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Global Search does not work anymore over my whole email history

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by Nate

Nate
Nate

Hi,

I'm a long time thunderbird user, recently I migrated my installation to a new PC and found that the global search does not work past January 2023 for my emails.

At first I thought this was due to my migration from my old PC. So I attempted to uninstall TB, reinstall and import the profile again fresh. This didnt work. Frustrating! However I went back to my old PC and entered a search term that should come up LONG past 2023 and yet even in my old installation the search halts at 2023. Now I am confused as to why?

Prior it has always worked on the older PC with no issues at all.

I really REALLY need to fix this issue, as it is necessary to use for my work, in order to reference on-going projects and work with customers.

I've included images of searching for a search term that should be found in many of the older folders, but not searching actively in those folders. I've also included an image of the older folder emails including the search term as being present.

Please your help is appreciated!

Hi, I'm a long time thunderbird user, recently I migrated my installation to a new PC and found that the global search does not work past January 2023 for my emails. At first I thought this was due to my migration from my old PC. So I attempted to uninstall TB, reinstall and import the profile again fresh. This didnt work. Frustrating! However I went back to my old PC and entered a search term that should come up LONG past 2023 and yet even in my old installation the search halts at 2023. Now I am confused as to why? Prior it has always worked on the older PC with no issues at all. I really REALLY need to fix this issue, as it is necessary to use for my work, in order to reference on-going projects and work with customers. I've included images of searching for a search term that should be found in many of the older folders, but not searching actively in those folders. I've also included an image of the older folder emails including the search term as being present. Please your help is appreciated!
Attached screenshots

All Replies (2)

Matt
Matt
  • Top 25 Contributor

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

It does not move from machine to machine well.

Nate
Nate Question owner

Sorry, I should have mentioned I've already tried rebuilding the database multiple times. On both machines. And not once did it solve my problem. It has however solved problems in the past unrelated to this specific issue.

And I did solve the problem.

I only solved the issue on Sunday afternoon, after a few hours of tinkering and reloading from backups using "importexport tool" and trying to be proactive to solve the problem myself searching online and checking out what others have experienced.

Sorry for not getting back sooner.

Apparently there is a limit to 1000 messages in the search function, which if you as me given 64bit and that it's 2024, is simply utterly archaic. I increased the limit to 6000 messages and it can search my entire database well again.

I did have some other issues but were able to manually sort through them on my own.


That said, as others in previous questions and problems, scattered across various forums have said, this global search limit on messages limited to 1000 is really kind of..... well "shit" and should be increased.


Thanks for your help.

Modified by Nate