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What's the matter with spotlight?

I know there are other threads on this, but I have not found a coherent answer.


I type in "quicken" on my main hardrive and it's finds the quicken data file I'm looking for in all the backup fodlers I have - 8 of them, but not on the primary folder at all!


I do the same in Esy Find, and it works, and finds the file and put it at top result.


I'ts like spotlight is saying, "hey, I'll show you a bunch of results, but not the one which is most important to you"

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), imac 27"

Posted on Nov 3, 2012 9:45 PM

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Posted on Nov 4, 2012 6:04 AM

Have you re-indexed Spotlight?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2409

11 replies

Nov 4, 2012 9:47 AM in response to kevs55

Barney, thanks..


OH so the onus is on ME, why Spotlight is not working?


I should be doing the work here?


Should I put that on my monthly to do list??


Then there is two questions:

1) all those backups its finding is on the same hardrive it's missing the primary result

2) easyfind, I'm not "re-indexing" anything, and it finds the primary file bam, right away, right at the top.


PS, I just did the counterintutive add to privacy and then remove, don't see anything happening...

Nov 4, 2012 10:23 AM in response to kevs55

kevs55 wrote:


Barney, thanks..


OH so the onus is on ME, why Spotlight is not working?


I should be doing the work here?

Did you really want help or just to be act like a jerk?


If you're not getting the right results from Spotlight, the index is likely corrupted. If Spotlight knew the index was corrupted, it might be able to self-correct. You normally don't have to do anything with the index.


If you didn't see the little dot in the Spotlight icon, shortly after removing the hard drive, then it didn't start indexing. Put the hard drive in the list, wait a bit, then remove it. You should see a dot in the icon and if you select the Spotlight menu, it will say that it is indexing.


If it is still not reindexing, then you might try forcing it with the command line command listed here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3263911?start=0&tstart=0


If you are still not getting the correct results, there may be a problem with the permissions on the drive. Try opening Disk Utility, select the Disk, and choose Repair Disk Permissions on the First Aid tab.


And, before you fly off into another fit of hyperbole, no, you don't normally need to repair permissions, either.

Nov 4, 2012 5:32 PM in response to surogat70

Yes, Spotlight is at this moment not very helpful. The best way is to update the index every day. But an even better way is to use EasySearch.

I have never needed to update my Spotlight database and it works great for me. I have no need for Easy Find. It's unfortunate you find it so difficult to use. It's the best search utility I've ever used.

Nov 4, 2012 9:01 PM in response to surogat70

Barney, sorry being grouchy, but spotlight has these issue for years and it's perplexing.

It seemed revolutionary when it came up, but I guess it require a lot of manual mantenece.

So now the files does appear, though not as nicely as EasyFind. Spotlight has it in the middle of a batch of 12 backups.

Why think EasyFind needs less maintanance and gets it right at top?


Still thanks for info.


PS, this forum ugh.. love apple forums but still have to log in every single time, and this log is was 3 mintues....wait....

What's the matter with spotlight?

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