Spotlight doesn't work, doesn't even open on MacOS Catalina 10.15.6

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Level 1

4 points

Spotlight doesn't work, doesn't even open on MacOS Catalina 10.15.6

Hi, all the sudden my Spotlight stopped working.

When I hit Apple-Enter, nothing happens. When I click the spotlight icon, it highlights, but the spotlight prompt does not appear.

I have followed all the recommendations online for Spotlight issues, but they all seem written as if there's an indexing problem, i.e. the prompt is there but it is not showing the desired result. I ran them anyway just to be sure but to no avail. I can't find anyone having this issue where the prompt is just not showing up. Anyone else experiencing this?

I am on a new iMac (purchased 2 months ago) running MacOS Catalina 10.15.6

Posted on Jul 26, 2020 11:50 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

CT

Level 7

24,137 points

Jul 26, 2020 12:06 PM in response to sandwarlock

Does this occur for a different user, e.g., Guest? How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.

Does this occur after starting up in Safe Mode?

Consider the possibility of a third party software conflict. EtreCheck can be used to investigate what is installed. You can post the report here. Someone might spot something.

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Answer 2

sandwarlock Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 26, 2020 12:44 PM in response to CT

Thanks CT! This led me on a very helpful journey.

I logged in as guest. Interestingly, I had to do some finagling to do so, it seems another Catalina issue. Once I did - huzzah! Spotlight works on the guest account.
I then tried Safe mode- it works there too!
I logged back in to run EtreCheck and, amazingly, Spotlight now works.

Now, I have been struggling with this for about 4 days. I have restarting multiple times during this, I have re-indexed, added and removed things from the index, etc. I can't imagine why restarting in Safe fixed my Spotlight. But it did so I won't complain!

Thanks!

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