using: KDE 4.8.2 + Fedora 16 (x86_64).
One very useful tool in Kmail, the Find Messages function, very hand when you need to ransack through thousands of old e-mails, is simply not working any longer!
Since the move to kmail2 its behaviour has been sketchy, but since 4.8.1 it stopped working altogether...

Yes, I've taken a look on some old threads and made sure that "Enable Full Text Indexing" in Folders Properties -> Maintenance is checked in all folders.

One curious thing though, which I don't know if it's of importance at all, is that when I right click on Local Folders, choose Folder Properties -> Maintenance, it shows 0 Files and 0 Messages, whereas all sub folders display the correct amount of messages, when I perform the same operation on them.
I don't know if this could be related to my problem or not. I also don't know if this happens because I selected as "Local Folders" my old ~/Mail directory, instead of the default ~/.local dir.

I know some of you have been having similar problems. If you were able to solve them, please let me know.
Thank you.

Have you enabled email indexing? (System Settings > Desktop Search)

einar wrote:Have you enabled email indexing? (System Settings > Desktop Search)

Yes.
The Nepomuk service seems to be running too. Going to System Settings -> Service Manager, the Nepomuk Search Module is reported as running.

On the other hand, going back to Desktop Search, I've found two things:
1. Although the "Enable Nepomuk File Indexer" box is checked, the system reports below that that "File indexing service is not running".
2. Going to the Desktop Query tab, I noticed that only a multimedia directory was selected for File Indexing. So I chose my ~/Mail directory for indexing too, logged out and logged in back again, but even so the "Find Messages" service is not working in kmail.

I don't know if this has anything to do with my problem.

Please try removing any Nepomuk Feeder using akonadiconsole and then add them back. This will unfortunately retrigger indexing, but it might solve your problem.

Please try removing any Nepomuk Feeder using akonadiconsole and then add them back. This will unfortunately retrigger indexing, but it might solve your problem.

I have the same problem (Find doesn't work), but what do you mean by this - try removing any Nepomuk Feeder using akonadiconsole and then add them back?
How to do this step by step?

I have such information:
Akonadi Nepomuk Feeder -> System busy, indexing suspended.

I wonder why the developers didn't change that string, because it's misleading (the feeder no longer "suspends", just "throttles" CPU to consume less resources), anyway you may want to click on that agent, then remove it (Remove button) then add it again (add button > Nepomuk Feeder) and let it index for a while.

and let it index for a while.

I did what you said.
How log will it take - this "a while"?
In my situation virtuoso-t works over 15 hours now (i5 & 8GB ram) and it is still indexing. Can I check the progress now, as I doesn't know it is really indexing something or it is an empty loop.

I did remove Nepomuk Feeder using akonadiconsole and then added it back. After re-indexing (100 hours) search still doesn't work
I have seen there is a bug 290142 from December 2011 - but still unsolved
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=290142

Any other ideas?

xywa wrote:I did remove Nepomuk Feeder using akonadiconsole and then added it back. After re-indexing (100 hours) search still doesn't work
I have seen there is a bug 290142 from December 2011 - but still unsolved
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=290142

Any other ideas?

Same here. I've done what was suggested. Nepomuk has been indexing the Mail directory continuously for over a week now.
After all that time, I've got a very limited success. When I tried to locate messages in a given folder using the From: field, it only suceeded when I provided the sender's full e-mail address; when I entered just a part of the address, it found zip. Definitely a dumber finder app now, as compared to the previous one, available with Kmail 1. However, even with the best response, I got only partial success. The finder only located the messages from some senders and failed for others, even when I provided the whole addresses... I'm totally baffled by that behaviour .

Hi rgaelzer, you can simply use the Edit menu button "sign everythig" while pointing to some e-mail folder. With "export" you can then put your e-mails from this directory to an external file in mbox format. Than feed them to the thunderbirth or some other mail program and you'll find the solution to you original problem in a easy way. Using Kmail is dangerous in my opinion. One should export the data as long as it is possible. With the next version it might be impossible.

zlisiecki wrote: One should export the data as long as it is possible. With the next version it might be impossible.

Please do not spread misinformation about KMail or imply lockin ideas. There are problems, but that's not the right attitude. Aside being off topic it's not even true, as with 4.9 there will be an archive/backup option to export messages.

And to be on topic, it's hard to tell where the problem is, as I said I can search through all messages just fine (to-be 4.9.).

sorry

Sorry if this should be a new thread after a year, but I thought this post might be relevant.

I'm using 4.10.1 and search is ineffective. It finds nothing. I'm using dovecot imap server on my local workstation. kmail configured to access email via imap using server side subscription. Email is stored in ~/Maildir. I do not download email from remote server as the remote server is my workstation. I've restarted indexing a couple of times with no help. I wonder if nepomuk can index "remote" email? I checked the nepomuk box to search Maildir, but none of the "." folders are selected. I've got a couple folders in Maildir without the leading "." containing a few emails. Those boxes are checked for search. kmail search finds nothing in those files either.

The "search" area at the top of the email list will search, finding emails in selected email folder. This helps, but I do some times need search on the full email body.

Is there a "serverside search"?

1. Did you try using the filter field in the top of the message list? That actually finds messages containing the query in the body, as well as in topic and sender/receiver fields.

2. Restart akonadi, and notice if a lot of indexing activity follows. If so, wait a bit. I personally experienced recently, that recreating accounts can help, so if you don't have functional search after restarting akonadi, you could try that.

3. Good luck

Logged out and back in. There is a lot of nepomuk / virtuoso-t activity. (100% of one cpu.) BTW, nepomuk has indexed nearly 400,000 files. In kmail I selected a folder which has 4 emails in it. Looked at one email and decided to search for two consecutive words contained within. Typed those words into the search box above the message list. kmail did not find the one email (of four) which contained the words. It will find the email if I enter a word from the subject or enter the sender.

I copied one email to my "Local Folders" Inbox and used search on body within that folder. kmail search fails to find one word in one email. For that matter, it fails on a "subject" find to find a word in the subject. The search box above the message list will find that word.

Is there any way to know if kmail is accessing the search index? How 'bout knowing if the search index has actually indexed the email?

I'm happy to try things to help this problem be understood and fixed.

I do still wonder if it has to do with IMAP server side subscriptions.