Sonoma - Folder Search Not Working - 'This Mac' Search Works

It could be that Terminal needs to have “Full Disk Access” in Privacy & Security Settings.

DonnieM51 wrote:

I blame Apple for all of this.

Blamestorming is not a path to a solution.

Didn't Apple test Finder Search before release?

Obviously Apple does test software before release. But it is also obvious that Apple doesn't test software very thoroughly.

Doesn't someone at Apple monitor the forums?

No one knows for sure. But again, it should be obvious that if anyone at Apple is monitoring the forums, their efforts aren't resulting in a very good user experience.

For this widespread issue they can only come up with a hack on their support pages that doesn't work?

I don't know what support page you are referring to. It would be better to include a link to such page if you would like to ask a specific question about it.

And their MacOS support call desk's only answer is to reinstall the OS?

This is not the macOS support call disk. We can't do anything about their policies or procedures.

I did report this to Feedback Assistant but that's a black hole that is ALWAYS a waste of time.

No lie there.

This hack with .Spotlight-V100 did work (eventually once permissions were worked out) within minutes.

That's great then. Unfortunately, none of those hacks have worked when I've had Spotlight problems.

The "Terminal solutions" need to be entered exactly.

When they don't work it is almost always because of user error.

So please tell us exactly what command you used.

Or try exactly this:

   sudo rm -R /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100

You will be asked for your password. Type it (there is no feedback as you type) and press enter.

I have just looked in my /System/Volumes, and I do have a Data folder there, but it doesn't contain the [hidden due to . prefix] .Spotlight-V100 file. So my MacBook Air M1 system seems to be similar to yours.

If I open a Finder window and search for something random that I know exists, the 2 options at the top of the window are "This Mac" and whatever I have highlighted in the left pane, such as Documents. I find random things in "This Mac", but they don't show in Documents - again similar to you.

However, I have most of my information stored in the cloud, specifically iCloud. If I look in that left column, and select the iCloud folder, then the random things are found. So they are in Documents in iCloud, not Documents on the main disk.

Do you use iCloud in this way?

DonnieM51 wrote:

rm: /System/Volumes/Macintosh HD/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory

Of that is the command you ran, you typed it wrong. The space needs to be escaped with a backslash.

if it doesn’t work, you may have to startup in Recovery, Mount the Data volume if encrypted, and remove the folder from the mounted Data volume, whatever name that might be.

DonnieM51 wrote:

That was the *result* of the command. I copied and pasted the command, with backslash, that Barney suggested.

That's what I thought a while after I posted that.

If I view /System/Volumes in Finder, I see my startup drive name, but it isn't a folder. Some sort of mount point.

If I list it in Terminal, I see the Data directory.

On my Intel Macs that never had Sonoma, the Data volume was named, "Macintosh HD - Data," but on my M2 MBP, it is named, "Data." I don't know if it is an Apple Silicon thing or a Sonoma thing. My M2 MBP came with Ventura (I think, definitely not Sonoma), and it always had a Data volume named "Data."

My M1 Mini came with Big Sur (I think) and it has a data volume named "Macintosh HD - Data"

It may be that it will continue to inherit the "Macintosh HD - Data" if it has one.

Anyway, try listing the /System/Volumes directory to see what the name of your Data volume is, then use that in the command.

DonnieM51 wrote:

...

"/System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100" which wasn't permitted when trying to remove via the Terminal command. Because I have permission and Terminal does not????

Quite possibly, as a matter of fact!

This is something that we have forgotten throughout this thread, probably because those, like me, who use Terminal frequently, have done it and forgotten it (I certainly did): Terminal needs to be granted "Full Disk Access" in order to er... have full access to stuff outside your home folder.

DonnieM51 wrote:

I have both a MacBook Air M2 and a new iMac M3 both with Sonoma 14.2.1 and it appears I have the same issue as hundreds of other Sonoma users.

Sonoma is still beta-quality. It won't stop breaking every other week until June, 2024 at the earliest. You've got to break the addiction to updates or else you'll spend your entire life waiting for the next fix.

When I try to search a folder, e.g. Documents, Photos, etc. using the search field in the upper left corner and even when I use a + sign to add more search parameters, NOTHING shows up. BUT, if I switch to "This Mac" the search works as desired. This also fails when I try to create a Smart Folder (same interface).

All of that is far too general to reach any conclusions. Apple's Spotlight search system is extremely complex and extremely fragile. You can't say something like "Documents, Photos, etc." because each of those is radically different under the hood.

Also, you said "upper left corner". Even with all of the problems that Sonoma and Spotlight cause, the #1 source of problems is 3rd party system modification software. The default position for the Spotlight search field is the upper right corner. Hopefully you just made a typo. But how do we know you aren't using some 3rd party search tool?

I've tried all the recommended Apple "fixes", e.g. rebuild the Spotlight index by blocking and then unblocking the target folders. The Terminal solutions don't work either as ".Spotlight-V100" doesn't exist or I don't have permissions or something.

Stop wasting your time with all those hacks. They'll never work. Maybe one person thought it worked in 2009 once, but he was mistaken. Like every falsehood, it gets repeated over the internet for years until millions believe it.

I recommend you step back and do some more directed tests. Use TextEdit and create some files scattered in random places on your hard drive. Include unique strings of text that is (or should be) guaranteed to work. Test with that as a way to get started. Once you are sure that is working, then you can expand to other types.

I mentioned it before, but I had to re-emphasize this. You have to stop the hacks. Each time you try a hack, you are trashing your Spotlight index. Hopefully you aren't permanently destroying it. If so, only an erase of the entire hard drive and reinstall from Recovery mode will fix it. But regardless of whether you reinstall or perform a recoverable hack, you have to wait until the Spotlight index finishes. This is going to depend on the size of your hard drive and the size and nature of any external drives. If you have slow, mechanical external drives, the reindex can take days. I recommend keeping such external drives disconnected for the duration of your tests, and maybe permanently.

DonnieM51 wrote:

Actually, I tend to agree with you about hacks. But I blame Apple for all of this. Didn't Apple test Finder Search before release?

It appears very few people have this problem, so it may have not been present.

Doesn't someone at Apple monitor the forums?

Not for that type of stuff. There are only moderators.

For this widespread issue they can only come up with a hack on their support pages that doesn't work?

It isn’t a widespread problem, and Apple didn’t come up with the “hack.” I did.

ikir wrote:

Yes Terminal needs Tull disk access! 🔝

Good catch. I originally used Recovery to delete the folder as I thought deleting the "live" folder would be a problem. People noted it wasn't a problem, so I changed it. Terminal has "full disk access" in Recovery, so I wasn't aware of the issue. I'll add that to the Tip.