after upgrading to Big Sur 11.2, finder and spotlight searches no longer work. I reinstalled the operating system as recommended by a tech support person but it did not fix the problem. Spotlight can only find applications and seems to be in an eternal indexing state. it's been over a week since the reinstall. Finder search shows <spinny thing> Loading... and never returns a result.
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 11.2
Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.
NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
sbahles, try this go to the spotlight preference pane and select the privacy tab. At the bottom of the list there are +,- buttons click on the + button and add your internal drive (macintosh hd) or the drive you booted from. Wait a couple of minutes and then select the drive you added and remove it from the privacy list.
What that does is delete are the spotlight indexes from spotlight. Removing it will have the computer reindex spotlight.
Let us know if the tech support person had you try this already.
I hope this helps.
Paul
I found this suggestion online and tried it first. It didn't work so I contacted Apple support who had me reinstall the OS. I'll try it again and see if in combination the two things work.
DONE. UPDATE: i get this error message when I try to remove Macintosh HD from the privacy list
Hi,
After restarting I could remove the Macintosh HD from the privacy list. And at first both Spotlight and Finder search appeared to be working again. YAY. But I tried again a bit later, before declaring victory just wanted to be sure, and neither one is working. Spotlight appears to be trying to reindex.
Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), launch Disk Utility and run Disk Repair on the drive. If you get any error messages repeat until there are no error messages.
I got to a page that suggested restoring the OS from time machine, but I don't want to overwrite all of my data, just the OS. Restoring from the Command R recovery menu sounds like it wipes the disk and restore the entire time machine back up.
Any advice?
You did make sure every checkbox in the System/Spotlight/Search Results preference pane was checked, right?
Sorry the image I added disappeared. The error message is:
Privacy List Error
The item couldn't be added or removed because of an unknown error
Also Spotlight does now appear to be returning values from places other than MacHD ie mail and messages, dictionary, related web
Thanks. I'll this tonight,
s
Todd,
I booted into Safe Mode, a couple times just to be sure. Still not working. Any other ideas for me?
In disk Utility I see two internal drives :
Macintosh HD
Macintosh HD - Data
Do I scan and repair both?
Try both. Start with the -Data drive.
You may not be able to run it on the other volume as it's read only but give it a try.
big sur 11.2 finder and spotlight search not working
