Stuart Luff

Q: El Capitan spotlight broken

I upgraded to El Capitan on my work iMac and immediately noticed Spotlight is now broken.

 

In the office we use a reference number system whereby we name our files in the format as xxxx-xx-xx. I've noticed that when I search using Spotlight, be it in the Spotlight window, Mail.app search box, Finder search box or wherever there is a search field and Spotlight is involved I get no search results if the search string is over 8 characters long and contains a special character like a dash, a period or forward slash for example. An @ symbol is fine however.

 

As an example if I run a search in Mail for an email containing '1234-56-78' I get NO results returned. If however I remove one of the dashes (doesn't matter which one) I get results appearing. The same happens if I remove both dashes.

 

Again in Mail; If I search for 'john.appleseed@apple.com' I get no results returned. If I remove the period between 'john' and 'appleseed' I get results.

 

While testing this as I type it does not seem fully related to 8 characters length although this is when is it most prevalent. It seems its mainly related to special characters and Spotlight not handling them very well.

 

Can someone create a folder on their desktop called '1234-56-78' and then try searching for it using both Spotlight and a search via a Finder window and let me know you're results? If you get no results try taking out a dash and see what happens.

 

I've reindexed Spotlight about 5 times and have now filed a bug report with Apple.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 16, 2015 3:23 AM

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Q: El Capitan spotlight broken

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  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff Jan 20, 2016 8:50 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (61 points)
    Jan 20, 2016 8:50 AM in response to dialabrain

    We're not talking about problems caused by the user. Its bad software from Apple. As bad as Yosemite was, Spotlight worked as it always had done. Now in El Capitan it barely works at all.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jan 20, 2016 8:53 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jan 20, 2016 8:53 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    You're absolutely correct. Happy?

     

    Enjoy your day.

  • by iTBotB,

    iTBotB iTBotB Jan 20, 2016 9:24 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 20, 2016 9:24 AM in response to dialabrain

    Your comments boil down to: "I'm having no problems, so you must be screwing things up." I'm a doctor, so here's my medical analogy: I've prescribed this drug to hundreds of patients, and none of them had the side effects you describe. You must not be taking the medicine on schedule, or you must be a hypochondriac. Unlucky patients can have atypical reactions. Unlucky Mac users can have atypical problems.

     

    I guarantee I know as much about Macs as you. I've been using them since the first Mac 128 over thirty years ago, and I've supported scores of Macs over the years. I did not screw up my installation of the Captain—Apple lied when it said that one could install El Capitan over Snow Leopard. You can't, because the permissions protocol was changed in Lion. When a completely clean installation of El Capitan from an El Capitan recovery partition onto an erased hard drive still results in Spotlight problems, then the issue is Apple's. You are providing no assistance, so please stop posting.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jan 20, 2016 9:26 AM in response to iTBotB
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jan 20, 2016 9:26 AM in response to iTBotB

    As I said to Stuart, you are absolutely correct.

     

    Enjoy your day.

  • by wdeprodirector,

    wdeprodirector wdeprodirector Jan 20, 2016 9:30 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 20, 2016 9:30 AM in response to dialabrain

    Squabbles form when basic functionality within Operating Systems don't perform like they should. Apple's system is so bad these days, their OS is going backwards compared to WINDOWS and Linux. They don't see the need to innovate for business any more (especially their server offerings), they just want to make and sell iPhones.

  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff Mar 21, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 1 (61 points)
    Mar 21, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Stuart Luff

    STILL not fixed in 10.11.4. Not even worth bothering anymore. Still an open ticket on Bug Reporter ranked as High too.

  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff May 17, 2016 8:00 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 1 (61 points)
    May 17, 2016 8:00 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    Ooh 10.11.5...

     

    ...nope!

  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff Jul 19, 2016 5:14 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 1 (61 points)
    Jul 19, 2016 5:14 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    10.11.6 still not fixed.

     

    Imagine upgrading to Sierra on top of a broken install of El Cap. Needless to say I won't be.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jul 19, 2016 5:25 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jul 19, 2016 5:25 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    Stuart Luff wrote:

     

    10.11.6 still not fixed.

     

    Imagine upgrading to Sierra on top of a broken install of El Cap. Needless to say I won't be.

    Thanks for letting us know.

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Jul 19, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 6 (12,075 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    You seem to be doing nothing to troubleshoot the issue and mystically hoping that an update will fix things.

    You are likely to be disappointed every time.

     

    You probably realize that Spotlight works fine for most people. You have a problem. It may be a bug in the OS, but it may be caused by an interaction with other software. No two installations are the same.

    Did you ever try this on a clean install?

  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff Jul 19, 2016 6:38 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (61 points)
    Jul 19, 2016 6:38 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    I've tried everything possible to fix the issue as it says in my previous posts! Reindexing, reinstalls, clean installs, installs without attached devices, terminal commands, Ive sent bug report and diagnostic information to Apple at their request, the report is still open listed as high priority. I've downgraded to various OS' and reinstalled El Crap again and again using many different approaches and the same problem happens on 3 completely different Macs in two different locations. I've stopped Spotlight indexing certain things, I've flushed caches, permissions you name it. Even completely fresh installs with no 3rd party software installed the problem persists.

     

    Its a major bug in El Capitan that renders it pretty much useless especially in a work environment. Fortunately it doesn't affect everyone but to those that it does it is major and its unbelievable that it has not been fixed.

     

    Its Apples crap software that is the issue, hence why Im waiting for an update from them to fix it.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Jul 19, 2016 6:39 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jul 19, 2016 6:39 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    Stuart Luff wrote:

     

    Its a major bug in El Capitan that renders it pretty much useless especially in a work environment. Fortunately it doesn't affect everyone but to those that it does it is major and its unbelievable that it has not been fixed.

    Once again, if it was a major bug in El Capitan everyone would suffer from it. Obviously millions of users don't. It is a problem local to your machine.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 19, 2016 6:43 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 9 (50,387 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 19, 2016 6:43 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    Nonsense.

     

    It is your specific problem, blaming anyone else will only waste time.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 19, 2016 6:46 AM in response to Stuart Luff
    Level 9 (50,387 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 19, 2016 6:46 AM in response to Stuart Luff

    Stuart Luff wrote:

     

    10.11.6 still not fixed.

     

    Imagine upgrading to Sierra on top of a broken install of El Cap. Needless to say I won't be.

    Upgrading a broken installation is very foolish,

  • by Stuart Luff,

    Stuart Luff Stuart Luff Jul 19, 2016 7:20 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (61 points)
    Jul 19, 2016 7:20 AM in response to dialabrain

    Read my posts! Its on 3 different Macs in two different locations! There are other people I know who have the problem some of whom have posted in this very thread!

     

    <Edited by Host>

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