Activity Monitor no longer accessible

The Spotlight shortcut, if that's what you're looking for, is in Keyboard Settings: Use macOS keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support. If the key chord you were accustomed to using no longer works you can Restore Defaults or create a new one.

Otherwise launch the Activity Monitor app from Launchpad, or Utilities (Go > Utilities) or in the Dock. If it's not in the Dock, open the app, then drag its Dock icon to some other place in the Dock, where it will remain.

That's the Spotlight search bar. It should be accessible via the magnifying glass icon in the menubar.

Sometimes the Spotlight search bar gets hidden or positioned offscreen. If this happens, you can just click and hold the magnifying glass icon in the menubar to reset the search bar to its default position in the middle of the screen. Then your command spacebar hotkey will display it there next time.

Kindly review Choose suggestion categories for Spotlight on Mac - Apple Support.

Applications appears to have been de-selected.

What same issue? That pressing Command-space and typing "act" does not show Activity Monitor?

Go to System Settings->Siri & Spotlight and make sure the Applications has a checkmark next to it:

Try resetting Spotlight.

In Terminal, type

sudo mdutil -E /

type your password as requested (there is no feedback as you type) and press enter.

Give a bit of time to reindex.

That's something completely different. You are able to use the command spacebar search field. You just aren't getting the result you expect. Your Spotlight index is corrupt or broken somehow.

Did you recently restore from backup or make some kind of major change to your system? Did you try to install an additional operating system or something? These are things that I know will break Spotlight search for apps.

You may be able to fix it by manually locating the apps you want using the Finder and launching them that way. Once you launch an app once, it should appear in the Spotlight launcher afterwards.

To help understand your concern, describe what happens when you use the key chord ⌘ space on your Mac. By default it will summon the Spotlight search field.

Search with Spotlight on Mac - Apple Support

If you reassigned that key chord it will do something else, so describe what happens on your Mac.

sharksushi wrote:

No changes made... that I know of. The problem started after the Sonoma 14.5 update.

Do a test. Manually launch Activity Monitor. Then quit. Does the Spotlight search for Activity Monitor work now?

Try clicking and holding on the Spotlight icon in the menubar. That will reset the position of the search window.

Using "⌘ + Spacebar" and running Sonoma 14.5 on three different M Class computers

This is what I get

Then, I get this when typing Act . . .

The same issue as the OP, and what you recapped, that typing 'act' in Spotlight Search (Cmd+Space) does not bring up Activity Monitor. All my Spotlight Search results options are checked, someone else suggested that above and I confirmed they were all 'on' before posting.

[my comment removed by myself. Already answerd]