Why does typing "cube" into finder search cause it to crash?

Camelot wrote:

> That link clearly shows it's a problem with a 3rd party Spotlight extension

I don't see that.

The only meaningful part of that GitHub issue is this snippet of the crash log:

Crashed Thread:        2  Dispatch queue: com.apple.suggestions.spotlightcollector.dispatchqueue

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 6 Abort trap: 6
Terminating Process:   Finder [32950]

which pretty clearly says "spotlight".

Your crash report shows something similar (after saving as an IPS file and opening in Console.app):

Triggered by Thread: 15, Dispatch Queue: com.apple.suggestions.corespotlightcollector.dispatchqueue

Exception Type:    EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:   0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Reason:  *** -[__NSArrayM insertObject:atIndex:]: object cannot be nil

Termination Reason:  Namespace SIGNAL, Code 6, Abort trap: 6
Terminating Process: Finder [15369]

Indeed, the problem occurs on my machine and as far as I'm aware, I don't have any third-party Spotlight extensions enabled. My Spotlight settings show only Apple first-party apps enabled and it's 100% reproducible.

That's not where Spotlight extensions are listed. Go to System Settings > Login Items & Extensions > Extensions > By Category > Spotlight and click the ⓘ button. If you want to use the command line, you can do "mdimport -L".

Indeed, even if I turn off every option in Spotlight settings, it still crashes.

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding Spotlight. It's a core operating system functionality. It cannot be turned off, controlled, or disabled in any way. All of those settings merely control whether or not you can perform queries on it. Maybe think of Spotlight as existing in two different domains. There's the Spotlight operating system function, which cannot be turned off or controlled. Then there's the Spotlight UI interface, which is what most people think of. Those are two completely separate things.

Oddly enough, there's always a possibly that you actually don't have any 3rd party spotlight extensions and this is an OS-level bug. But how to find out? Two things are necessary. Firstly, you have to confirm that, yea verily, you have no 3rd party Spotlight extensions. Then, you'll have to provide an example cube file that crashes the Finder. Until both of those are complete, the burden's on you to prove the crash. I don't know anything about these cube files. I can download some examples, search for them, and observe that Finder doesn't crash.

There is a reason for being so obstinate, you know. The most likely scenario, which has not yet been disproved in any way, is that a 3rd party app has a buggy Spotlight extension. If this is true, then people could simply disable that Spotlight extension and report the crash to the developers. This completely solves the crashing now, for those folks who notice, and potentially for anyone else in the future. That is the most likely scenario and is a path towards a complete and total solution.

Less likely, but certainly still possible, is an Apple OS bug. But if everyone assumes that an Apple OS bug is the only possible cause, then they eliminate even the possibility of that complete solution describe above. And that just seems silly to me.

FilRmonic wrote:

Just out of curiosity I had a look at my Spotlight extensions. Apart from Apple products (GarageBand, Motion, Pixelmator Pro - Apple now?) the only 3rd party extension was Blackmagic Camera RAW. Anyhow, I disabled them all but Finder still crashed

I have Pixelmator Pro installed with no crashes, so it's probably not that.

Maybe try reindexing your hard drive.

Another trick you could try would be to create a new volume on your startup drive. This is very easy and fast with Apple's new APFS hard drive format. Use Disk Utility and click the "+" button in the toolbar. Once you create the new volume, copy some (or all) of your CUBE files there. Then do a search limited to that volume.

I'm suggesting this because creating a new volume is easier than reindexing the main volume. It isn't an ideal debugging step, but if the index file itself is corrupt, it might be easier to manage this way.

Another idea would be to use this new volume trick and only copy one or a few CUBE files there. Perhaps there is only one bad CUBE file that spoiling the whole barrel. That would explain why some people can't get it to crash.

It is happening on my MBP running Tahoe OS 26.2 and discovered this weird apple phenom searching for a file name. Finder just seems to reset. It reappears without the side bar, but appears. I closed all the tabs and just singled out one and it still AppleFlopped..I liked the workaround of using 'name:cube' in the search field and it works fine. Hope the geniuses at Apple can figure this one out..Learn as we go

Doesn't happen here. But I also don't have any of those files. I downloaded some free ones and still no crash.

Look for a 3rd party app that includes a Spotlight and/or Quicklook extension for handling these files. That's the most likely cause.

Apparently this is a known problem that still hasn't been fixed:

Finder crashes when searching for "cube" … - Apple Community

Randall_2023 wrote:

Apparently this is a known problem that still hasn't been fixed:

Finder crashes when searching for "cube" … - Apple Community

Hasn't been fixed by whom?

That link clearly shows it's a problem with a 3rd party Spotlight extension. Perhaps if the people who wrote the GitHub issue had included any decent debugging information, then people might be able to find out exactly which software is causing it. Or maybe people in this thread could do that?

Or not. Probably better to just sit back and wait for Apple to fix a bug in an unsupported extension point written by some anonymous 3rd party developer.

Randall_2023 wrote:

It also happens on my M1 iMac with Tahoe 26.2

What Spotlight extensions are installed?

> That link clearly shows it's a problem with a 3rd party Spotlight extension

I don't see that. Indeed, the problem occurs on my machine and as far as I'm aware, I don't have any third-party Spotlight extensions enabled. My Spotlight settings show only Apple first-party apps enabled and it's 100% reproducible.

Indeed, even if I turn off every option in Spotlight settings, it still crashes.

Doesn't happen here (MacOS 26.2) either.

It also happens on my M1 iMac with Tahoe 26.2

I just tested it and a Finder Search on 'cube' found all my files on my Roland Cube guitar amp. So, it's working fine here.