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Spotlight Just shows 1 result on images

Hi eveyone!

I'm running OS Monterey 12.6 on a brand new Mackbook Pro M1 MAX.

I'm having a very annoying issue with Spotlight. When I search one word, I've just receive one result for category. If made the same search from finder, I receive all the correct results. I've reindexed several times, even reinstall de OS, and nothing.

I'm going mad at this, please help!!

Posted on Oct 5, 2022 1:04 AM

Reply
2 replies

Oct 6, 2022 1:19 PM in response to SPANISHTECHNICIAN

Hey there SPANISHTECHNICIAN,


Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. To get started, give the steps listed in the following resource a try that can help with troubleshooting issues with Spotlight showing unexpected results: If searching your Mac returns unexpected results - Apple Support


Check the text you entered in the search field
Make sure the word or phrase is spelled correctly.

To search for an exact phrase, enclose it in quotation marks. For example, enter “trip to Paris” to find items that contain that exact phrase. If you don’t use quotation marks, the search results include items that contain those words in any order.

Check the location you’re searching
If you began your search in Spotlight, the search results can include email, Calendar events, Siri Suggestions, information from other apps, and more. If you began your search in a Finder window, the search results include only files and folders on the internal disk.

Check settings in Spotlight preferences
You may have excluded items from Spotlight searches. To check, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Spotlight , then click Search Results. Items whose checkboxes aren’t selected aren’t included in search results.

You may have excluded certain folders or disks from Spotlight searches. To check, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Spotlight, then click Privacy.

You may have turned off Location Services for Siri Suggestions. See Turn off Siri Suggestions for Spotlight.

For more information about Spotlight preferences, see Change Spotlight preferences.

Check archives and backups
To find a file in an archive, such as a disk image or a .zip file, double-click the archive to open it, then search again.

If you’re using Time Machine to back up your Mac, use Spotlight with Time Machine to find and recover items in backups.


If still having issues after the steps above, we'd also recommend testing the issue in safe mode. This can help to determine whether the issue may be caused by some software that loads as your MacBook starts up. For steps on how to boot into safe mode, and what to do if the issue does or doesn't occur in safe mode, check out this link here: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support


Keep us updated on the results.


Take care!

Oct 6, 2022 1:35 PM in response to SPANISHTECHNICIAN

Learn how to use Spotlight to find specific things. If you just enter a word, Spotlight thinks you want to check every selected category in the Spotlight Results categories and that will end up being disappointing.


See Apple's article: Narrow your search results on Mac - Apple Support


The following will help you find all images:


kind:image


and this will find all images with a case-insensitive, full, or partial name. If whitespace in the name surround it with double quotes:


kind:image name:militar


and this will find all PNG from the previous search:


kind:png name:militar




Spotlight Just shows 1 result on images

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