Finder/Spotlight do not search iCloud

A possible solution may be that the files we are searching for have not been downloaded to the computer. Clicking the little cloud to the right of the file name creates the local copy of the file. I just did that and it solved the problemn for me, now spotlight shows me the file I searched for. Capture below.

I have been having this problem too and nothing I could do would fix it. In testing I would even have a Word doc open with a certain word in it, I would see that word right in there, but if I searched for files with that word, Mac Finder would not find that document.

I tried uploading the EasyFind app as someone else recommended but had the same result.

Finally I found the solution, and that is to open iCloud Drive in Mac Finder and search *its* files. Then it works perfectly. (You can add iCloud Drive to your sidebar to make this easier if you need to do this often - go to Finder settings and click on sidebar, and check the box next to iCloud Drive.)

At least this is what worked for me. I'm on a fairly new iMac running Sonoma 14.4.1, which at the time of this writing is the most recent iOS.

are you saying that a file that you sync, say “file.pages” is not searchable if the file is in your iCloud Drive folder on your Mac?

you may need to rebuild your index. Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

It is the bane of my life at the moment. My work invovles me finding a similar preexisting document and using it to draft a new document. It is absolutely essential that I can use spotlight effectively. The only workout I have come up with is to put '.nosync' on the folder name to stop it uploading to iCloud - which is obviously risky in and of itself. If anyone has a better solution (Apple?) I would be very grateful.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Can you be more specific when you say "search *its* files"? Do you put that string ahead of your search? What I am finding is that even when I select iCloud Drive in my sidebar my search shows no results of files contained in it, even when I select iCloud in the search window at the top. Thank you.