Q: Unable to search network drives with Lion...

Hellow everyone. I'm working on updating the Firmware of my Iomega NAS device (StoreCenter ix4-200d) and will let you know if the FM update solves the searching issue on this particular device. Backup should be completed by tomorrow afternoon and then well do the FM update and cross our fingers.

it's unbelievable that Apple doesn't find a solution to a problem that big!

Actually a Lion machine is unusable in a net. We have a Linux server and We are really strieving to find a solution (We are a small firm We cannot spend thousands euro/dollars for large enterprise solutions)...

DOH!

I tried a number of 3rd party search apps including Find Any File and Easyfind. Both had trouble finding files on my NAS from my MacBook Air running Lion.  The only one that consistently located NAS files using Lion is MagicanFile.  Looks like it's now free.

For me, the problem wasn't brought about by the Lion upgrade, it only started weeks after I upgraded. Before that, Spotlight worked fine on iMac/D-Link DNS-323.

I also have a MacBook Air running Lion and on that machine Spotlight can find files on the very same NAS just fine.

An ftp account with access to the smb share will make the network drive searchable in Lion, but you only get Read permissions with ftp in Finder…, D'oh!

Talked to a tech yesterday.  That feature(searching network drives) was taken out of Lion.  No reason given.  You will have to use a third party solution.  I have alreay shut my macbook down, but i believe the app has some sort of squirell icon.

Whatever.

Point being, no native ability.  Gotta go third party.  I honestly would NOT have purchased my mac if I had known this...my file server at home is not mac.  No other unit at home is mac.

Perhaps the idea is to encourage users to buy/build mac servers for the home?  I dunno...

Hi... the thread is getting long and going in circles now

Well, just to resume:

There are EasyFind and FoxTrot.  The latter is like Spotlight and has an index file. Very fast "but" commercial. EasyFind is free and searches on demand and has no index file, which can take very long for big external drives or sub-optimal connections.

When I talked to an Apple tech guy, who was up in the hierarchy, he told me it is the smb server (external drive etc..) not the client (Mac). The companies  (incl. MS)  who are making the server part of the smb software had been informed by Apple years ago that Apple will change their smb clients. Hence they were supposed to adapt ... but apparently didn't.  Kinda... "Never change a winning team". Anyway, it seems that Apple will remain "stubborn" on this issue and waits for the other to follow and to update their smb software eventually... for the sake of security and smb licensing.  Difficult to point fingers.

Thank you for the hints and publishing your test results!

From its web-page Magican (and Magican-File) looks more like a System & Disk Utility plus Finder and goes way beyond a simple search engine. A little bit of an overkill, but certainly a solution .... if it works fully with smb.

Magican File has worked for me consistently for the last month or so.  I use a Western Digital MyBook World Edition II.  Note that it is not index-based, so searching could be slow if you have a lot of files... But it finds...   

+1: Cant believe apple has not responded to or fixed search on network drives!!

I see. Thanks for the insight.  So it is not so different than EasyFind.  Strange, that EasyFind does not find everything....

The best solution is actually keeping your files in order    Hard to do sometimes, though.  Professionally, I have a ton of PDF files, which I have to search for information regularly. The only acceptable solution here is to have them all in a place where Spotlight can index them.

With NAS being able to far exceed storage of a HD in a laptop, "keeping yours files in order" and "in a place where spotlight can index" is not a helpful suggestion. I do keep "my files in order" but I do it on a NAS drive.. Why it has RAID redundancy and terrabytes of spaces. The fact that Lion can not do the most basic of functions, search a network drive does not imply you must somehow change your work practises. It means Lion is **** as is apple for making it so and refusing to fix it.

You are right, of course. Sorry.  I have the same issues with my professional PDF library. I can only copy part of it to the Spotlight-searchable drive.

Well, after talking with the Apple Tech guy (nobody from the frontline, though) for half an hour, I can understand their viewpoint.  Apple has a secure solution and one that respects licensing constrains.  Because of that they changed their smb interface/communication/client, etc a long time ago and informed the others in time. Only after that they introduced the new client in Lion. As stated above, the others need to follow....   Apple has always been a frontrunner with implementing new technology (iPhone, iPad, etc...).  They take a hard stand here as well, which - unfortunately - makes our life very uncomfortable.

Thanks for the information from support.

If products like easyfind, findanyfiles etc.. can do a raw filesystem search, apple should not remove this option. They can easily do the same raw search in favour of a spolight index lookup when thier criteria are not met. The impact, performance of the search. They are welcome to take a hard line on advanced features with manufacturers, but cripling the user experience achieves what ? Just gives an OS worth naught. I dont see this is as breaking ground, rather a step backwards, and at the cost to the people who pay for apple.

If products like easyfind, findanyfiles etc.. can do a raw filesystem search, apple should not remove this option. They can easily do the same raw search in favour of a spolight index lookup when their criteria are not met.

Basically, I fully agree with you. Technically, everything seems to be right there.  I do not have, however, the deep grasp of the OS to understand why Spotlight cannot use the same procedures like Foxtrot, EasyFind, Terminal "find"...  I think as well that an official statement from Apple is long overdue rather than quotes from tech guys who somewhat get to feel the heat from the users.

Apple probably just wants us to buy Mac Minis with Lion Server etc...  Hard to force my corporation to change their huge servers for some Mac users, though.