Spotlight: can't paste into search window

iMac 10.13.6


I don't know why, but I haven't been using Spotlight.


Now that I started to, I noticed it won't accept pasted search inquiries.


The window either disappears when I try to or remains, but doesn't acknowledge the paste.


I can manually type searches in, but otherwise, its useless to me, as it is.


I tried unchecking "Bookmarks and History" >System Preferences > Spotlight and also quitting "pboard" in activity monitor, but no go>


Any suggestions how to fix this?







Posted on Jan 5, 2022 2:41 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 5, 2022 3:09 PM

Start with this...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 5, 2022 3:09 PM in response to zoktoberfest

Start with this...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Jan 5, 2022 5:25 PM in response to BDAqua

Ok...I will do it again.


The previous attempt did take forever and when finally prompted to enter my admin password, the "problem" prevented me.


How long do I need to hold down the "shift" key?


Do I need to tape it down while I do something else?


Can I stay in Safe Mode for however long it takes to assure the problem is or isn't occurring.


As I said previously, I did a lot of house clean, including deleting orphan files and apps that were abandoned and/or incompletely uninstalled....


I've had the computer since 2010 and there was a ton of miscellaneous stuff to trash.


That said, the computer is definitely behaving better.


Yesterday, at this time and place, I was gettin nauseous watching the desktop dancing.


Now, the window is more stable, although, on Facebook, earlier, my posts would slide to the right and off the screen, unprovoked, but FB would ask if I was done and allowed me to continue.


That's way better than the post deleting itself and FB saying: "Oops...something went wrong..."


It would be premature to say all is well, but it's definitely better.


I'll let you know how Safe Mode went.

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Spotlight: can't paste into search window

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