Spotlight Search not working on Mac after Ventura Update

Spotlight (Search) not working after installing Ventura on an iMac 27" 2017. Any suggestions?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.0

Posted on Nov 5, 2022 1:56 AM

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74 replies

Mar 20, 2023 4:00 AM in response to cm0s

If Spotlight searches were the only problem, it would certainly be worth the attempt, but truthfully, this computer has so many problems, many of which are intermittent, that it seems pointless. Even dependable apps like the iWork suite now have numerous problems, especially Pages, in which the arrow keys no longer work correctly at the ends of lines. Maybe the computer itself is a lemon, but I'm glad I kept my great old iMac.

Apr 13, 2023 11:44 PM in response to Frank6284

I had issues in mail and saw later also that search in other places like system setting did not work.

The solution for me were these steps:

Force re-index spotlight:

sudo mdutil -Ea

sudo mdutil -ai off

sudo mdutil -ai on


And then clear the application caches (all of them):

Quit all open apps. Then, open Finder and press Command+Shift+G to bring up the Go to Folder box.

Type ~/Library/Caches (don’t forget the tilde at the beginning) and click Go to open the application cache.

Press Command+A to select all files and folders, and then right-click and select Move to Trash to delete the entire application cache.

Restart your Mac afterward. Then, right-click the Trash icon on the dock and select Empty Trash to free up the space related to the deleted files.


Good luck!

Cheers, Ruud

Apr 14, 2023 12:34 AM in response to Frank6284

I actually had the same issue on an M1 Mac as well. All the methods suggest throughout the Web actually didn't work. Like Adding the Volume to the privacy list and then remove it again to start a reindex. Also all the terminal suggestions didn't work as well.

So I booted into Recovery mode for M1: Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

Then I simply reinstalled Ventura and everything got back to normal and everything was searchable again.

All the files and account were not touched, so nothing got lost.


However this is a radical move and your mileage may vary, so make sure, you have a backup in place - just in case.

Apr 14, 2023 12:43 AM in response to saschadiercks

This is what I finally resorted to also, and it worked. The problem seems to occur when importing files from another Mac. So in desperation I finally erased the entire computer, reinstalled Ventura from scratch and then began the painful process of re-loading everything by hand. An earlier attempt to simply reinstall the OS failed.


Ventura seems to have caused a variety of problems for Mail and for Pages. The right and left arrow keys no longer work In Pages at the ends of lines. They simply keep the cursor on the same line. Mail can no longer attach more than two documents at a time. If you attempt to attach four, only the last appears. Mail sometimes cannot attach iWork documents (they appear gray in a file list). Ironically, it seems to have no trouble with Word documents. (Is this sabotage?)

Aug 3, 2023 12:47 PM in response to allwissendemüllhalde

New MacBook Pro 14" (M2), got it set-up using Migration Tools from my other (older) MacBook.

As part of the whole set-up Ventura 13.5 (22G74) got installed = current macos version.

Spotlight was not properly working from inside Finder.


Applied the usual trick of adding and removing my home directory from "Spotlight Privacy" - which didn't kick off the Spotlight reindexing.


Finally performed - as per 'allwissendemüllhalde's suggestion:

# sudo mdutil -E /System/Volumes/Data


The reindexing is now back on. In Activity Monitor, I see %CPU and CPU Time increasing plausibly for the mdworker and mdworker_shared processes.

Oct 25, 2023 12:30 AM in response to Frank6284

The answer from allwissendemüllhalde helped for a while, but the problem returned.


Now I have found an alternative solution, but for me, it is not entirely satisfying.


I had set up my machine with two administrator accounts. One had a hard password to unlock FileVault. The other main account had a simple password, but could not unlock the machine.


My logic was: The machine was encrypted with a hard password, but once I unlocked it, I simply changed users and opened my main personal account with a simple password. The idea was to make shifts to sudo and so on much simpler. In effect, it took a large effort to enter the building, but once I was in, it was easy to navigate my office.


Cutting to the chase – I found that when I gave my main personal account FileVault access – that is – when I could turn on and open my machine with my weak key for my main personal account, then all of my Spotlight problems disappeared.


Please ask if you need clarification. I am considering a reverse solution: My main personal account will have FileVault access and a hard password, but then I will give another admin account (with no FileVault access) a simple password that I can just log into in terminal or go su.


For now, this problem is solved. I just need to work out why Sonoma keeps forgetting my mouse (not-natural) setting and my "No sound effects" setting.


Very weird that Apple has let this one out of the cage with so many issues.

Spotlight Search not working on Mac after Ventura Update

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