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Level 1

7 points

Spotlight file search unable to "see" my External Sabrent NVMe SSD.

Hello, I have a 2019 Mac Pro with 2 installed NVMe's (PCI Express slots), both of them are from Sabrent (identical). One of those drives (1TB) is running the OS, while the other one (2TB) has a bunch of files on it. Simply put, Spotlight cannot "see" the 2TB one. Any ideas? I've already tried the re-indexing tip in system preferences; doesn't seem to work. These are fairly new drives. I've been using them and they work great.

Also, another strange thing is that while I can navigate to the drive, using Finder, I also cannot do a file search in that drive using Finder. Weird. Is there some strange permission issue? I've tried allowing all the permissions I can to no avail. Filevault and Firewall are set to "off".

Mac Pro

Posted on Jun 13, 2020 1:27 PM

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damusicman29 Author

Level 1

7 points

Posted on Jun 13, 2020 3:07 PM

UPDATE: Okay I figured out the solution.

Opened Terminal
Typed : sudo mdutil -E /. (this will start re-indexing all of your volumes, including the external ones)
Then, opened up DiskUtility and ran First Aid on the external SSD (the one that wasn't working)
Then, voila, it started working again.

NOTE: I also deleted a "hidden" file in the root folder of the affected SSD called .metadata_never_index_unless_rootfs. You can find that file if you use an app called MainMenu. It's free.

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Spotlight file search unable to "see" my External Sabrent NVMe SSD.

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