Search Text in Mail Images on macOS 13

Apple Mail on macOS 13 (Ventura) allows you to search for text embedded inside image attachments. Thanks to the system-wide integration of Apple's Live Text and optical character recognition (OCR) technology into Spotlight, the operating system automatically indexes legible text found inside supported image formats, enabling you to locate specific emails simply by searching for words displayed within their attached photos, scans, or screenshots.

How It Works

Starting with macOS 13, Apple expanded Live Text capabilities to integrate deeply with the native Mail app and Spotlight. When you receive an email with an attached image (such as a JPEG, PNG, or TIFF), macOS processes the image locally using on-device machine learning. Any readable text—such as serial numbers, addresses, receipts, or printed document contents—is indexed alongside standard email metadata like sender, subject, and body text.

How to Search for Text in Image Attachments

  1. Open the Mail app on your Mac running macOS 13 Ventura.
  2. Click the Search field in the top-right corner of the window (or press Command + Option + F).
  3. Type the specific word, phrase, or number contained inside the image.
  4. Press Return.

The search results will return any message containing an image attachment with that text. You can also perform this search outside of the Mail app by invoking system-wide Spotlight (Command + Space) and typing your query; Spotlight will display matching Mail messages in the results.

Requirements and Limitations

  • Hardware Compatibility: Live Text features require a Mac with Apple silicon (M1, M2, or later) or an Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip or supported graphics architecture capable of on-device neural processing.
  • Indexing Delay: Brand-new emails or recently imported mailboxes may take a short period to index. The background OCR process runs when your Mac is awake and not under heavy processing load.
  • Image Clarity: The text within the attachment must be reasonably sharp, oriented correctly, and legible for the OCR engine to detect it accurately. Extremely low-resolution images, heavily stylized fonts, or faint handwriting may fail to register.
  • Local Storage: The attachment must be downloaded to your local drive for Spotlight to index its visual contents. If your Mail account is set to keep attachments on the server until opened, the text will not be searchable until the file is fetched locally.