![]() For repeated searches, Apple recommends setting up Smart Mailboxes, which are different, and have their own problems.įor comparison, here’s the search feature in my chosen mail client, Postbox, which is what you might have expected in Mail, given its widespread adoption. For anyone used to Finder search, it is simply too frustrating to use. At times, it decides that parts of the search text function as predicates, at other times it behaves quite differently. I suspect this is the non-oral version of Siri search, which is fine for speech but not in the least suited to trackpad and keyboard. The Mailbox Search menu command in Apple’s Mail app claims to use ‘natural language search’, which is one of the most infuriating interfaces that I have come across. ![]() In practice, Core Spotlight search in apps like Mail and Notes is poor in comparison with mainstream macOS Spotlight. Although I can’t imagine anyone wanting more than a hundred or so notes, a great many users have more than a few thousand messages in their Mail mailboxes, which they might now expect to have sub-optimal search.įurther details of Core Spotlight’s indexing are here, and its developer interface is documented here. Under Core Spotlight behaviours, indexing of notes isn’t a task performed routinely by Spotlight’s mdworker processes either, but it’s up to Notes to call for indexing to be performed when it deems it necessary.Īpple warns developers that Core Spotlight “works best when you have no more than a few thousand items”. Notes doesn’t store your notes in documents, but in a database, which isn’t normally accessible through the Finder’s Spotlight search either. Without a plug-in, third party apps can’t gain access to its indexed contents, and there’s not even a permission available in the Privacy pane which could grant access to its data. So long as you’re running Mail with that plug-in, HoudahSpot can search your mailboxes.įor apps like Notes, the situation is even worse. HoudahSpot achieves this feat using an ingenious workaround: it installs a Mail plug-in, which gains access to Mail’s protected Spotlight indexes. FoxTrot Search can search them, but only using its own indexes, not those of Spotlight. If you use HoudahSpot, you’ll be aware that it’s currently the only third-party app which can search Mail’s mailboxes using Spotlight’s indexes. Even adding an app to the Full Disk Access list can’t enable its access to these protected parts of Spotlight’s indexes. Similarly, a general Spotlight search in the Finder can’t see content indexed for the Notes app.Īlthough this might appear good for privacy, it’s exceedingly bad for search, particularly as there’s no way that a third-party app can be given user consent to search indexed content from apps like Mail and Notes. This means that Apple’s Mail app, and its plug-ins, is the only app which can search Mail’s mailboxes now. We’re therefore left to guess the limitations of Core Spotlight and in-app search where it uses Core Spotlight.Īs far as I can tell, in-app search using Core Spotlight uses the same indexing system as regular Spotlight, but access to content indexed for Core Spotlight is strictly limited to the app which controls it and rare exceptions including Spotlight’s menu bar search. ![]() ![]() However, Apple doesn’t appear to have explained to users the differences between existing macOS Spotlight and Core Spotlight, and its developer documentation is common to iOS, which doesn’t have anything comparable to regular Spotlight in macOS. This is because of the introduction in macOS of what Apple calls Core Spotlight, which is the basis for search in iOS. Recent releases of macOS, Catalina and Big Sur in particular, have changed search behaviour in certain apps such as Mail and Notes. So far in this series, I have only considered Spotlight search accessed at a system level, typically using the Finder and third-party apps such as HoudahSpot.
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