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

Just out of curiosity: does anyone know how Windows handles searches on network drives?

It indexes the network drive;

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-file-search-indexing-options/

I still think that is a bug, no matter what some tech guy says. The reason for this:

1. The search field is visible but it does not work.

2. Filename search works partially, if folders are not nested deeply.

I see no reason why a change in the SMB protocol should stop spotlight from indexing.

All filenames are retrieved, otherwise listing a direcotry tree would not be possible.

So if the finder knows all filenames it should be easy to add them to the Spotlight index.

If the indexer knows filenames and paths, it can also index their content.

So the only thing I can imagine is that a change in the protocol causes some loss of speed during the 1st index.

Apple should give a clear statement on this.

Lion claims to be the most advanced OS. But any old Windows and Linux box does a better search job ...

-- Harald

no.  I just know it works....

yup.  my cousin could not believe that there was a mac mini server.  when he was working tech support for mac a mac server was major dough and built on a high-end mac system.

I explained that pc users could hobble a home server economically and that apple had to intro a solution that was cost effective as well.  Espically with iTunes and the like.  iCloud or no, most would prefer to store thier purchased items themselves....

Lion Server - 49.00

Windows Home Server - (was $149) 49.00 on Amazon.

Mac Mini - $600 with dual core i5, $1000 with Lion Server set up(quad i7, 4gb, dual 500gb hdd

HP Storageworks machine with Home Server - 389.99(dual core atom processor, 2gb, 1TB hdd)

Pick your poison.  The pc has 3 open sata bays and both can be added to with external usb...I dig the i7 and the 4gb, but my current home server(running Windows Home Server) has a dual core core 2 chip and 2 gigs of ram and runs like a charm...go figure.

"..Apple has a secure solution and one that respects licensing constrains.  Because of that they changed their smb interface/communication/client, etc..."

Can I take that to mean that Apple does not want to allow searches for items or on drives that they may interpret as being outside DRM and the like?

If so, wow.

I mean, wow.

Bishop234 wrote:

Can I take that to mean that Apple does not want to allow searches for items or on drives that they may interpret as being outside DRM and the like?

No.  It is the old/previous smb client (a.k.a. "SAMBA") which was basically some type of open-source-based solution and whose license was not compatible with Lion anymore. This has been discussed in similar threads here and elsewhere. It has nothing to do with copyright protection or the like. It "only" concerns the actual software interface to the Windows-based network drive... as far as I understood.

Hello all,

It looks like this issue has been going on for quite some time (since the official release of Lion, I would presume?) I've recently deployed a brand new iMac with OS X 10.7.2 to one of my users, and unfortunately she is having the same issue as what everyone else in this thread.

It's funny this feature is not functional in the latest OS, yet works perfectly on her old machine which is running Tiger. Yes, Tiger.

Thanks for summarizing the options.

At home I only have Macs and Airport Extreme. No problem searching within this homogenous local network.

At work we have MS Exchange 2010 and some type of NAS, I do not know which. There I cannot search. This is a multi-thousand people entity, which officially supports OS X, Windows, and Linux. I submitted a ticket for the Spotlight issue on the NAS, but did not get any reply yet. My admin still uses SL 10.6.8. No issue for him, but he recognizes the problem.

Same issue.  Previous PowerPC Powerbook could view and search all my WIndows Network drives - New Macbook Pro with Lion can view drives but just won't search them at all. Grrr...

I logged a complaint with Apple Support about this deficiency, but it seems this inability to search Network Drives is a "feature" and Spotlight was (allegedly) "not designed to search network drives".  Nonsense.  It worked fine before Lion. My ancient Windows desktop box will search the network drives but a supposedly state-of-the-art Mac just can't do it? How many of us need to complain before Apple starts listening to what users actually need?

I still believe the idea is for users to obtain a mac-based server.  The network search would probably work then...

Actually, that is what our company ended up doing.  However, the instant searches in spotlight have been a huge bonus, and a Mac Mini Server with a SSD as the primary boot, really kicks, faster than the $10,000 server we had before

How many users on your lan and what kind of use do you have on it?

Smaller office 5 users, we run Virtual Box to host our ACT databases.  We also use it as a fileserver and VPN, Time Machine backups are running as well, huge advantage over the Windows Server Backups we used to run.

Roumers has it that 10.7.3 has a fix for this problem. "Address compatibility issues with Windows file sharing".

I beleve 10.7.3 Beta has ben released

Wow.  Finally!  Let's keep crossing fingers. Any idea when 10.7.3 will be out?