big sur reading file names wrong on external hard drive

EasyFind is glacially slow, and finds only a fraction of the results Spotlight is able to find when working properly (I ran several test searches with results I could predict). Spotlight is still better than EasyFind even in its currently bugged condition. I woudn't recommend EasyFind to anyone reading this thread looking for a solution.

What version of EasyFind do you use ? Currently its version 5.02. On my Macintosh HD drive it runs in less than 60sec through >900000 files including packages and hidden files. Maybe it will run slower searching through an external disk. It also depends on your search criteria, but in my experience it outperformes by far Spotlight in finding folders and files. I would like to see an example of a file that Spotlight would find and EasyFind not.

I'm using the latest version, but I think the difference comes down to the use I need the app to perform. I use my internal and external hard drives as research databases, so I'm typically searching the content of the files, not just for file names. Setting EasyFind to search content rendered the search process far too slow for my purposes. Spotlight (when working properly) yields results in seconds where EasyFind took quite a long time and still only returned a fraction of the results I knew were possible in my test cases. It's probably a perfectly fine app for other purposes, but it doesn't help in my situation. Thanks for the rec though.

So its been a year of owning a brand new Macbook Pro M1 with a malfunctioning Spotlight search apple refuses to fix, does anyone know if Monteray has the same issue? is it worth diving headfirst into another OS update?

I'm probably duplicating this response, but want to make sure it gets a newer response slot.

Njariri, gave this link: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-mac-file-names-external-drive-30728.html

I went to the bottom of that page and followed those instructions. I've not had a problem since.

These steps don't work for me unless I also perform an SMC reset. Then they will work, but only temporarily. The issue always returns, typically within a few days but sometimes after a week or two.

I think this is going to need more of permanent fix from Apple... [exasperated sigh]

Souids like you need to reset the index for Spotlight: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support  

Did you read the thread? We're doing just that, and in my case it has only been working temporarily.

After hitting support a few times it sounds like there may be a permissions issue as the reindexing fix is not permanent.

Apple please help us.

Where is this contextual menu located? sorry I just haven't seen a way to access this, is it in system preferences or somewhere else.

I have been reindexing my drive every couple days as this issue keeps coming back.

Is it rooted in OS account permissions? That is the only insight I have reached through all my calls with applecare.

Same issue, thought it was older external, happening on all external drives, it is an Apple Issue to me as well, Apple Step up. No problem except on my machine running Big Sur upgrade

This article is useless. Its suggestions are equivalent to getting a level one tech who doesn't know enough to understand the problem.

This has been a good, although time consuming temporary fix, but the problem returns.