Spotlight & Finder Not Finding All Files/Folders

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Spotlight & Finder Not Finding All Files/Folders

Hello,

My Spotlight and Finder searches doesn't find all files/folders on ML 10.8. The files are there if I browse to them manually, and I'm hoping I can fix this without a clean install.

Some things I have tried:

I've dragged the entire HDD to the Spotlight Privacy tab and removed it (to re-index).
I've checked Spotlight Preferences and everything is checked under Search Results.
I've reset the cache with the mdutil commands.
I've cleaned the system with OnyX, I've reset the ACL through recovery.
Created a new system user - the results are the same.
I've called AppleCare and they couldn't resolve it.

This hasn't been an issue until I upgraded to ML. The weird thing is, that every time I reboot the system, Spotlight/Finder will find all my files after logging in to my user account. Then after 2 minutes of being logged in, the same issue occurs again where it will only show some files. This has been bugging me, and I've done my best searching through Google and various discussions without a working resolution. Any ideas? Thanks for any suggestions.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mountain Lion, 8 GB RAM

Posted on Aug 17, 2012 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 17, 2012 2:57 PM in response to kevinhe

Which files are not being found?

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Answer 2

kevinhe Author

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Aug 17, 2012 3:11 PM in response to Linc Davis

Various applications, documents, files, and folders.

I.e., I used to type in "Downloads", and Spotlight would located ~/Downloads in the results. Not anymore. Or, a search for "tax return" used to give results of all my PDFs with "tax return" in the file name.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 17, 2012 3:45 PM in response to kevinhe

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.

Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:

mdfind "tax return"

A list of files will appear below what you entered. Does it include all the results you expect? You can replace the words "tax return" with any search term.

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Answer 4

kevinhe Author

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Aug 17, 2012 6:23 PM in response to Linc Davis

After running the mdfind command, I do not get the desired results. It also seems like the search in Terminal freezes and doesn't complete, because I must force it with Control-C in order to get it to accept a new command line.

Here's the Terminal results of mdfind "tax return". My tax return PDFs are located at "~/Documents/TurboTax": http://pastie.org/private/gy4er0iaxzvs8u7qonqbw

I created a text file named "testdoc.txt" located at "~/Downloads" for this testing purpose. Executing mdfind "testdoc" in Terminal yeilds absolutely zero results.

Spotlight results of "tax return": http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11967826/Spotlight%2001.png

Spotlight results of "testdoc": http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11967826/Spotlight%2002.png

Linc Davis, thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 17, 2012 7:08 PM in response to kevinhe

I haven't visited your links, and I suggest you take them down. The names of your files are not my business or anyone else's. I'll take your word for it that the search results are wrong.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.

Step 1

Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.

Enter "mdworker" (without the quotes) in the Filter text field. Post the messages that appear in the Console window — the text, please, not a screenshot.

If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Do not post many repetitions of the same message.

Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.

Step 2

Do the same with the search string "mds".

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Answer 6

kevinhe Author

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Aug 17, 2012 7:55 PM in response to Linc Davis

There's currently only one (administrator) account set up on this machine, which is the account I'm using.

Filter with "mdworker" shows no messages.

Filter with "mds" shows these messages:

8/17/12 12:50:14.639 PM mds[38]: (Error) Server: ==== XPC handleXPCMessage XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INVALID

8/17/12 12:51:16.517 PM mds[38]: (Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 17, 2012 8:28 PM in response to kevinhe

Launch the Activity Monitor application in the same way as above. Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, and enter "mdworker" (without the quotes) in the Filter box. There should be at least two mdworker processes running, sometimes more than two. Is that what you have?

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Answer 8

kevinhe Author

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Aug 17, 2012 8:39 PM in response to Linc Davis

Under All Processes, there is only one "mdworker" process running under the user "_spotlight".

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 18, 2012 3:59 AM in response to kevinhe

Then Spotlight isn't working. Look in the Console window under DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION for crash reports related to mdworker. Post the most recent one -- the text, please, not a screenshot.

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Answer 10

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Aug 18, 2012 4:18 AM in response to kevinhe

I had the same problem once, I stopped the Spotlight alltogether (I remember vaguely using a Terminal command for that) and since I use either Easyfind or FindAnyFile. Much quicker and very precise apps.

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Answer 11

kevinhe Author

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Aug 18, 2012 8:19 AM in response to Linc Davis

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION > Diagnostic and Usage Messages

Filter: "mdworker"

8/10/12 11:21:59.099 AM mdworker[3973]: Open supported Raw image.

com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.RawCamera.OpenSupported

com.apple.message.signature: Canon

com.apple.message.signature2: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL

com.apple.message.signature3: dng.adobe.CanonEOS300D

---------------------------

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION > User Diagnostic Reports

(Nothing found here)

---------------------------

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION > System Diagnostic Reports > Transmission_2012-08-15-110756_Kevins-iMac.spin

Filter: "mdworker"

Process: mdworker [31623]

Path: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker

77 ??? (mdworker + 35817) [0x10e0d0be9]

77 ??? (mdworker + 196470) [0x10e0f7f76]

77 ??? (mdworker + 195627) [0x10e0f7c2b]

77 ??? (mdworker + 193315) [0x10e0f7323]

77 ??? (mdworker + 194647) [0x10e0f7857]

0x10e0c8000 - 0x10e121ff7 mdworker <9378E01B-C699-3561-8E21-2AC3D0E93DC0> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker

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Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 18, 2012 8:47 AM in response to kevinhe

I think that a third-party Spotlight plugin is causing the problem, but usually there would be a crash report, which apparently there isn't in this case. The diagnostic tool that's supposed to list all Spotlight importers doesn't seem to be working in 10.8, though the documentation says it should.

Please enter the following shell command in the Terminal window in the same way as before, and post the output:

launchctl list | grep mdworker

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Answer 13

kevinhe Author

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Aug 18, 2012 8:52 AM in response to Linc Davis

Here's the output:

Kevin-iMac:~ kevin$ launchctl list | grep mdworker

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.mail.01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.shared.04000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.single

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.shared

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.mail

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.lsb

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.isolation

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.bundles

- 0 com.apple.mdworker.32bit

Kevin-iMac:~ kevin$

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Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Aug 18, 2012 9:37 AM in response to kevinhe

Please check your settings in the Spotlight preference pane. Are you absolutely sure the missing search results aren't being excluded? That could happen for either of two reasons: because you haven't checked the relevant box in the Search Results tab, or because you've excluded a folder in the Privacy tab.

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Answer 15

kevinhe Author

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Aug 18, 2012 10:02 AM in response to Linc Davis

Yes, I have checked again, and can confirm that everything is checked and selected under Search Results. The Privacy tab has an empty list, nothing is excluded.

I also tried to re-install Mountain Lion on top of the current installation, as recommend by a Apple Care tech. It's beginning to look like I must resort to a clean install. :(

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