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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

Reply
25 replies

Sep 6, 2017 8:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hmm ... not quite working as you indicate.


Services > Open


Folder opens, and on the title bar is .Spotlight-V100 with a Do Not Enter symbol on it. There is no subfolder within that folder. Curious that the title bar on the folder that opens (rather than any subfolder) is .Spotlight-V100. Permissions for that folder are System - Read & Write, everyone (grayed out) - No Access.


If I change the permissions on that folder to allow read only, I have VolumeConfiguration.plist (accessible), Store-V1 folder (Do Not Enter) and Store-V2 folder (also with a Do Not Enter symbol). I cannot seem to change the permissions of the Store-V1 (which seems quite old, dating from 2013) or the Store-V2 folders.


I have already repaired permissions in the home folder and the disk, and even reinstalled Mac OS (Sierra). I booted in Safe Mode and logged into a clean user account - still no effect.


Appreciate any suggestions you might have.

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 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.

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

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!

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!

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

Spotlight not working

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