reizen

Q: Spotlight not working

Nothing shows up in the index.  When I tried to force index by adding my hard drive to the exclusion area and then removing it - it wouldn't let me add my hard drive - either said I didn't have permission or that there was an error.  Any ideas appreciated.

 

Andrew

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), iOS 8.3

Posted on Jul 7, 2015 5:18 AM

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Q: Spotlight not working

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 7, 2015 1:05 PM in response to reizen
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jul 7, 2015 1:05 PM in response to reizen

    Back up all data before proceeding.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    /.Spotlight-V100

    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

              Services â–¹ Open

    from the contextual menu. A folder should open with a subfolder named ".Spotlight-V100" selected. Move the subfolder to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

    Restart the computer in safe mode. Certain caches maintained by the system will be rebuilt.

    Safe mode is much slower to start up than normal. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

    When the login screen appears, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and test. There's no need to log in while in safe mode.

    Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t start in safe mode. In that case, ask for instructions.

    You can't see the folder in the Trash because it's invisible. The next time you empty the Trash, it should be deleted.

  • by reizen,

    reizen reizen Jul 7, 2015 6:38 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 7, 2015 6:38 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks!

     

    Didn't seem to work.  Finder opened that spotlight folder - but I could not select it - only what was in it.

     

    There also seems to be an issue that many of the folders don't seem to recognize that I am an administrator.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 7, 2015 6:51 PM in response to reizen
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jul 7, 2015 6:51 PM in response to reizen

    You don't have to open it. Just delete it.

  • by reizen,

    reizen reizen Jul 8, 2015 5:08 AM in response to reizen
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 8, 2015 5:08 AM in response to reizen

    Sorry if I am being dim.  How do you delete that folder?  In finder, the Spotlight-V100 is open - I can only delete what it is in it (and those folders are called something else.  When I go up a folder - it disappears.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 8, 2015 8:07 AM in response to reizen
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jul 8, 2015 8:07 AM in response to reizen

    Set the Finder view mode to Columns.

  • by reizen,

    reizen reizen Jul 8, 2015 5:50 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 8, 2015 5:50 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks!  Was able to delete the file.  Followed your instructions to the letter. Still no spotlight.

  • by reizen,

    reizen reizen Jul 8, 2015 6:20 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 8, 2015 6:20 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I don't know if this is important

    from terminal

     

    Press enter to continue or close this window to cancel...

    2015-07-08 21:17:09.802 mdutil[659:65648] Metadata.framework [Error]: mdsCopyStorePaths failed: (268435459) (ipc/send) invalid destination port

    Spotlight server is disabled.

     

    Any folder I try to add to the spotlight privacy setting in preferences - comes up as an unknown error

  • by reizen,

    reizen reizen Jul 8, 2015 6:24 PM in response to reizen
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 8, 2015 6:24 PM in response to reizen

    This seemed to work (from an Alfred chat room)

     

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

  • by hcb,

    hcb hcb Oct 2, 2015 4:03 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2015 4:03 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Hi!

     

    I've tried all you wrote, disabled the firmware pwd and decrypted my disk before. Didn't changed anything.

    So I made a fresh install of 10.11, and restored all my userdata via time machine.

     

    The same problem. Spotlight uses no something like 136 % CPU-Usage.

     

    Any more tips?

  • by hcb,

    hcb hcb Oct 2, 2015 5:26 AM in response to hcb
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2015 5:26 AM in response to hcb

    I've just created another account on the same MBP. No problems. So this seems definitely to be a problem with my useraccount.

    But I don't have any ideas how to resolv this, except to delete this account and create a new one. But this will need 12 to 14 hours

    of reinstalling software, arrange all SW preferences... I would really like to avoid that!

  • by Michael108S,

    Michael108S Michael108S Jan 30, 2016 9:21 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2016 9:21 AM in response to Linc Davis

    HI

     

    Will this solution posted here help with this problem?

     

    Re: Spotlight in Yosemite cant search seagate external drive

     

    It is very similar -- But I think it is not totally the same.  My spotlight is working fine, just not seeing the Seagate External HD that is in ExFat format.

     

    I would head to lose all of my data by by trying the wrong thing...

     

    Any advice is appreciated

     

    Thanks!

  • by filmblanc108,

    filmblanc108 filmblanc108 Feb 15, 2016 6:43 PM in response to reizen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 15, 2016 6:43 PM in response to reizen

    Thanks for posting this Reizen. I had the same problem with trying to reindex Spotlight but it not letting me. After using this command in Terminal I was able to reindex Spotlight and now it's working again! sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

  • by RufusGor,

    RufusGor RufusGor Jun 5, 2016 4:02 PM in response to filmblanc108
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 5, 2016 4:02 PM in response to filmblanc108

    if not indexed. you need to check LaunchDaemons can help, leave here:

     

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.index.plist

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.scan.plist

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.spindump.plist

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

    sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

  • by crkdln,

    crkdln crkdln Jun 20, 2016 2:47 PM in response to RufusGor
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 20, 2016 2:47 PM in response to RufusGor

    Thanks.  My system showed that all had already been loaded except the last one (locate.plist).  When i launched that it seemed to fix my problem.

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