Macos Mail.app Better Search

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It’s nearly impossible to talk about the best email apps for Mac and not include Apple’s own Mail.app in the list. Apple Mail is a reliable & solid email app for Mac that is a great option for someone just starting off with email. It comes bundled with macOS and integrates well with the major email service providers. It’s nearly impossible to talk about the best email apps for Mac and not include Apple’s own Mail.app in the list. Apple Mail is a reliable & solid email app for Mac that is a great option for someone just starting off with email. It comes bundled with macOS and integrates well with the major email service providers.

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Emailing is probably the activity we do the most on our computers. Even if you don't work on a computer during the day, you probably sit down in front of it to check your inbox at the end of the day. If the Mail app that comes with your Mac doesn't provide the features you need, you're in luck. There are dozens of great email apps in the Mac App Store. I've tested many of them and these are my favorites. Each one has a little something special that makes it unique.

Polymail

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Polymail for Mac has a fantastic interface with cute buttons everywhere so you don't have to think about what to do next. It actually looks like it belongs on a mobile device, except that you click the buttons instead of tapping them.

There is a fourth section that appears whenever you select an email, which displays all of the past correspondences you've had with that particular contact or group of contacts. It's great for quickly tracking down something you've talked about in the past.

You can set up new mail with a pre-made template, send calendar invites, get notifications when someone has read your email, and schedule an email to be sent at a later time.

You can also write or respond to emails with rich text formatting. So, if you want to change the font, add bold lettering, bullet point a section, or just slap an emoji in there, it's all available right from the toolbar at the top of your new email. The only thing it's missing is Touch Bar support, which would really make this app shine.

Polymail can be used for free, but you'll need to sign up for a subscription if you want all of the awesome features that make Polymail stand out, like read notifications, send later, and messaging templates. You can add these features for as low as $10 per month. If you are a heavy email user and these features entice you, give the free trial a run to see if it's worth your money.

If you want your computer email experience to look and feel more like a mobile experience, with big, easy-to-find action buttons, Polymail is the one for you.

Spark

Spark has this 'Smart Inbox' feature that separates mail into categories: Personal, Notifications, Newsletters, Pinned, and Seen. That is, any email that is from someone in your contacts or otherwise looks like a personal email will be filtered to the top of the inbox list. Below that, in a separate section, emails that look like alerts from companies you deal with, like your gas company or Amazon, that include some kind of alert or notification. Below that, you'll see a section called 'Newsletters' which is exactly that. Below that, there are emails you've flagged or tagged as important in some way. Lastly, emails you've seen, but haven't moved to another folder.

Spark also allows you to snooze an email and come back to take care of it at a later time. This is invaluable when you regularly get emails that you need to respond to but don't have time for until the end of the day. I use it all of the time.

It also has gesture-based actions for getting to inbox zero. You can swipe to the right or left to delete, archive, pin, or, mark an email as unread.

And it has Touch Bar support, which I love.

Spark is best for people that like to have their inbox organized before they go through and move emails to new folders, address them, or delete them entirely. If that sounds appealing to you, try Spark.

Kiwi for Gmail

If you have one or more Gmail accounts, you should consider switching to Kiwi. This all-in-one triumph brings the look and feel of Gmail for the web to the desktop in the form of an app. With the service's unique Focus Filtered Inbox, you can view your messages based on Date, Importance, Unread, Attachments, and Starred. In doing so, you can prioritize your emails in real-time.

Perhaps the best reason to use Kiwi for Gmail is its G Suite integration. Thanks to the app, you now get to experience Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, as windowed desktop applications. Kiwi is available for Mac and Windows.

Postbox

New on our list for 2020, Postbox has been designed for professionals, but anyone with more than one email account should continue using it. Available for Mac and Windows, Postbox works with any IMAP or POP account, including Gmail, iCloud, Office 365, and more.

Postbox offers one of the fastest email search engines available, which is ideally suited when you need to find files, images, and other attachments. With the app's built-in Quick Bar, you can move a message, copy a message, switch folders, tag a message, Gmail label a message, or switch folders with just a few keystrokes.

Looking for more? Postbox comes with 24 (counting) themes, and much more.

Your favorite?

What's going to be your next email client for Mac?

Updated February 2020: Guide updated to reflect price changes and more.

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Closed for 2020

Apple says its offices in the US will not fully reopen until at least 2021

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is planning for its office and many of its retail workers to remain remote for the rest of the year.

Macos Mail.app Better Search Engine

On more than a few occasions (read: a lot), I’ve had to help clients figure out why Apple Mail’s search function wasn’t working. It’s strange to be looking right at a message about baseball that doesn’t show up when you search for “baseball” within Mail. Kinda makes you want to punch things just a little bit.

If that starts happening to your Mac, there are a couple of ways to get it going again. First, you could force Spotlight to reindex your entire drive. While this method may take longer, if you’re not comfortable with finding and deleting files from your Library folder as I describe below, it may be the better way for you. For this, visit System Preferences> Spotlight, click on the 'Privacy' tab, and then either click the plus button at the bottom-left corner to add your entire Macintosh HD to the exclusions list or drag in the drive from your Desktop if it shows up there. You’ll see a scary warning when you do:

But after you click OK, you should see your drive appear in the list.

Macos Mail.app Better Search Engine

Now you’ll want to select that drive and click the minus button to remove it. This’ll force Spotlight to start its indexing over again, and you can click on the Spotlight icon on the upper-right corner of your screen to see its progress.

Sigh. I’m gonna be waiting on that for a while. The things I do for you guys, I swear.

Secondly, you can try a more focused approach by making Mail reindex its database only. To do this, quit Mail if it’s running first. Then click on Finder’s Go menu and pick Go to Folder:

Paste the following path into the box that'll appear and press Return:

Once the Finder window for that location opens up, delete any files in there that start with “Envelope Index.” As you’ll see below, I’ve got three:

After you delete those files, open Mail again. You may see this kinda-scary box, and if you do, click Continue and let it do its thing.

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This step could take a while if you’ve got tons and tons of messages or if your machine isn’t the fastest, so be prepared.

Anyway, after whichever process you’ve chosen is complete, check to see if searching is working properly. Finally you can find all of those messages your grandpa sent you about everything that’s wrong with the world! Now don’t you feel better?