Stopped working for days. I did some research and thought maybe it was multiple monitors and sharing keyboard and mouse with another Mac. Today, still not working, so I put Spotlight back in the Menu Bar and now the shortcut works. I think maybe I may have turned it off when all this started -- we'll see when I get back to multiple monitors.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15
When using multiple displays, the Spotlight window can sometimes get lost off screen and become inaccessible. This can even happen with a single display.
An easy fix is to click and hold down on the Spotlight icon in the menubar. This will move the Spotlight input field back to the default location.
When using multiple displays, the Spotlight window can sometimes get lost off screen and become inaccessible. This can even happen with a single display.
An easy fix is to click and hold down on the Spotlight icon in the menubar. This will move the Spotlight input field back to the default location.
This solved it for me- unplugged my external monitor, moved spotlight to the center of my MB's screen, plugged monitor back in and spotlight showed up as expected.
Wonder if when other people restarted / safe reboot it just reset where spotlight shows, not that there was anything actually "wrong".
This stopped working for me after upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma 14.1.1. Safe mode reboot restored it.
If you have monitors connected to the laptop, remove all of them and try. Sometimes the spotlight search moves or some random location and you won't be able to find it.
This solved my issue.
Works! For clarity:
1) Remove all optional displays
2) Cmd-Space
3) You'll likely see spotlight come up in a funny location. Click and drag it to the center of the screen
4) Reattach monitor
I launch Spotlight in 13.4.1 via ctrl+space. Keyboard input is changed with cmd+space here. I don't have Catalina available to confirm the keyboard shortcut there, but verify with System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts : Spotlight.
ElasmoB8 wrote:
Cmd-Space will open Spotlight. It will NOT find Mail, Calendar, Notes or Contacts.
Try the following: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
This solved the problem for me, thanks! Click and hold the Spotlight icon in the menubar (the small magnifying glass icon located in the upper right corner) to center the Spotlight bar on the main monitor.
It should be fine. Having multiple monitors wouldn't affect the Spotlight shortcut.
Yes, changing it to Ctrl instead of Cmd worked. I have been using Cmd for too many years.
As mentioned, putting Spotlight back in the Menu seems to have fixed my issue.
Cmd-Space will open Spotlight. It will NOT find Mail, Calendar, Notes or Contacts. It still finds Safari, but stopped doing those default apps. Any ideas? I've been using Cmd-Space as a launcher for YEARS! I had having to leave those apps in my Dock now for easy access.
FWIW, the OP said, "and now the shortcut works".
was wondering how to get spotlight back with monitor connected, then I found this useful comment :)
You are a genius.
Cmd-Space to launch Spotlight Stopped Working
