Unable to Search for Mailboxes in Apple Mail Basic Functionality Missing

For the past few years, Apple Mail has lacked a fundamental feature that used to exist: the ability to search for mailboxes directly from the search bar. Despite recent macOS updates claiming that Spotlight now allows users to search “everything,” including within Mail, that does not seem to include user-created mailboxes.

I have an extensive folder structure in Apple Mail, organized under various mailboxes (e.g., “AtoB”, “Golf Status”, etc.). However, when I try to search for these mailbox names in the Mail app’s search bar or even through Spotlight, nothing appears. I only get results related to contacts, email content, or attachments — not the actual mailboxes themselves. This makes navigation incredibly inefficient, especially when you have dozens of mailboxes layered across multiple accounts (Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, etc.).

Instead of simply typing the name of a mailbox to jump to it, I now have to manually scroll through account folders or search inside Gmail or Outlook’s web interface, locate the message, and then come back to Apple Mail. It’s an unnecessary, time-consuming workaround for what used to be a basic and reliable function.

Attached screenshots show the failed search attempts for two real examples: a mailbox named “AtoB” and one named “Golf Status.” Neither appears in the results — only contact suggestions or message-related items.

This used to be possible and should be again. Apple, please restore the ability to search for user-created mailboxes in Apple Mail and Spotlight. This feature is essential for power users and anyone with a structured email filing system.

If others are experiencing this issue as well, please comment or upvote and get this core feature back.