"Search This Book" function malfunctioning OR not working on .mobi file

[NYCourtney]

In creating an ePub and then .mobi book, somewhere along the way, the "Search This Book" function has decided not to work on the Kindle.

I've run simple searches for "a" or "onion" and it returns no results. I've tried restarting the device, even a factory reset. All other books on the Kindle search fine, but not the new one I've created. When it does display results, they are either without the keywork highlighted, or display actual "code lines" in the results... Bizarre!!!

Everything in the book displays and functions properly, but the search function does not work. The search function works perfectly on all my other readers for this book (Sony, Nook, iPad etc.) in the ePub version.

I've tried converting it using both KindleGen and Calibre. Both create perfectley functioning .mobi files, but neither are successfully search able on the Kindle.

Has anyone run across this before? Could there be some code that I've used that has disabled this functionality???

Thank you SO MUCH if you can help!

[SusanCassidy]

Does the search work if you use Mobipocket Reader to read the file?  Is the file indexed (search all books for a nonsense word, and it will show you if a book is not indexed).

Is there a language specification tag in the HTML that you used to create the .mobi file? Is it correct? 

Have you tried a reset on the Kindle?  Often that fixes weird problems.

[NYCourtney]

Susan, the SUPER weird thing is that the search works PERFECTLY fine viewing the .mobi file through "Kindle for Mac!"

As far as I can tell from my exhaustive testing, is that it has got to have SOMETHING to do with the programming of the search function on the actual device... I am PERPLEXED!