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

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't Spotlight put it's Index into the root directory of every mounted Volume in a special folder named ".Spotlight-V100" ? Assuming that due to the GPL3 issues Apple came up with it's own SMB client in Lion, maybe they just put the basic functionality in and come up with a solution later on how to store the Index on a Windows share that is not writeable by the user.

rmcmahan0348 wrote:

 

I can actually search some directories (could search nothing before), but not all of them

Are those that can be searched SMB mounts or AFP?

Two answer for your questions:

- In snow leopard i had indexing disabled on network volumes (no ".Spotlight-V100" was created) but the spotlight search works more slowly than indexed files on main hard disk but works.

- In lion, i have write rights on my shared folder but i can't search any file stored in subfolders. Searching in FIRST LEVEL FOLDER works, as i said.Doesn't matter if indexing is enabled or disabled on network volumes.

I've tried the EasyFind app. It seems to be a nice fix. I hope that only temporary though. Finder should do these things without external help....

EasyFind is too slow on large folders. It is a workaround but not a satisfying one ...

-- Harald

Yes, you are right. Moreover, something like searching for files should be a standard functionality especially of "The World's most advanced desktop system"

Strange is that the search also does not work on NTFS drives. I have it mounted through the Paragon driver. (The search used to work under SL.) However, I can search FAT volumes. In both cases exist the .Spotlight-V100 directories on the volumes. It must be just some bug and not intention that the search does not work.

I dunno....this o/s seems to be so thought out.  My Macbook Pro is my first Mac.  It is supposed to be so head and shoulders above any pc I could use and it simply is not.  It does nothing faster. It does nothing aside from browsing better.  I will give credit where credit is due, the touchpad is simply marvy....

All that to say that for 3x the price of a similarly equipped i5 and double the price of an i7(pc) - I have not gotten near my money's worth.  This o/s's inability to search my networked fileserver puts it well below a pc in my experience.

I still hold on to the idea that the purpose this ability was hampered was to encourage laymen like myself to ditch my Windows Home Server(or whatever any other layman may be running) and build a Lion server for $1000....

We we've just changed our server to a Mac Mini server and it's all up and running like it should be now. I think it's disgusting that you have to change your server to be able to find files using the World's Most Advanced Operating System.

#lionisajoke

Apple are not focusing on the needs of the pros, they are just trying to win new consumer business. It's evident in their crappy iWeb-type apps.

Still, my iMac is a great tool and is still the best on the market for me to use so I'm still an Apple customer it seems.

rmcmahan0348:

Your right they have introduced something into 10.7.3, I actually get some results now, however the results are not complete or consistant. Searching for a keyword will for example show me only a subset of files with that keyword in there name, despite the fact they all actually in the same folder. Which is very strange.

Still not able to search an AFP volume reliable or conistantly. So no joy. While I disagree with other posts on here about apple not being better than windows, on this particular issue I have to agree. And still no response from apple it seems.

Hi...

bosconero wrote:

 

Maybe we will find the solution in the next OSX 10.8 code name DONKEY!

Actually it is called Mountain Lion...  I doubt it'll fix it.

Cheers

our IT/BT department finally put the z extreme update in place....and swtiched me back from SMB to AFP and I can searcha nd do everything I used to

I still dont like spotlight layout and functionality. It seems to start with the Z's and go to A'son the bottom and it wont switch when I click the word "name"...but I can search for the first time in 4 months

Can you elaborate on this "z extreme update"?

My bad. It's extreme something or other. It was mentioned prior in this thread but it's slow to search it on my iPhone

As you can tell, I am on the user end not the back end.

I share this problem with everyone here and I 've spent the last four hours trying to find a succesful way to deal with it to no avail. I am accesing the network drive via smb.

I find apple's neglect for this simply appaling. But hey with mountain lion we shall have a reminders app....

I am leaving feedback to them and I suggest others do it to.

And I will not be waiting for mountain lion for them to fix this issue. If by 10.7.4 or at the latest at 10.7.5 they haven't I am selling half of my macs and installing competing os's on the rest of them. I 've just about had it with their pandering to the ios phone crowd and neglecting core os functionality. If they won't listen to feedback they 'll listen to my money going to other pockets...

I find the threats about migrating to other OSes quite amusing. Obviously, a lot of people complaining here have spent too much time in their walled garden...I'm working with Windows, Linux and OS X, and the latter by far is the least troublesome. I hope that all the people leaving in anger will keep us updated on their experiences with those 'competing' operating systems. I could write a book about what isn't working in both Windows and Linux.