The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
this morning, all my applications stoped appearing in my spotlight search. Please don't waste my time with responses like how Spotslight is not an applications search tool but a files search tool. It was working this morning, and now nothing.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2
It should work…
Check System Preferences > Spotlight and make sure "Applications" is checked. If it is, uncheck then recheck it.
If that doesn't work, try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally.
It should work…
Check System Preferences > Spotlight and make sure "Applications" is checked. If it is, uncheck then recheck it.
If that doesn't work, try booting into Safe Mode then restart normally.
Well, there's multiple ways to find/launch apps but try rebuilding the Spotlight Index.
Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.
Did you install any "cleaners" on this mac?
You could create a second user account or enable the guest account, log into it and see if Spotlight is working there.
yer, none of that worked. To be honest, the last few hours have been that painful and frustrating that I am about to throw my laptop out the window
Throwing your laptop out the window will not work either but perhaps someone else will have an idea.
I disagree. Throwing it out the window will make the problem disappear.
Not being able to do basic things make it almost impossible to use. My Macbook is now just a very expensive paperweight.
yep, tried that.
Applications no longer appear in spotlight search
