Finder not finding words

zamboknee wrote:

Finder used to be able to (when I did a search) find documents that had a certain word in it.

For instance, I'd search for the word 'interview' in my Documents folder and it'd pull up the files that had that word in it.

However, since upgrading to Sonoma (14.3.1) it isn't doing that anymore.

Any reason why?

Go to System Settings

=> Siri & Spotlight

Make sure all the boxes are checked under Search Results.

Go to Advanced => Spotlight Privacy

Click the + button and select your entire drive

Exit System Settings and restart the Mac.

Return to System Settings=> Siri & Spotlight => Advanced = Spotlight Privacy and click the - (minus) button and remove everything in the Privacy box. This re-enabled searching for everything. Then exit System Settings.

Wait about 30 minutes, maybe more if your drive is very large (2 TB or more).

The try searching again.

All searches on the Mac are handled by Spotlight.

When there issues, resetting Spotlight often helps.

In Terminal:

sudo mdutil -E /

and type your password as requested (there is nothing on screen as you type), and press enter.

Give it a while to reindex.

Also: does this affect searches on "This Mac" as well as the active folder?

Or do overall searches work, but those restricted to a folder fail?

This latter problem has happened to quite a number of people (me included), but a solution was found for it - it requires removing a specific folder.

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

Let us know.

I found this link

Fix for Finder Not Showing Folder Search … - Apple Community

which solved my problem.

Despite the fact that I gave my Terminal app full disk access, I still was unable to execute

rm -R .Spotlight-V100

but the commands

sudo mdutil -E /System/Volumes/Data
sudo mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data

did nevertheless solve my problem. I run MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1.

Maybe it's considered a streamlined version of Finder now. I was able to search a folder with a specific word by typing in the search field, Name:Interview

It then only showed file names with the word Interview.

If you don’t do it from Recovery, you may need to enable Full Disk Access for Terminal.

Fix for Finder Not Showing Folder Search … - Apple Community

I have the same issue. If I look for "interview" in Finder, I have many files with the word within it. If I selected a certain folder and want to filter for just those files in that folder, then the search yields zero results.

I am in communication with Apple support on this, since I am still in my Apple Care coverage period.

The issue was escalated to L3 support and they will get back to me because this issue, while demonstrated live, could not be solved.

Watch this space ...

just_another_useless_username wrote:

I am in communication with Apple support on this, since I am still in my Apple Care coverage period.

The issue was escalated to L3 support and they will get back to me because this issue, while demonstrated live, could not be solved.

Watch this space ...

What Luis posted will normally fix the problem. Let them know. Maybe we can get them to fix it. Reporting it via feedback assistant hasn’t seemed to get through to them.

I have the same issue.

Did you attempt the solutions provided?

I tried Luis' fix before writing.

When I launch the instruction

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

I get

   rm: /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100: Operation not permitted