'More info' not showing data in 'get info' on external HDD.

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Level 1

4 points

'More info' not showing data in 'get info' on external HDD.

When I aks for "more info" on a file on the external SSD, it shows me additional information: Like the resolution of a video in case of a MP4 file. When I copy the same file to an external HDD drive, this information is not shown. However, when I copy this file to an external SDD drive, the additional information is also shown. All drives formatted with APFS. Is the additional information not shown on external HDD drives?

The image on the left, the file info shown when the file on an external HDD drive. On the right, when shown on an SDD drive.

When I copy the file from an external HDD drive to an SDD drive, the "more info" is also shown on the SDD drive.

Any thoughts?

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac Studio, macOS 15.7

Posted on Jan 21, 2026 6:21 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

RGM Janssen Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 21, 2026 11:01 AM in response to Matti Haveri

OK, that seems indeed to be the cause. For performance reasons I had disabled Spotlight on this external drive.

I did a test with another small external HDD and with Spotlight enabled it showed indeed the "More info".

Now I know the reason, I have the to decide whether or not to enable Spotlight on this drive and accept the performance impact.

Thanks for identifying the reason!

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Answer 2

Jan 21, 2026 10:04 AM in response to RGM Janssen

Make sure the offending drive is indexed by Spotlight. And even if it is, rebuild the Spotlight index.

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Answer 3

Jan 21, 2026 9:50 AM in response to RGM Janssen

I can almost reproduce this. I don't have an HDD at the moment, but if I make a disk image and place a video there it too does not show the More Info contents. It does show on an external SSD, just as you are seeing.

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Answer 4

Jan 21, 2026 11:41 AM in response to RGM Janssen

I am glad you solved it.

BTW my pet peeve with Spotlight is that for some strange reason it fails to display .m4v movie metadata (which Final Cut Pro uses for "Apple" movies -- FCP does also have an option for .mp4 which uses slightly larger bitrate). If I just change the extension of a movie from .m4v to .mp4, THEN it works and vice versa. But I prefer to use correct extensions (although .m4v and .mp4 are about the same -- .m4v has only some extra DRM options. mov is a more distant cousin).

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