Why does Spotlight keep failing and not showing apps in search results?
I've tried these and they are only temporary fixes:
Spotlight not indexing:
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight*
sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo mdutil -E /
sudo mdutil -s /
When you power up your Mac in the morning, part of the house-keeping tasks is to swarm mdworker processes to re/index your startup drive. This is why the Mac is slower for a few minutes after it is booted. If you create or edit a document, that too will be re/indexed on a save, and so fast, you might believe that Spotlight is not working when it is.
If you just enter a part of the application name, and have not told Spotlight to focus on just applications, it will sift through every Search Results Category that you have selected in the Spotlight preferences finding anything with that name string in it. Apple recommends how to narrow your search results on Mac (high sierra) and you will be more efficient in the Spotlight search using the following query. Note: double quotes only necessary for escaping white space in a name.
kind:app "appname"
If this is a frequent occurrence, then just drag and drop the application to the Dock where you want it, and resort to a single-click to launch it.
Have you checked to see if Application is selected in System Preferences> Spotlight> Search Results.
Why does Spotlight keep failing and not showing apps in search results?
