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Thunderbird 115 - Global Search returns no results in

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  • Last reply by sfhowes

Lisa Brenneis
Lisa Brenneis
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I have been unable to get Thunderbird Version 115.5.1 to return any text search results. I use the Cmd-K global search bar. No matter what search term I enter, the search results tab remains completely blank. So I cannot perform text searches across folders. 

I could always do this in previous versions of Thunderbird.

I have run in troubleshooting mode, dumped a lot of excess email, and re-indexed.

What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

Running Tbird on a Mac Mini OS 13.5.1

Lisa

I have been unable to get Thunderbird Version 115.5.1 to return any text search results. I use the Cmd-K global search bar. No matter what search term I enter, the search results tab remains completely blank. So I cannot perform text searches across folders. I could always do this in previous versions of Thunderbird. I have run in troubleshooting mode, dumped a lot of excess email, and re-indexed. What am I missing? Thanks in advance. Running Tbird on a Mac Mini OS 13.5.1 Lisa
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All Replies (5)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Try again after rebuilding the database:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/rebuilding-global-database

Lisa Brenneis
Lisa Brenneis Question owner
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Thanks, sfhowes, for the reply.

Apologies. I should have said "rebuilding the Global Database" rather than "re-index". I did rebuild the Global Database per instructions. No joy.

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Try this: close TB, delete global-messages-db.sqlite from the profile folder (as you did when re-indexing), then restart TB and select Tools/Activity Manager to watch the re-indexing progress (see picture). It can take a few minutes even for only a few thousand messages. Confirm that the process completes without errors. Also, in case you have several profiles, make sure you deleted the sqlite file from the current profile.

Lisa Brenneis
Lisa Brenneis Question owner
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Thanks, sfhowes. Followed your directions and re-indexed. Still no results returned from global search if I attempt to search for text. I really need search for my work. Baffled how Tbird could break this. Regrettably, I may choose the downgrade to v 102 to get this functionality back. I'm grateful for the help.

sfhowes
sfhowes
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Although OS X users are a small minority of TB users, I haven't seen any reports like yours with empty results (it works here on W11). In the meantime, use Classic Search, Ctrl+Shift+F, but keep in mind searching for Body text on IMAP accounts requires 'Run search on server' be enabled if only message headers are downloaded.

If you wish to bring this to the attention of developers, the best way is to file a report on Bugzilla (include a link to this topic).