Spotlight not working on Big Sur?

Hi, I've been trying to fix that exact problem by doing reindexing from all possible guides I could find. But it turned out the problem was my Trend Micro antivirus that simply is not BigSur compatible. Once I removed that my mac could index spotlight again, random freezes stopped, network disconnect stopped and battery life skyrocket!

Check your antivirus and other apps with kernel level permissions. Remove them and make sure they are BigSur compatible. I could not get a Trend Micro version that worked so I switched to Bitdefender and all problems are gone!

Spotlight failed for me after migrating from a mid-2015 MacBook Pro running High Sierra to a 16 inch mid-2019 MBP. I migrated using Target Disk mode and the Migration Assistant. I spoke to 7 different Apple Support technicians (with each it was almost like starting from scratch - "call back after you've rebooted"), including two "Senior Advisors" (the last of which insisted that I wait 24 hours even though there was ZERO movement in the indexing progress bar over 4 hours, and mdworker was not doing anything in Activity Monitor) because "indexing can be slow" (!), and tried just about every fix I could find on Apple Discussion boards, including booting into Safe Mode; repairing permissions from Recovery Mode (all volumes passed with flying colours); running Terminal commands to stop and restart indexing; logging in to iCloud in all accounts; booting into a Catalina partition (where Spotlight was working); and running some Terminal commands suggested by Dropbox Help after I received an error message that the Dropbox app (present since upgrading) couldn't access my Dropbox probably due to a permissions error. Zapping PRAM did nothing.

In retrospect, there were a couple of clues as to what eventually worked:

1. Only one copy of mdworker was showing as running, and both it and mds_stores were doing nothing, per Activity Monitor.
2. Searching for error messages referencing mds and mdworker in the Console log revealed this line:
3. debug 12:22:41.199013-0700 mds_stores <173> Index asserts power /AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/Spotlight_frameworks/Spotlight-2150.7.5/spotlight/index/SpotlightIndex/SpotlightIndex.c:13308 void _SIPreHeatPermissions(SIRef, RLEOIDArrayRef, SIUserCtxRef, void (*)(void *), void *)"

So I thought about resetting the SMC (a seemingly arcane fix, but suggested in at least one post I found). As suggested by this Apple Support article, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295, I first tried holding down the power button for 10 seconds, then releasing it, and waiting a few seconds before pressing again to start up (recommended procedure before restarting the SMC). When I restarted, Spotlight was working again!

I'm not absolutely sure that this was the fix, because I didn't try a restart after fixing the Dropbox issue (which could possibly have been the cause, although Dropbox synced after that, and Spotlight did not start up afterwards. In any event, possibly one or both of these actions may be useful to others.

I may have found a solution for Spotlight not working under Big Sur. The following solved my problem after weeks of frustration that included consulting with Apple. The problem for me was my Time Machine backup disk [Mac OS Extended (Journaled)]. When it is mounted, Spotlight does not work. When I unmount the disk, Spotlight came to life with instant search results. Mount Time Machine again, Spotlight stops working. Maybe this will work for you.

Thanks to the folks who pointed the way to the external Time Machine backup hard drive. Adding it to the exclusions list in the Spotlight preferences fixed this issue for me. Before I did that, any Spotlight search would take forever to return any results, and the clues to figure it out were the posts here as well as the fact that if I did let the machine sit and finally return results, it would show the document I was looking for along with a bunch of other files that referenced the backup copies on the external hard drive. Thanks!!!

I had the same problem, turned wifi on and then off as another user had instructed. No change.

I opened System Preferences and it said I needed to sign back into iCloud for some features to be available (we all know the message). I did so, and it was immediately fixed. Don't know if this will help anyone else but I hope so!

Hehe I hear you :) I used the following workaround until I found detaching time drive/re-indexing helped - 1) Start a Spotlight search 2) Click anywhere on desktop to cancel it 3) Re-open search - thereafter an answer for the file/ app would be offered or a link /option to access it in “Finder” would appear which I then clicked to do a normal finder search. This worked until the new Update which seems to have fixed things for me. I also forced a Re-index by adding my HD to the excluded search areas then removing it which triggers a Re-Index. Hope that helps!

