Spotlight: what doesn't work?

Sorry, I fail to realize how to try the thing you're having problems with.

I would, however, like to report that using a keyword search in System Preferences doesn't work (any more) for me. Searching for "Volume" should highlight the "Audio" preference icon, however my system fails to do that (for all kinds of searches). This worked with the original installation of Tiger, but stopped working after 10.4.1(?)...

Anyone?

Spotlight can't be turned off.

Searching for "Volume" should highlight the "Audio" preference icon, however my system fails to do that (for all kinds of searches)

This is not 10.4.2 related as it still works here... Probably a preference or cache file somewhere that needs to be deleted.

Spotlight cannot find any digital image files from either of my 2 cameras unless I rename the files in certain ways.
Try this: upload a folder of RAW (with my Canon camera these are .CR2 files) or JPG files. Spotlight will not be able to find a file named "HI4L1234.CR2 nor HI4L1234.JPG if I type in "1234" in the finder window's spotlight search area. Searching for "HI4L1234" does find the file but just searching for "1234" will not find jack even if spotlight is told to search only in the folder where HI4L1234.CR2 exists.
If the file is renamed to HI4L-1234.CR2 then a search of "1234" succeeds in finding the file. Rename the file back to HI4L1234.CR2 and again spotlight fails to find the file.
This has happened on my G5 DP desktop and my G4 powerbook with a fresh install of tiger.
What is it about files whose names start with "HI4L" or "DSCF" that causes spotlights blindness?
Here is something else- the file doesn't have to be a digital file. If I rename any file, .mp3, .doc, .rtf, .pdf etc with HI4L1234.doc the file cannot be found by searching for "1234"

I type in "1234" in the finder window's spotlight search area. Searching for "HI4L1234" does find the file but just searching for "1234" will not find jack even if spotlight is told to search only in the folder where HI4L1234.CR2 exists.

If the file is renamed to HI4L-1234.CR2 then a search of "1234" succeeds in finding the file. Rename the file back to HI4L1234.CR2 and again spotlight fails to find the file.

Spotlight doesn't search for partial strings (ie. from the middle of a word) because it is doing content and metadata searches as well..This is a design feature as stated in The Spotlight Technical Brief page 14. Use a Name Contains search with Cmd-F Finder search... it should work.

Following Tobias' or Francine's tips here, you can set Name Contains to default. Example, I currently have Cmd-F to open with Kind:Any, Name:Contains, and Raw Query displayed.

I find it amazing that a search tool doesn't search for partial strings (ie. from the middle of a word). Am I the only one?
As far as changing the default behavior of CMD-F, my /System/Library/CoreServices folder shows "Finder.app" as an application and is NOT a folder containing /Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist
"You need to edit the file /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist "

Finder.app is indeed an application. However that icon is actually a folder. Appending the .app extension to a folder changes the way the Finder displays it and behaves with it. If you control click on a .app icon you will see the option to "Display Package Contents"--select that and the folder window opens showing the Contents folder. Open Contents and you will see, among other things, the Resources folder. The actual Finder executable (the "application") is inside the MacOS folder.
Francine

Spotlight only seems to search the files that I've opened. I have lots of doc files that were created before I installed 10.4.2 but it wont search them with spotlight until I open them.

How do I fix this?

For some odd reason as of recent the spotlight in the upper right hand corner of the screen doesnt find anything anymore, but when i open up th ehard drive and use the search feature it can find what ever i need, does anyone know how to fix this?

I login to a networked server, and my home directory is stored there. As a result, there's no item in the finder to indicate that I've mounted a drive, and as such Spotlight cannot find anything in my documents folder (or home dir for that matter). Its really annoying. I can live without it, but I wish it worked.

Is there a way to force spotlight to re-index? Or does it just do that automatically? I cannot get it to find half the files in my clip art collection. It finds certain things. Definitely doesn't seem to find .eps files? They're sitting right there looking at me but Spotlight doesn't find th em. Any ideas?

Well, it doesn't work... period.
No, that is not true, it can find lots and lots of files, but not the one I want.
I have here a network on Windows 2003, 2 Tb of files, more than 50.000 files, OSX 10.3 finds in a matter of seconds everything, 10.4 finds NOTHING.
I don't want to search for a text in a word file, I don't want 2000 files with the word 'the' in it, I just want to find a folder with a name, just like 'in the good old days'.
Using the finder method is also not working, sometimes I just open a folder and see the file standing, spotlight just doesn't see it!
I have made numerous feedback response to apple, at this time if I really want to find something, I use our Panther workstation. Programs like easyfind are simply too slow. Please let Apple give our old find method back!

Have you tried do a Name Contains search with Cmd-F selecting the network drive as the search location on the bar across the top of the Cmd-F window?

I can't test it since I'm not connected to a Windows file server, but that's how it should work when searching non-indexed locations like networks and CD/DVDs.

Oh yes, I have tried it all, I have two Tiger installations on my system (4 partitions, including 1 Panther) And both Tiger systems don't find folders. (I mostly look for folders, because our clients have order-numbers attached to the folder-names)
Folders that are obvious there, cannot be found with spotlight, even sometimes crashing the system. Restarting to Panther works always, it finds all the folders and files I look for, the problem is clearly something to do with spotlight. I really don't like the whole indexing idea, re-indexing is completely useless, why can Panther find it, and Tiger not? I like Tiger, it is snappy, works great, but I could do without the whole spotlight idea, it is not a good solution for network environments.