Mac Mail not searching message content - HELP!

[Black ICe]

Mail has abruptly ceased searching the contents of messages. It only searches the subject line and recipients in the search bar.

Of course, I went to Google and the Mac Rumors forums to search for a solution, finding this and this (should I be posting this thread in Lion by the way? My last Mail thread did okay in this forum, but that linked thread was in the Lion forum ).

Instead of bumping the old topic, I thought I'd create a new thread - if I should bump the 1-year old topic, let me know.

I've tried:

• Deleting the 3 envelope index files (twice)
• Rebuilding my mailboxes
• Restarting my Mac
• Reindexing Spotlight (ongoing - it will take nearly 2 days, and my computer, being a laptop, needs to be closed to take to work, so it quits the indexing process. I won't get time to index it without closing it until the weekend.)

Perhaps most peculiar of all is that when I delete the Envelope Index files, the first search in the search bar only lets me search content. I click the search bar, it says "Message contains (keyword)," but shows no results (one of the times I deleted the envelope index files, it did show a result! - only to instantly disappear seconds later). Then, I search it again, and it only searches under "People" and "Subject."

I'm running Mac Mail 5.3 and Lion 10.7.5 on a MacBook Pro.

I rely heavily on this search function for work - so I really need help!

 

[needfx]

Mail has abruptly ceased searching the contents of messages. It only searches the subject line and recipients in the search bar.

Of course, I went to Google and have searched for a solution, namely here and of course here (should I be posting this thread in Lion by the way? My last Mail thread did okay in this forum, but that linked thread was in the Lion forum ).

Instead of bumping the old topic, I thought I'd create a new thread - if I should bump the 1-year old topic, let me know.

I've tried:

• Deleting the 3 envelope index files (twice)
• Rebuilding my mailboxes
• Restarting my Mac
• Reindexing Spotlight (ongoing - it will take nearly 2 days, and my computer, being a laptop, needs to be closed to take to work, so I won't get time to index it until the weekend)

Perhaps most peculiar of all is that when I delete the Envelope Index files, the first search in the search bar only lets me search content. I click the search bar, it says "Message contains (keyword)," but shows no results (one of the times I deleted the envelope index files, it did show a result! - only to instantly disappear seconds later). Then, I search it again, and it only searches under "People" and "Subject."

I'm running Mac Mail 5.3 and Lion 10.7.5 on a MacBook Pro.

I rely heavily on this search function for work - so I really need help!

time to migrate to thunderbird

 

[Black ICe]

time to migrate to thunderbird

I'm seeing a lot of performance issues with it on CNET (although this could be a Windows-exclusive issue). I just need something dependable. I never thought Mac Mail would choke like this. The spotlight/search feature is a selling point of Mac to me.

If I need to change email clients, so be it... but I'd like to see if anyone has any ideas for fixing Mac Mail right now. I've tried the other 'alternatives' - Sparrow, Postbox, etc. and Mail was the best for my needs.

 

[needfx]

I'm seeing a lot of performance issues with it on CNET (although this could be a Windows-exclusive issue). I just need something dependable. I never thought Mac Mail would choke like this. The spotlight/search feature is a selling point of Mac to me.

If I need to change email clients, so be it... but I'd like to see if anyone has any ideas for fixing Mac Mail right now. I've tried the other 'alternatives' - Sparrow, Postbox, etc. and Mail was the best for my needs.

Sorry, no info on Mail, though, you could just download it and try it out until Mail gets back on its feet.

 

[Rippeddisc]

SAME issue with ML. :/

Any ideas??