Totally agree, Spotlight is the "killer" function for me that significantly differentiates macOS from Windows. But have you tried the recent update 11.1 combined with detaching/re-attaching the HD under Spotlight Options to reindex? That finally worked for me and all systems go now.

The apps that have been doing the most damage are the cleaning/optimizing/speedup apps. Just search for MacKeeper and CleanMyMac in these forums and you'll find countless accounts of what I'm talking about.

Since there are no known viruses for Macs the A/V software only works to reduce one's bank account and nothing else. They also are know to seriously compromise system performance.

There are malware and adware but those can be efficiently and easily taken care of with the free version of Malwarebytes. It was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community. 

The other app that is invaluable for diagnosing issues is Etrecheck. It's totally benign and doesn't give up any personal or private data.

But that's what's great about these forums. Everyone can have their own opinion. Mine is based on a number of years working in these forums helping solve other users issues.

I also tried everything else, and then found this and it worked! thanks. Seems the upgrade logs you out of Icloud or something and simply logging into Icloud (I had to enter my icloud password) fixed the spotlight search being empty issue for me, so thanks. I waited till 11.1 was out before upgrading thinking all these sort of bugs would have been fixed by Apple by then :(

Try editing spotlight properties, adding the folders without results to the privacy policies, restart, edit again the spotlight properties and remove the folders from the privacy area. it worked for me

king regards

Reindexing worked for me and Spotlight has been working perfectly after that and the other step listed below.

I also ascertained that spotlight was stumbling over indexing/accessing my Time Vault external hard disk. I accessed Settings/spotlight and deselected the external HD reconnected it rebooted and forced spotlight to reindex.

Working fine since then.

Hope this helps!

I'm also having the issue after updating to Big Sur.

• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)

I've been using this temporary fix I found the Apple developer forums.

1. Open Finder
2. Click Applications
3. Click Utilities
4. Click Terminal.app
5. In the Terminal window enter the following:

sudo mdutil -E /

1. Open Finder
2. Click Applications
3. Click Utilities
4. Click Activity Monitor.app
5. Select the CPU button at the top
6. In the Process Name column double click SystemUIServer
7. Click Quit
8. If prompted click Force Quit

This seems to work until you reboot the machine. Hope that helps.

I'm also having an issue with Spotlight. For me, I have an external HD connected to my Mac that I use for Time Machine backups. Once I disconnected the drive, spotlight started working again. I'm wondering if the issue might be connected to Time Machine. For anyone else, maybe try turning off Time Machine and see if that fixes the issue.

So I have seen similar from others. Try opening terminal and type the following: sudo mdutil -E /

My issue is a little different. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same or if they fixed it. Spotlight was my favorite tool to find and access application quickly. but when I upgraded to Big Sur, it stopped recognizing third party apps. I can still open system apps like terminal and mail, but nothing that I have installed, like slack.app or vlc.app, which have previously worked.

The only thing that I have been able to identify but have not yet found a fix/workaround for is that the applications folder that spotlight seems to pointing to is /System/Applications while those same apps plus all of my apps are located in /Applications.

If anyone has figured this out, please let me know.

Hi

Don't know if you've fixed this since - a lot of helpful replies below. I've been plagued with this issue since Updating. However, I noted after several attempts to reindex (Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy +/- HD / Dropbox) that entries were beginning to display, but once clicked resulted in an error message that the document / app could not be opened as it resided in a Time Machine Backup.

I then disabled Search on the External HD (the Time Backup Drive) via Preferences>Spotlight>Privacy +/- HD / [External HD] and after a Reindex Spotlight now works perfectly.

Hooray!

Additionally, switching WiFi off/on as someone else suggested helped to TRIGGER the reindex.

Hope this helps.