Ventura Spotlight Search Problems

chadfromgrapevine wrote:

Like many others, I am having problems with Spotlight Search in Ventura. Currently, I am on Ventura 13.2.1 on a 2018 Intel MBP 15" but have similar problems on the same version of Ventura on a 2021 M1 MBP 14".

When I attempt to search for and launch files from Spotlight, files are found but most (if not all) cannot be launched into their app. When selected, Spotlight closes but the app and file never launch.

See the attached screen shot of an Excel file that opens fine from Finder and from the Excel "Open" menu but won't open using Spotlight in Ventura. This same file opened normally prior to upgrading to Ventura on the same hardware. I also notice the squeezed Finder icon to the left of the file instead of the Excel app icon. Not sure if this is indicative of the problem or not but curious.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/03226792-1562-4e31-96e4-1241f587cce9

I have reindexed using Terminal and using the Spotlight System Settings menu and neither correct the problem. I assume that this is another Ventura bug but thought I would see if anyone else has suggestions or has similar problems.

seems like you covered all the basics...

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Plus—Takes a bit longer to get to the login screen, does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, font cache, etc., third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most* extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

if no resolve:

you can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

chadfromgrapevine wrote:

Leroydouglas,

Thanks for the recommendation. Booted to safe mode and tried my Spotlight search. The search turned up the same files but the files displayed a small thumbnail of the spreadsheet vs the generic Finder icon as shown in normal mode. When selecting the file, it opened as it should. Very happy to see this behavior.

However, I rebooted to normal mode and the wrong behavior from before and as shown in my original post and screen shot returned. I tried this on another MBP with an M1 Pro chip to see if it was unique to my older Intel MBP or that particular installation and the M1 chip duplicated the same behavior.

Since it works in Safe Mode but not in Normal Mode, what can I do to further isolate the problem?

The basics—Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

If no insight or resolve—you can get a good look at your System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com  

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.