Mac Mail: changing mailboxes without losing your search

I'm using Yosemite and I've noticed an improvement in the Contacts application that doesn't seem to apply to the Mail application. But perhaps somebody can tell me a workaround.

Let's look at Contacts first.

Suppose you type a search into the search box in Contacts. It finds nothing and you realize that you have the wrong group selected on the left. You click another group name to search there instead.

In previous Mac OS X versions, Contacts changed to display the other group, but it also erased your search from the search box. (It had the same bug if you selected All Contacts.)

Under Yosemite, that bug is fixed and Contacts leaves your search alone, showing matching results in the newly selected group.​

Now let's look at Mail.

Suppose you have a mailbox selected and you type a search and get no results. You realize that you have the wrong mailbox selected. You click another mailbox name (in the full list of mailboxes) to search there instead.

Even under Yosemite, Mail erases your search. You can select Search: All at the top, or certain other mailboxes they offer, but you can't change to most other mailboxes without losing your search.​

Is this a poorly designed feature, or even what you'd call a bug? Or is there a way to search in a specific other mailbox without losing your search?

 

Thanks for testing it!

 

Next question: If you add a mailbox to the search bar, how can you remove it from the search bar?