I left product feedback, but I wanted to know if anyone else is experiencing zero results when using spotlight?
All parameters in system preferences are checked. A restart didn't fix it.
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.0
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!
Same problem, and "search" never really worked, it just returns everything. Having issues with search on phone too. I also followed the protocol they suggest to fix this issue and it worked briefly but no longer.
I have reloaded from scratch, with support from Apple, yet the indexing issue persists. The latest update (11.1) did not address this issue, hence I am having to use my windows machine to find items in dropbox and sync spotlight apparently does not. It is the most regrettable update I have yet done in all my years of owning Macs. A colleague of mine still uses Catalina and I look at it as if it were the promised land!
Excellent News! I’m glad to finally have it back keyboard commands make for a much more efficient daily workflow especially when you have a number of daily recurring spreadsheet variants like I do :) Enjoy!
There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community
A blanket statement like that is not universally accurate and even harmful if it gives people a false sense of security. Effective risk mitigation depends on the situation that a given user/device is in, the threats that are posed, and the potential impact in the event of some kind of exploitation of that risk. I would also classify the "cleaning/optimizing/speedup" apps in a different category of general usefulness than legitimate antivirus/malware, VPN, or other security apps.
Security software does provide a useful additional prompt / barrier against phishing attacks / rogue email links (regular contacts can send compromised emails /w rogue attachments too) / compromised Website addresses (major sites get compromised not just obscure little trod or questionable areas of the net - Jamie Oliver's site was a case in point). So notwithstanding good practice as recommended by all government agencies, issues can arise. I see no harm in installing AV/Malware protection for this reason. It's saved me on a few occasions. Optimising / Cleanup software I agree with, many of which are bloatware or simply cause problems down the line, if they are not actually removed from the Apple/Mac store before that point is reached. For VPN you still need to subscribe to a service and some will find the dedicated software easier to handle though I agree it's easy enough to configure from system preferences if you know how.
I'm using Big Sur (just updated last week), and although I'm finally able to use Spotlight again for the whole hard drive, most of the time I only want to search my ARTWORK folder, which contains all my stock images & vectors (I'm a graphic designer and I have thousands of them). When I search for a particular type of image (let's say "golfer"), it finds everything on the hard drive with that in the name, but if I have selected the ARTWORK folder before doing the search, it cannot find anything in that folder. It finds ZERO items. I've tried your above suggestion (System Preferences : Spotlight : Privacy panel, wait 10 seconds, etc), but after I've dragged or selected the artwork folder and put it in that privacy window, it disappears. It is only showing there for about 2-3 seconds.
What's up with that? Is there some way I can get to search just the Artwork folder? I have done this for years... until updating to Big Sur. Frustrated!
Before upgrading to Big Sur Spotlight served a my excellent calculator. Not any more.
Also, battery time on my MacBook Air is extremely bad :(
I am having to reindex nearly every day. It's so much fun.
Macbook Pro 16 i9 macOS 11.1 Big Sur
My Big Sur Spotlight does not work, or at times extremely slow...same issue with Finder. Prior to Big Sur, both worked perfectly and fast
Me too. My 16" Macbook Pro is feeling more and more sluggy
it's ok after a clean install..... **** :(
I have tried this method twice and both times it's a no go.
How'd you downgrade? I need to do this asap. thanks in advance.
FYI - Alfred 4 not working either (for me anyway)
Spotlight not working on Big Sur?
