Spotlight won't search external hard drive

Question

Level 1

11 points

Spotlight won't search external hard drive

I have recently upgraded to Yosemite but when I use Spotlight to search for a file spotlight does not search or include any files on my external hard drive. I have had one community member suggest to explicitly check the Spotlight index via command line. I tried to follow his instructions but my limited skills produced a zero. Unfortunately, he hasn't replied back for further instruction.

Can anyone else please shed some light on this annoying problem?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Dec 3, 2014 5:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

AppleJoe

Community Manager

Dec 5, 2014 6:54 AM in response to chalkybones

Hi chalkybones,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

I understand that you would like Spotlight to locate files on your external hard drive but it is unsuccessfully locating them. In this situation I would recommend first re-indexing the folders or volumes in Spotlight if you have not yet done some. Please use the attached article as a reference on how to complete the process.

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

Cheers,

Joe

Reply

Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,293 points

Dec 5, 2014 1:44 PM in response to chalkybones

System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy - make sure the drive isn't listed there. If it a network drive, Spotlight won't index it.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 11, 2015 10:59 AM in response to chalkybones

I was having the same issue, which I fixed by going to the seagate website and downloading the paragon driver for mac os.

Reply

Answer 4

chalkybones Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 6, 2014 2:58 PM in response to AppleJoe

Hi Joes,

Thanks for the reply. I have attempted your suggestion numerous times but no success unfortunately. Have you any other suggestions?

Reply

Answer 5

chalkybones Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 6, 2014 2:59 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the reply. My external drive is not listed in the Spotlight Privacy page. It is an off the shelf purchase Seagate Back Up Plus 1 TB.

Reply

Answer 6

Dec 11, 2014 2:23 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,
I have since discovered that Spotlight will show up search results using a Western Digital external drive but no results when I use my Seagate Back Up Plus external drive. Any thoughts?

Reply

Answer 7

Dec 11, 2014 2:23 PM in response to AppleJoe

Hi Joe,
I have since discovered that Spotlight will show up search results using a Western Digital external drive but no results when I use my Seagate Back Up Plus external drive. Any thoughts?

Reply