Search Function in Finder is not working

Question

Level 1

9 points

Search Function in Finder is not working

I'm a MacBook Pro User. The problem which I'm facing is with Finder Search function
Its search function is not showing any result. I tried with the know file name and with the known location, but its search command is not working.
eg: I created a doc file and saved it on desktop, then in finder search box I used the same name of the file which I saved on desktop, but its not showing any result.

I have huge amount of data on HD and I want to locate one file which is making my life miserable, and I can not bear my mac to add insult to my injury. 😟
PLEASE HELP

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5), i7

Posted on Nov 23, 2010 12:17 AM

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Answer 1

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Nov 23, 2010 12:26 AM in response to Rockee

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Have you check all the search results under spotlight in your system preferences?

Cheers.

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Answer 2

nachdenki

Level 3

649 points

Nov 23, 2010 12:39 AM in response to Rockee

also, try to go into your spotlight preferences, add your entire HD to the privacy list, wait a little (few seconds), then remove it. this should make spotlight index your HD again

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Answer 3

Rockee Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 23, 2010 4:55 AM in response to nachdenki

Thanks Nachdenki

I did what ever u told, but nothing happen, Spotlight is acting in same way, not searching a file which is saved on my desktop.
I added the HD for full 10 minutes to the privacy list and then removed, but nothing happened.

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Answer 4

nachdenki

Level 3

649 points

Nov 23, 2010 5:41 AM in response to Rockee

go into disk utility (applications -> utilities) and select your hard drive. then click on "repair permissions".
after that, go into terminal (in your utilities folder as well) and enter
sudo mdutil -E /
after that, enter your account password (nothing will be visible on the screen while you type). this should force spotlight to reindex, hopefully this helps.

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Answer 5

Igor_G5

Level 2

323 points

Nov 23, 2010 7:14 AM in response to Rockee

Are you using Find under the file menu or Spotlight in the upper right of the menu bar?

Do you get no results at all or just not what you wanted?

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Answer 6

Rockee Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 23, 2010 8:36 AM in response to nachdenki

Hi nachdenki,

😟 😟 I did both, repaired permissions and then terminal command also, but still nothing happened. same problem, no result found.

Hi Igor_G5

neither finder giving me the result nor spotlight located on top right corner of the menu bar.
and it is not showing any result it just say "No result found"

please help

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Answer 7

Rockee Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 24, 2010 12:25 AM in response to Rockee

Thanks everybody,
finally my spotlight and finder search started functioning ... after going thru hard boot

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Answer 8

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Nov 24, 2010 2:09 AM in response to Rockee

Hi,

Hard boot? Meaning? Can you further elaborate it as I wish to learn from it.

Thank you so much.

Cheers.

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Answer 9

Jan 14, 2011 7:57 AM in response to Rockee

I am having the same problem with my Mac Mini Server. Search function will not work on the second internal hard drive. I have tried all the fixes mentioned above but still no luck. Any other ideas?

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Answer 10

casall

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2011 6:57 PM in response to digiology

I am having the same problem with my MacBook Pro. Search function doesn't work at all, I have tried all solutions mentioned above. Only thing left now is to do a hard reboot.

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Answer 11

May 3, 2011 4:48 PM in response to Rockee

Add me to the list of confused.

Just purchased a used macbookpro - working very well in all aspects, except finder and spotlight are not working. Thanks to this site I am working around the problem with easyfind, but would prefer to work straight from finder.

- heres the specs...

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 800 MHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.27f3

Serial Number (system): W8830FGWYJX

Hardware UUID: B15949A7-2F79-5A07-8860-7FFF7B8E1C02

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

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Answer 12

May 3, 2011 5:31 PM in response to Rockee

interesting discovery. I got this from the express lane...

The first and easiest test to try is to see if the issue affects a different user account on your Mac. Each user account has customized preferences and other items stored in its home directory. You'll first need to create an additional user if one does not already exist (follow steps a-h below). Then, log out of the current user and test the issue in the new user account.

If this resolves the issue, there may be an issue with a file in the home directory of the original user account.

And problem was not evident on other profile. So now I know there's some rogue setting on my mbp - probably imported in the settings from my g5 - but I still don't know how to fix... :-~(

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