Finder Search not working plus Column view sooooo slow.

I realise I may never get to the bottom of these two problems but I have to try.

On my iMac 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7 80Gb memory (OS 15.0.1), for quite some time, a year or so maybe, the Finder search has not been working. I have gone through the popular re-indexing process several times but no fix. So I purchased Find Any File.
I also have two external drives, one is a Samsung T7 SSD 1TB (Mac OS Extended) work drive and the other is a Time Machine small hard drive 2TB (APFS). I always use Column view and when in either Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or any app for that matter, it can take up to 25 seconds to navigate down into folders to find files, and never less than 5 seconds. Bearing in mind this is the T7 SSD this isn't right. I do get the spinning wheel while it sorts itself out.

I have found through elimination that unplugging the TM drive fixes it, but it's not ideal. The previous OS was no better. I am using the USB cables that came with the devices.

I realise there may be a lot to go through, but any suggestions would help very much.

Thank you.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Oct 18, 2024 6:27 AM

Top-ranking reply

Blue_The_Dog

Level 1

123 points

Posted on Oct 30, 2024 11:13 AM

Hey Kryten,

Sorry for not replying sooner, my grandma just died and needed some time alone.

Well, this is certainly a bugger!

You can try this again with the "new" SSD Samsung 840 Pro, this is just the same process we did at first with the T7

As a test, go to Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode, Use macOS Recovery on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support, and see if the external SSD is detected there.

Additionally, test in Safe Mode, How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support, and in a new, test user account: Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support.

Then, please go to System settings -> Privacy and security -> Allow connection with accessories -> set to Always.

Later, format the T7 as APFS encrypted with Apple Disk Utility and make a backup copy using Carbon Copy Cloner. It should mount without issue and should access the content after putting in the password.

FYI the point of owning the T7 is it has built-in hardware encryption via password so should just use APFS. If you use APFS Encrypted (software encryption) your transfer speeds could be half of what you paid for.

e.g. with the external (not T7) you get around 655MB/s write with APFS vs 284MB/s APFS Encrypted = 43% of the speed possible.

Also, I remember when I bought the T7 (a few years ago) Samsung included a bunch of cables, if you still have the original cables try using the C to C cable, sometimes cables that arent the same (ie. A to C, and of the likes) have trouble.

As always, any information or updates are greatly appreciated!

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17 replies

Kryten602 Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 20, 2024 8:45 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

Thank you D.I.

To summarise I have two external drives, a Samsung T7 1 TB SSD and a Seagate HDD 2 TB (Time Machine).

I re-formatted the T7 APFS which has improved access speed considerably and copied all my files across (approx. 200 GB) to it, so plenty of space there.

TM drive has about 1.7 TB of space left so okay there too. I did format it yesterday to Mac OS Extended which I think is recommended. Once I assigned it as the TM backup drive Time Machine app in preparing it formatted it again but to APFS. But speed seems okay for now.

But between last night and today Finder has stopped searching the T7.

See attached : Are you saying I shouldn't be including the T7 in the TM backup process?

Kryten602 Author

Level 1

47 points

Oct 20, 2024 10:17 AM in response to Blue_The_Dog

Well in my earlier post yesterday, after I finished formatting the T7 to APFS and copied all my work back onto it, the Finder search worked with .pdf or .ai or .indd for example and I thought great. Turned the Mac on this morning and tested it and no search on T7 or Time Machine drive which also includes a backup of T7.

It only seems capable of searching This Mac and not external drives. I have a feeling this problem started after upgrading from one OS to another but I can't remember which.

Finder Search not working plus Column view sooooo slow.