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Spotlight on trouble

Spotlight is not working properly. When I perform a search, Spotlight does not expose any results, even if the search is in the Applications folder. I've already tried rebuilding the indexes, but got no results. After restarting the Imac, Spotlight seems to work for a while, and the words "Indexing in progress" appear, but after a few hours we are at a standstill again. I own an Imac 2019, 512 Gb SSD, Monterery 12.0.1. I attach an image of what appears after restarting Imac.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks



iMac 27″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 30, 2021 11:53 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 1, 2021 12:17 AM

Sounds like your Spotlight Index has got corrupted in some manner.


Try this, you need to make the hidden files viewable in Finder.

Open a Finder window.

Press these three keys on the key board together,


Shift Command . (⇧⌘.) ((Shift Key, Command Key and the full stop/ period key.))


You should now see the hidden files they will be slightly faded.

Look for .Spotlight-V100, move it to the Trash, do not empty the Trash.


Restart your mac, on Restart the mac will regenerate this Spotlight-V100 folder.

The mac should start reindexing, check by clicking on Spotlight in the menubar

and enter a word. Let the mac do a full index this may take some time depending

on the amount of storage is attached to your mac.


If you find this has resolved the Spotlight problem and you are happy your mac is working

you can delete the older Spotlight-V100 folder you put in the Trash.

Similar questions

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 1, 2021 12:17 AM in response to marisalv

Sounds like your Spotlight Index has got corrupted in some manner.


Try this, you need to make the hidden files viewable in Finder.

Open a Finder window.

Press these three keys on the key board together,


Shift Command . (⇧⌘.) ((Shift Key, Command Key and the full stop/ period key.))


You should now see the hidden files they will be slightly faded.

Look for .Spotlight-V100, move it to the Trash, do not empty the Trash.


Restart your mac, on Restart the mac will regenerate this Spotlight-V100 folder.

The mac should start reindexing, check by clicking on Spotlight in the menubar

and enter a word. Let the mac do a full index this may take some time depending

on the amount of storage is attached to your mac.


If you find this has resolved the Spotlight problem and you are happy your mac is working

you can delete the older Spotlight-V100 folder you put in the Trash.

Spotlight on trouble

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