Spotlight does not work on Sequoia

Question

Level 1

20 points

Spotlight does not work on Sequoia

With the recent Sequoia update 15.1 and 15.1.1, the Spotlight has become extremely unreliable, mostly because it does not come up at all when hitting the Spotlight key (F4). It still works while clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the menu bar, but I cannot get the keyboard shortcut working whatever I try. This seems to happen quite randomly, no matter if I have external monitors connected or not to my MacBook Pro M1 Pro 14" (2021). Any ideas what may be causing this and how to fix it?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 12:52 AM

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Answer 1

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Dec 9, 2024 6:50 AM in response to Digginground

OP wrote " Spotlight key (F4) "

One three machines I own and operation with Sequoia 15.1.1

F4 will launch Launchpad

As for ⌘ + Spacebar >>

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Dec 9, 2024 2:24 AM in response to Digginground

What happens when you use ⌘ + Spacebar ( keyboard combo ) ?

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2025 2:24 PM in response to Digginground

Spotlight is definitely broken. It is hit and miss. Tried rebuilding the index, which takes a long time on my MacBook Pro Max 2TB drive. Spent time with Apple tech support on remote access, but he started "trying things," so I needed to end that call. Perhaps Spotlight is doing too much attempting not only find files, but look into them, or perhaps it is an artifact of always updating MacOS. It worked fine before Sonoma and Sequoia.

I started using ProFind. A simple, brilliant search tool: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/profind/id1441703569?mt=12

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Answer 4

Digginground Author

Level 1

20 points

Dec 9, 2024 6:22 AM in response to Owl-53

Nothing, it does not work. I've tried to reassign it but it still fails to bring up Spotlight. Oddly, the Finder Search shortcut works just fine. Restarting the system eventually gets it to work, but it's back to same the next morning. It's clearly some sort of bug that's possibly related to external monitors, but beyond that I'm clueless what's causing it.

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Answer 5

Digginground Author

Level 1

20 points

Dec 9, 2024 10:56 PM in response to Owl-53

⌘ Spacebar has always clashed with pretty much all the design apps (Photoshop etc) from the beginning of times, so it's the first thing I turn off or reassign. F4 used to bring up Launchpad, but Apple changed this some time ago, and is now by default a Spotlight key on all newer Mac keyboards. But all of these things are beside the point, as are reindexing the spotlight – I already mentioned, Spotlight works just fine when I click on its icon on the menu bar. And I do get it working (sometimes) when I disconnect all external devices, including monitors, and restart the computer. However, another restart with those devices connected again fails Spotlight keyboard shortcut to work, no matter what the actual shortcut happens to be.

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Answer 6

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Dec 10, 2024 1:13 AM in response to Digginground

Digginground wrote:

⌘ Spacebar has always clashed with pretty much all the design apps (Photoshop etc) from the beginning of times, so it's the first thing I turn off or reassign. F4 used to bring up Launchpad, but Apple changed this some time ago, and is now by default a Spotlight key on all newer Mac keyboards. But all of these things are beside the point, as are reindexing the spotlight – I already mentioned, Spotlight works just fine when I click on its icon on the menu bar. And I do get it working (sometimes) when I disconnect all external devices, including monitors, and restart the computer. However, another restart with those devices connected again fails Spotlight keyboard shortcut to work, no matter what the actual shortcut happens to be.

Turning off such a fundamental Apple Keyboard combo may be possible by some means or way

So you basically on you own at this point

Good Luck

Mac keyboard shortcuts

Command–Space bar: Show or hide the Spotlight search field. To perform a Spotlight search from a Finder window, press Command–Option–Space bar. (If you use multiple input sources to type in different languages, these shortcuts change input sources instead of showing Spotlight. Learn how to change a conflicting keyboard shortcut.)

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Answer 7

AlWeir

Level 5

5,097 points

Dec 9, 2024 6:39 AM in response to Digginground

Read this discussion for a few tips on getting Spotlight fixed

Search function is broken on my Macbook P… - Apple Community

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