Spotlight does not find files which I know are located in the Library folders. Do I have to add these specific files to the
list of folders which is in Spotlight Preferences? How do I do this? Are all user files not automatically searched by
Spotlight?
I am using OS 10.9.3
Brian.
System Preferences->Spotlight lists the folders and content searched, the order they are presented and any folders excluded form the search, so you can check there to see if anything is being excluded.
How are you looking for the files and are you referring to the System Library or your user Library folder?
While Spotlight's preferences includes a list of files searched I understand that this list is not comprehensive. That is, most systems and some user files are not included, to reduce risk of confusion by displaying files that are not usually of interest to the user.
My reference to "Library folders" included both Library folders.
If I use finder to search then files in my home library file are found and if I tell the search to include system files then files in the System libraries are found.
So again how are you using spotlight to search for these files?
I entered a word which was specific to the files that I was searching for in the Spotlight window which opens at the top right-hand corner of the screen. This results in a listing of files in which this name appears but does not include the files in (for example) a Library folder..
Ah OK that search does have limitation.
If you need to search the user or system libraries it is best to use the Finder.
I believe this is by design as Spotlight basically is for searching user data files, not for system files like something under the Library folders.
One thing to try if even searching with Finder does not yield the correct results try re-iundexing your drive. Open Spotlight Preferences, add the drive to the exclusion list then remove it. The drive will be re-indexed.
But as has been noted the Spotlight Search box does have limitations.
good luck
Thanks for your interest in this matter.
Click on the Show All button, if it exists, when doing a search, click on the plus sign, and ensure that system files are included in the search criteria. This screen shot shows how it found a com.adobe.fpsaud plist file in /Library. Do note that I did this from Snow Leopard and Mavs might display a slightly different window.
Spotlight cannot find files in the Library folders.
