/mailboxes/folders/etc, whereas Mail searches are context-specific. (If you are in your inbox when searching only the inbox gets searched, if you are in "All Mail" folder, it searches everything, etc)
Click to expand...

This sounds likely to be the case, but it also strikes me as needlessly complex. There's no reason for (1) at all. If the user doesn't delimit the search space to certain fields, the most reasonable practice is that the search be the broadest that the system is capable of, which, as you say, doesn't seem to be true here. For (2), it would be nice if the same option that appeared in mail were somehow incorporated in the spotlight screen. (3) is fine -- that's what I would expect (although in the cases where the results are different, it doesn't seem to be because of context -- that is, I'm not missing a search result that's in another mailbox but one that's in the same place I'm searching. OTOH for (3), even Outlook's largely useless search tool has a link at the bottom to broaden the search, and I think this would be a good thing for Apple to copy.

In my specific example, though, none of this seems to explain it. In that case, there were definitely e-mails in the IMAP inbox (which was where the search was initiated) that were new enough that they were on-device as opposed to on-server, and which had the target content in full text, which did not come up in the search. I'm not trying to be pissy -- I was actually very impressed with server-side Search when it first got added to the iPhone's mail system, and I use it all the time, but the full text searching seems to be working in a way that's far less intuitive than what GMail does, for instance, which seems to find me what I am looking for 80-90% of the time vs. 10-20% of the time with iOS.
 
Yeah, I agree it all seems a bit less cohesive/consistent than it could be.

For your issue, I wonder, have you tried deleting and re-adding the GMail account on the iPhone? No idea if it would help or not but I imagine it would force Mail/iOS to re-index the local messages.
 
I might just be switching to a Galaxy Note soon, so screw you guys and your email problems!

Jk jk... Well, I'm not kidding about the GN. Anyways, there's simply something weird going on here. I enjoy bringing problems like this to the forefront. Good brainstorming.
 
Yumunum said:
I might just be switching to a Galaxy Note soon, so screw you guys and your email problems!

Jk jk... Well, I'm not kidding about the GN. Anyways, there's simply something weird going on here. I enjoy bringing problems like this to the forefront. Good brainstorming.
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BLEH! That thing is a giant!
 
It works for me, but the Gmail app is much more reliable. However, I can go into Gmail, into the All Mail folder, and run a search and I get back the results. Sometimes I need to hit the reload button in the lower left to display all the results but I can consistently get it to work. It takes much longer than the Gmail app though, and is not as intuitive due to the fact that you have to navigate to All Mail first, like I mentioned.

The spotlight search blows. I don't even get what the point of it is other than kicking off a safari or wiki search?
 
Yumunum said:
Giant 720p display... Beautiful. I just have to decide whether I want to pretty much sacrifice one-handed use.
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This whole bigger is better thing is TOTALLY out of control. The iPhone is about the right size, 4" is OK, but then the standard Android phones started to ooze to 4.3", then to 4.5", and now we have the Gnex at 4.65" and the GN at 5".... SHEESH.
 
BiggAW said:
This whole bigger is better thing is TOTALLY out of control. The iPhone is about the right size, 4" is OK, but then the standard Android phones started to ooze to 4.3", then to 4.5", and now we have the Gnex at 4.65" and the GN at 5".... SHEESH.
Click to expand...

The iPhone is the right size for whom? For you, maybe. But certainly not everyone. Hence why these large-screened phones are so popular.
You can look in this very forum at the poll of whether iPhone users want a bigger screen; they do.

I hate when people act like their preferences are representative of the entire population.
 
bjb.butler said:
The iPhone is the right size for whom? For you, maybe. But certainly not everyone. Hence why these large-screened phones are so popular.
You can look in this very forum at the poll of whether iPhone users want a bigger screen; they do.

I hate when people act like their preferences are representative of the entire population.
Click to expand...

I have larger than average hands, and I still can't handle a gimungous phone. These things are being forced down our throats, 3.5-4" is the right size for a smartphone.
 
BiggAW said:
Yes, actually.
Click to expand...

