[SpiralOcean]

I would try those last steps first, without uninstalling mail tags. See if this fixes it.

If it doesn't fixes, go through the steps I did. Then if it is fixed at the end, try installing mail tags again.

I haven't been using mail tags but I had it installed, that's why I didn't reinstall.

[Waterdog]

I did your whole list except for the ONYX indexing and the problem still persists.

[SpiralOcean]

Interesting.

Try Onyx. It's free.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macos...ties/onyx.html
Go to maintenance -> rebuild -> Mail Envelope Index

You may need to go through the steps again including the Onyx.

[Waterdog]

the good news - ONYX did the rebuild in a few seconds (I figured it would be at least an hour).
The bad news - your fix did not fix my problem.

[Waterdog]

woa, hold the boat. Now it's working!! I have no idea why but it just started working properly - so it looks like your procedure did work. Strange. But thanks for your help SO.

[SpiralOcean]

Good to hear! I sacrificed a couple chickens on my end for you... that's probably what did it. :)

Did you reinstall mail tags?

[Waterdog]

yep, mailtags is reinstalled and all is fine. Could it really have been the ONYX rebuild that did it? Strange.
thanks again