Unable to search network drives with Lion...
After installing Lion, I have found I am unable to search network drives (Windows network) like I used with Snow Leopard. Any suggestions?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)
After installing Lion, I have found I am unable to search network drives (Windows network) like I used with Snow Leopard. Any suggestions?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)
The part about this that REALLY boils my blood is that I can connect to any other computer in my office and search that hard drive in the finder and it works just fine. I just can's search a server share point.
I can connect to and search my server backups on a NAS drive but I can not search the server drive directly.
STUPID!
Come on Apple. 20 years of cutting edge computing and now three iterations of server software and still no solution to such a basic and necessary function. Wish I never upgraded from Tiger!
Hi Lost Account,
Thanks for taking the time for your thoughtful reply.
But, I am pretty lost in your explanation.
I am just trying to search my external and internal hard drives for files.
In the past, you would just use command-f . This was how you found files for the last 30 years on a MAC.
That no longer works on Macs w/ 10.8.5
Any idea why Apple would change this function? The basic find file function seems to be the #1 most important function of a computer.
And Spotlight is very limited in search capabilities. Even if you find a file, there's no way to see where it is. i.e. no right click, etc. It lists very old versions of files at the top of it's list, burying new versions.
Third party software EasyFind is extremely slow, and presently can't find any files either. It probably needs to be manually set to re-index.
When you say "plugging this into the terminal" I don't know what you mean. Are these instructions applicable to what I'm trying to resolve?
Are there possibly step by step (possibly with pictures) instructions on how to fix the broken MAC search function?
I miss command-f . .. . .
it always worked so flawlessly.
Thanks again!
Hello miditime
Thanks for the comments.
I still see command-F available for searching. In fact you should be able to even use control-shift-F to "Find by Name…". If command-F is not functioning switch to the Finder and go to the File>Find menu. It must be there. You should also note that the command-F is available as a keyboard shortcut option, as you already know. If the keyboard itself does not trigger this functionality, be sure that you are in the Finder.
It is possible that the Keyboard>Shortcuts options under System Preferences are playing a role in preventing Command-F. If you never used this panel, simply click on Restore Defaults and test. If on the other hand you use the shortcuts panel, simply go through each of the options on the left side and see if you have a conflict, aka something else using Command-F and remove it. I believe if there is a conflict, two or more items defined to use the same keyboard shortcut, a warning is displayed in the lower section of the shortcuts panel.
Let me know if the issue persists and whether you see the menu with command-F in place, as per the image I left at the top.
On a further note, with respect to search, I might recommend the following.
From the Finder Preferences window there is handy option, which I have set as per the image below. I personally prefer the behaviour I set but you may choose otherwise of course. When I click on command-F I like to search the Finder Window I am facing, perhaps you do too.
Additionally, from the search window, you can choose "Other" and you get a lot of options to isolate your files down to specific meta data or otherwise. I thought I would throw this in.
For the screenshot below I did the following.
1) I created a new folder on my desktop and titled it, Test Folder.
2) I went to the file menu and while holding control shift (search by name), I entered test folder
3) Spotlight found it instantly on "This Mac"
4) If I right click over the item, a folder in this case, I can shoos to show in enclosing folder, in which case a new window showing me the contents of the desktop folder would display.
5) You should also notice that the lower part of the Finder window displays the path to the Test Folder.
All of the items I noted above are standard and should work as expected.
If you are unable to achieve this then you might have limited spotlight search significantly by accident or otherwise. Try the following steps:
1) Go to the Apple menu and choose system preferences
2) click on spotlight
3) click on the "Search Results" and be sure to turn on all those categories that interest you so that they appear in search results
4) This step is significant as it relates to a potentially damaged or corrupt spotlight index.
With respect to the terminal command:
That command was offered as a solution to folks who are unable to search storage volumes that are not locally connected to the computer but instead are on a network.
If issues persist, please come back to me.
I hope the images helped and I am sorry for any typos.
Alex
Hello MidiTime
In regard to the long answer and the last step on reindexing your Macintosh HD drive. Here is Apple's official response. Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
Here are some additional documents that can be of help:
OS X Mountain Lion: Keywords to use in Spotlight searches
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2531 Mac Basics: Spotlight
Again, please chime back if there are issues.
Alex
Just type the command, sudo mdutil -i on, and then leave a space at the tail end. After that, mount the S drive and drag and drop it into the terminal window then hit return.
*Note, if the network drive name changes the existing index of the drive will no longer pair so you will have to reindex again. That's life.
Hello,
I have found the solution here http://www.lucidica.com/help/73/. There is a terminal command that you would need to run in order to enable indexing of the desired network drive.
Kind regards,
Nikita.
Hi all,
I wanted to share you the solution that worked for me.
I was always connecting to my Synology NAS through finder - connect to server - "smb:// ip address"
Instead i connect to "afp:// ip address" and searching works perfectly
I also turned indexing on with the terminal command, but this didn't change anything when connecting to smb://..
Apparently smb is a windows protocol and afp is better for mac
I am on MacOS Sierra and low and behold it appears searching the network drives is working again...been a long 5 years
I just installed Sierra upon reading your post and I can confirm this. Still not as fast as the app FileBrowser on my iPad but a *substantial* improvement. Most importantly, the spinning beach ball doesn't appear anymore when I open a folder on my NAS. Good times.
Unable to search network drives with Lion...