No, and yes.

Everyone has their preference. But, I think it'd be safe to say that MOST people want bigger screens. Just look at the phone market right now. The majority are big screened, and they're selling like hot cakes. I totally see why someone would want a small phone, I also see why people (like me) want big phones. Sadly, one group or the other will have to swallow the pill. Or, phone manufactures will have to release phones in multiple sizes.

Anyways, I hate the iPhone display. Too. Small. For. Me.
 
Yumunum said:
No, and yes.

Everyone has their preference. But, I think it'd be safe to say that MOST people want bigger screens. Just look at the phone market right now. The majority are big screened, and they're selling like hot cakes. I totally see why someone would want a small phone, I also see why people (like me) want big phones. Sadly, one group or the other will have to swallow the pill. Or, phone manufactures will have to release phones in multiple sizes.

Anyways, I hate the iPhone display. Too. Small. For. Me.
Click to expand...

That's because you can't get a decent Android phone with less than a 4.3" screen (or 4" for the otherwise bulky DROID 3). That's fine if they want to make big-screened versions of phones, but they should be releasing the flagship devices at 4" MAX. At least it looks like DROID 4 will be a 4"er.
 
BiggAW said:
they should be releasing the flagship devices at 4" MAX. At least it looks like DROID 4 will be a 4"er.
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Why? So they can please you? Samsung alone has sold 10 million+ Galaxy S II devices in the first five months (way more than that by now), and they all have 4.3'' or 4.5'' screens.

You are either:
a) A troll
b) Someone who is very narrow-minded and can't see that most people have a different opinion than you.

This is the last time I'll entertain your ridiculousness. But I'll give you a +1 for getting me to reply.
 
Guys I'm sure theres at least a dozen threads debating screen sizes that you can move your argument to.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I just skipped to the last page of this discussion, and not a single post on it has anything to do with searching email!

Don't you people ever get sick of devolving into the same arguments over and over again, especially when they have nothing to do with the thread topic?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

bjb.butler said:
BiggAW said:
This whole bigger is better thing is TOTALLY out of control. The iPhone is about the right size, 4" is OK, but then the standard Android phones started to ooze to 4.3", then to 4.5", and now we have the Gnex at 4.65" and the GN at 5".... SHEESH.
Click to expand...

The iPhone is the right size for whom? For you, maybe. But certainly not everyone. Hence why these large-screened phones are so popular.
You can look in this very forum at the poll of whether iPhone users want a bigger screen; they do.

I hate when people act like their preferences are representative of the entire population.
Click to expand...

Yeah they are all outselling the iPhone
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Yumunum said:
BiggAW said:
Yes, actually.
Click to expand...

No, and yes.

Everyone has their preference. But, I think it'd be safe to say that MOST people want bigger screens. Just look at the phone market right now. The majority are big screened, and they're selling like hot cakes. I totally see why someone would want a small phone, I also see why people (like me) want big phones. Sadly, one group or the other will have to swallow the pill. Or, phone manufactures will have to release phones in multiple sizes.

Anyways, I hate the iPhone display. Too. Small. For. Me.
Click to expand...

The majority of smartphones sold have screens under 4". We judge by sales not the number of half arsed kindle fire phones
 
bjb.butler said:
Why? So they can please you? Samsung alone has sold 10 million+ Galaxy S II devices in the first five months (way more than that by now), and they all have 4.3'' or 4.5'' screens.

You are either:
a) A troll
b) Someone who is very narrow-minded and can't see that most people have a different opinion than you.

This is the last time I'll entertain your ridiculousness. But I'll give you a +1 for getting me to reply.
Click to expand...

I'm not a troll. I'm a real user, with real, above average sized hands.

They sold because there's no reasonably sized options with the same specs.

marksman said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)



The majority of smartphones sold have screens under 4". We judge by sales not the number of half arsed kindle fire phones
Click to expand...

haha, so true.
 
I just found out that it works on An Exchange inbox but not in gmail while configured as an exchange mailbox. My corporate mail works with All search but gmail doesn't....
 
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