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Spotlight search ignores spotlight comments

Using the Commenteer utility I've modified hundreds of spotlight comments for files. But spotlight search doesn't find them. Why? mdimport doesn't seem to be running. Why?

27" iMac

Posted on Jul 23, 2014 8:29 PM

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Posted on Jul 27, 2014 9:15 PM

I figured out what is going on, but don't understand it. Commenteer lets me add spotlight comments in batch mode even when the files are locked. (All my photos are locked so I don't accidentally delete any.) The comments are really there--I checked. But if the files are locked when I change the comments, spotlight will not index the files. If I unlocked the files before using Commenteer to make a batch change to the comments, then spotlight will index the files. So my workaround for now is to unlock all the files before changing the comments. Spotlight doesn't "see" that a file has been updated, if it is locked. If I unlock it, change the comments, and then lock it again, Spotlight notices that and indexes the file. Kind of annoying.

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Question marked as Best reply

Jul 27, 2014 9:15 PM in response to required desired alias

I figured out what is going on, but don't understand it. Commenteer lets me add spotlight comments in batch mode even when the files are locked. (All my photos are locked so I don't accidentally delete any.) The comments are really there--I checked. But if the files are locked when I change the comments, spotlight will not index the files. If I unlocked the files before using Commenteer to make a batch change to the comments, then spotlight will index the files. So my workaround for now is to unlock all the files before changing the comments. Spotlight doesn't "see" that a file has been updated, if it is locked. If I unlock it, change the comments, and then lock it again, Spotlight notices that and indexes the file. Kind of annoying.

Spotlight search ignores spotlight comments

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