iCal search function not working

For some users the iCal search function suddenly will not work. While they can enter search information in the search box, the results window shows no items, even though events exist that contain the search query.

Apple Discussions poster cassie229:

"Suddenly, the search function on iCal is not working. The window drops down where the results are to appear, but it is blank...It's never happened before so I have no idea what the problem is."

Some users are able to quit and restart the program to make search function again, but it seems to only work intermittently. For some, however, it works for one search and then results in the blank results window.

This problem has to do with iCal's search indexes not being accessible. The fix for this is to reset the indexes for each calendar by manually deleting them and allowing iCal to regenerate the index.

Fixes

Delete the calendar indexes The calendar indexes are located in the ~/Library/Application Support/iCal/Sources/ folder, where there are a bunch of coded folders, each for an individual calendar. Within each of these folders is the index file to be deleted for that calendar. Users can enter each folder and delete the file, or to do this easily users can run the following command in the terminal to target all the files at once (copy and paste into the terminal).

• rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/iCal/Sources/*/Index

Export the calendars, delete them, and reimport If the first fix does not work, users can reset the problematic calendar by exporting it (File menu --> Export) to a safe temporary location such as the Desktop and then remove the calendar from iCal. Do this for every calendar, and then import them again.

Resources