spotlight simply not working

I am running macOS 12.6.3 and when I enter the application name alone, it is the first Spotlight hit, at least for the examples you have shown. However, just entering the application name causes Spotlight to apply that search to every selected Spotlight search results category, including looking inside documents for any string matching the search term. That is inefficient.

As for math, I can enter either 2+2 or 2 + 2 and the immediate result is 4.

Spotlight has reserved keywords that improve search results. If you want to restrict your search results to filenames only, then use the full or partial case-insensitive spelling that you want to find using the name keyword:

name:saf

and for me, the top result is Safari.

name:sub

finds the Sublime Text programmer's editor as the top hit.

VikingOSX wrote:

As for math, I can enter either 2+2 or 2 + 2 and the immediate result is 4

I get the same results, i.e. find all the aforementioned apps. As far as 2+2, not only do I get 2+2=4, but also, 2+2=5 and 2+2=fish. Not sure what that's about. 😎

dialabrain wrote:

I found out how 2+2=fish.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/0292b972-46e4-4f5b-b31b-92a31e010265

LoooooL

lol Could be. Although I think "new Math" is about 50+ years old by now.

I found out how 2+2=fish.

My optometrist would refer to it as the "new Math" that her kids are being taught…

Create a new admin user, log in as that user, and test. Same problem? No?

Now that's how you work a solution into a problem… 🍺