How to Rebuild the Apple Mail Index

If you are using the Apple Mail app as your primary email client, then it is very likely that your inbox is full of messages that are making it difficult to navigate through your past email conversations. Even worse, having a cluttered Apple Mail inbox may result in the search feature working poorly – it may not display some results or may prioritize the wrong emails. The good news is that this issue can be solved by rebuilding the Apple Mail Index. Here is how to do it:

Rebuilding the Apple Mail Index Automatically

Open Apple Mail, and then click on the Mailbox option in the top bar. Select 'Rebuild' and wait for the rebuilding process to complete. You can check the progress in the bottom-left corner of the newly opened window.

Rebuilding the Apple Mail Index Manually

To use the manual method, you will need to first quit the Apple Mail by right-clicking its icon in the Dock and pressing 'Quit.' After this, open Finder and press the button combination Command + Shift + G. Enter ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/ in the newly opened window, and press Go. Remove all files whose name starts with Envelope Index. Reopen the Apple Mail application.