Spotlight permission issue with multiple users - user A can search files from user B

This seems an awful lot like the same problem that i'm having (with a few possibly important differences, more on that below), but i believe i have actually resolved this now, using the method i described before (resetting user account permissions, THEN rebuilding Spotlight index). I said before that i had success with this, but then the problem came back. But yesterday i realized i'd caused the problem to come back by a mistake i made. So, in case it's helpful to others, here is what i've found:

If i create a folder directly in a user's home directory, that folder is searchable by all users, but the files will not be accessible. This seems like a bug. But if i put the folder within one of the default folders within the home directory (Desktop, Documents, etc), then everything acts as it should. So if you want to create a new folder within a user's home folder (ex: MediaUser/TV/ ) then you must set the permissions of that folder. I just used the Finder's get info window, removed "staff" permissions altogether, and changed "everyone" permissions to "no access".

With that in place, i can rebuild the Spotlight index and everything is fine.

You may want to try one more time to do it *in that order*. I think the order matters because the error is happening during indexing, not searching. So you fix permissions, THEN rebuild the index, and the indexer will see everything with the correct permissions and work accordingly. This is only speculation, since it worked for me.

The main difference i can see between your description and what i'm experiencing are that my users *were* migrated, after my Mavericks install from the App Store failed and bricked my MBP. I then did a clean install, and migrated users from a backup. I'm including these details for anyone reading the thread, in case it helps.

The other obvious difference is that in your case, it seems that folders like Desktop, which should have the correct permissions by default, are also affected. This is not the case for me.

I hope this is helpful!

That's not a bug. It's normal behavior. By default, the top level of a user home folder is readable by all users, and so are new folders. So if you create a new folder at the top level, the contents will also be readable by all and available in Spotlight. That doesn't seem to be what the original poster is reporting.

Change the permissions of A's home folder to "no access" for "staff" and "everyone." Any change?

It's a bug. I can't reproduce it. File a bug report.

Hi Harald,

I was having the identical problem and finally found a solution. Re-indexing spotlight alone had not solved my problem, but the below commands did.

sudo mdutil -i off /

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /

You should run these commands in your admin account. Make sure to close all other accounts and all open applications before doing this. Hope this helps.

This post is for Linc Davis, if you have the time to reply I'd appreciate your opinion. I recently installed OS X Server on a 2009 Mac Pro with a connected Mini SAS raid enclosure as the storage device. I am backing up this device over the LAN to a Thunderbolt connected raid on my 2013 Mac Pro using Chronosynch. I am getting permissions locking me out of certain folders and I cannot figure out why some and not all folders get the red dot. I clear permissions using sudo chflags -R nouchg & sudo chmod -R 777 in Terminal and all is fine, until the next Chronosynch and it happens again. The same issues occur when backuping over the internet using ChronoAgent for my offsite backup. Attached are some screenshots that may be of some help.

Any suggestions?