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Helpful answers
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Oct 26, 2015 12:30 PM in response to asaquibby Linc Davis,This is a diagnostic procedure. It makes no changes and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.
Step 1
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -F '$Time $Message' -k Sender mdworker -o -k Message Rne Norm -k Sender mds | tail | pbcopy
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear.
The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.
The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
Step 2
Enter the following command as in Step 1 and post the output:
mdutil -as 2>&- | pbcopy
You can then quit Terminal.
Step 3
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Terminal. In the Console window, look under the heading DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION on the left for crash reports related to Spotlight. If you don't see that heading, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar. A Spotlight crash report has a name beginning in "mds," "mdworker," or "mdwrite," and ending in ".crash". Select the most recent such report, if any, from the System and User subcategories and post the entire contents—the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post any other kind of diagnostic report, such as hang logs—they're very long and not helpful.
When you post the results, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.
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Dec 3, 2015 5:40 AM in response to Linc Davisby kgbmac5,I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) running 10.11.1 (15B42). Yesterday Spotlight stopped working. It shows no results for my name (it's all over documents) and only external results for common words. My diagnostic information from Terminal is below. There were 56 Spotlight items listed in Console but nothing like what you describe. So I searched for "crash" and found the two items included at the foot of this message:
Dec 3 08:23:30 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
Dec 3 08:23:30 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Dec 3 08:23:30 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
Dec 3 08:23:30 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
Dec 3 08:23:31 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
12/3/15 5:52:54.023 AM awdd[188]: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.crashreporter.writereport.awdcom.apple.message.signature: awdd
com.apple.message.signature2: UNBUNDLED ||| awd-osx ((null))
com.apple.message.signature3: UNKNOWN
com.apple.message.result: noop
com.apple.message.summarize: YES
SenderMachUUID: [snip]
12/3/15 5:52:54.108 AM awdd[188]: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.crashreporter.writereport.awd
com.apple.message.signature: awdd
com.apple.message.signature2: UNBUNDLED ||| anon-osx ((null))
com.apple.message.signature3: UNKNOWN
com.apple.message.result: noop
com.apple.message.summarize: YES
SenderMachUUID: [snip]
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Jan 13, 2016 6:22 PM in response to Linc Davisby eugenesv,Linc, I have exactly the same issue with Spotlight not working. Would you kindly look at my logs as well to see if you can identify what the cause of the issue is?
Thank you!
The logs are below. As an additional info I can't add any folders to the Privacy tab of spotlight, it gives the following error
"Privacy List Error
The item couldn't be added or removed because of an unknown error"
Also, I can't turn indexing off from the terminal either "sudo mdutil -i off /", I get the following error:
"/:
Error: Index is already changing state. Please try again in a moment."
I'm able, though, to turn the Spotlight service off and on with "sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist"
1) Syslog terminal command output
Jan 14 05:10:16 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Jan 14 05:10:24 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
Jan 14 05:10:35 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
Jan 14 05:10:45 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
Jan 14 05:10:46 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Jan 14 05:10:47 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Jan 14 05:10:56 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
Jan 14 05:11:06 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
Jan 14 05:11:17 (Server.Warning:445) No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"
Jan 14 05:11:17 (DiskStore.Warning:895) Got indexer death
2) mdutil status output
/:
Error: unexpected indexing state. kMDConfigSearchLevelTransitioning
/Volumes/BOOTCAMP:
Indexing and searching disabled.
3) Crash report
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Jan 13, 2016 7:07 PM in response to eugenesvby eugenesv,Turned out I just needed to delete the "/.Spotlight-V100" folder and then it all started working again.
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Jan 14, 2016 8:39 PM in response to asaquibby Brian Lapan,Hey all, this same issue have been driving me crazy for months. I've looked everywhere and all through many different support threads. What I found out is that somehow that (via the terminal) I found out that "Spotlight server is disabled."
I did a search on that and found this fix (copy paste into terminal)
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
AND (for me) all is right in the world again! Hope this helps at least some of you.
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Jan 23, 2016 11:16 AM in response to Brian Lapanby PhotonPDX,Thanks a bundle, Brian! I had a Mail> Search that found anything in every email and a non-functioning Spotlight. I tried everything, including, ultimately, a clean install of El Capitan followed by a Time Machine data reinstall, but the problems persisted. Then I tried the approach you describe and it seems to have worked perfectly. I have no idea how the Spotlight server came to be switched off, even after a clean install. So I guess it could happen again but there seems to be a solution to it.
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Sep 4, 2016 8:23 PM in response to Brian Lapanby Fred Stahl,Brian – A thousand thanks!
This fixes a problem I had after I installed and ran Symantec Norton Antivirus ("NAV") –
Mail search and Spotlight were dead.
Recounting my travails might help others:
- I uninstalled all NAV software, but Mail search and Spotlight were still broken.
- I tried to delete a hidden file in my Macintosh HD, but that didn't work.
- I tried to rebuild the Spotlight index as suggested on so many sites. That didn't work either.
- After days of Googling I finally found your solution – Reactivate Spotlight using the Terminal command above.
- I did, and Immediately, Mail search and Spotlight were back on in full strength.
My guess is that Norton Antivirus turned off Spotlight search because technically it was unsafe.
I gather one is supposed to use the safer search service that comes with Norton Antivirus.
Sadly uninstalling Norton Antivirus apparently does not automatically turn Spotlight search back on.
Here are the steps I used to apply Brian's Terminal command in my OS X El Capitan 10.11.6:
- You will need your admin password. If you don't know it, use the method called "5: Use Your Apple ID" on page http://tidbits.com/article/14437 to set up a new admin password.
- Open the folder Utilities (in the folder Applications) and double-click on Terminal.
- You should see something similar to
Freds-MacBook-Pro:/ - Type in Brian's command
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
- You should see a response that looks like this
WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.
To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.
Password:
- Type in your admin password (it will be invisible) and then hit return.
- And Presto! Mail search and Spotlight are now turned back on.
Keywords: fix Spotlight uninstall Norton Antivirus Symantec mail search fix Spotlight troubleshooting broken repair