Spotlight - No search results on my external hard drive

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Level 1

11 points

Spotlight - No search results on my external hard drive

Hi,

I've just made the quantum leap from Snow Leopard to Yosemite. Since the change, whenever I do a Spotlight search for a file or folder there are no results shown for what is stored on my external hard drive, even when I have the main external hard drive folder open. I get all other results from my desktop and web/app suggestions but nothing from the external hard drive.

Is there a setting I can change to include the results from my external hard drive?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Nov 19, 2014 5:11 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 19, 2014 5:31 PM in response to chalkybones

Go to the Spotlight preference pane and add the external drive to the privacy area. And then remove it. Hopefully it will rebuild the index.

If not, you can explicitly check the Spotlight index via command line. To do this, open a Terminal window (in Applications/Utilities), and type:

mdutil -s <volume name>

So for example, here's me checking the status of my "Macintosh HD" volume:

trebor:~ blloyd$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

/:

Indexing enabled.

Try it for whatever your external volume is called. Use quotes for names with spaces or whatever in them, or use tab completion to automatically add backspaces in front of spaces for you.

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Answer 2

chalkybones Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 19, 2014 5:51 PM in response to William Lloyd

Thanks William. I'll give your suggestions a try.

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Answer 3

chalkybones Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 19, 2014 6:08 PM in response to chalkybones

Hi William,

I've tried both suggestions but no success. Due to my inexperience with the intricacies of command strings I believe I'm more than likely entering the wrong command string. My external hard drive is labelled as Seagate Backup Plus Drive 1TB. Below is a copy of the various attempts to enter a command string. Can you suggest the correct string please? My wife has labelled the iMac as Judy Hunts iMac and my name is Dave.

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB \ HD /: Indexing enabled.

Error: invalid path `/Volumes/Seagate'.

Error: invalid path `Backup'.

Error: invalid path `Plus'.

Error: invalid path `Drive1TB'.

Error: invalid path ` HD'.

Error: invalid path `/:'.

Error: invalid path `Indexing'.

Error: invalid path `enabled.'.

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB/:

-bash: Dave$: command not found

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB/:

Error: invalid path `/Volumes/Seagate'.

Error: invalid path `Backup'.

Error: invalid path `Plus'.

Error: invalid path `Drive1TB/:'.

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ -mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive 1TB/:Indexing Enabled

-bash: -mdutil: command not found

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB \ HD /: Indexing enabled.

Error: invalid path `/Volumes/Seagate'.

Error: invalid path `Backup'.

Error: invalid path `Plus'.

Error: invalid path `Drive1TB'.

Error: invalid path ` HD'.

Error: invalid path `/:'.

Error: invalid path `Indexing'.

Error: invalid path `enabled.'.

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB\ /:

Error: invalid path `/Volumes/Seagate'.

Error: invalid path `Backup'.

Error: invalid path `Plus'.

Error: invalid path `Drive1TB /:'.

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$

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Answer 4

Jacknva

Level 1

7 points

Sep 6, 2015 1:09 PM in response to chalkybones

Hello chalkybones,

Use quotes!--- Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ mdutil -s /Volumes/"Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB" as William mentioned above",

The spaces in your volume name are not interpreted correctly and thus you saw the multiple Errors. Additionally, I think the command parameter you want is "-E", not "-s". if you want all volumes Indexed, try

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/"Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB"

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ sudo mdutil -s /Volumes/"Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB"

Judy-Hunts-iMac:~ Dave$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/"Seagate Backup Plus Drive1TB"

Good luck...

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