New Spotlight not working on El Capitan

I don't know how it worked, Jim, but I followed what you wrote. Everything was already checked off - not one box unchecked - and I closed it and went up to Spotlight and my old friend is back (it seems). Now, let's see what happens after a restart. <aggghhhh>

Goober,

If you click the lock in the lower right hand corner of the 'Get Info" window it will make the + and - signs black. Click on the + sign and you should be able to add yourself to that list of users. Just make sure that you choose Read & Write. You should then be able to add the HD to the list in Spotlight Privacy.

Hello Ryan,

Thanks for the tip! The default setting for a freshly-installed El Capitan is to not give permission to do this. I am keeping them as they are and not varying from the OS default. I was able to get Spotlight working again and it is now working for me.

Best Regards,

Mark

Just to add to the story, not working for me either.

I tried all the tips I've found online: changing regions, toggling Spotlight settings, re-indexing, rebooting .... but no good. I'm finding that screen splitting doesn't work with mail, rather annoying. I'm amazed and disappointed with this release.

Hi all,

i also have a problem with Spotlight: when i search photos in a certain location (g.e. photos NewYork) it doesn't show me anything although i have effectively photos with New York geotag. Instead if i search "New York" into Photos native app it founds them!

Anyone have the same problem?

Greetings,

Niccolò

Had this problem. Tried to work my head around it all day.

This is the solution I found for my particular case:

if you have multiple accounts -> log into the admin account and check if spotlight is working well with that account. Or try safe mode.

I actually had my daily account (not the admin) restricted with parental control and completely forgot about it. Removed parental control on my account and the new spotlight was working fine then. yay.

gooober

""I found in my case, that the indexing service was not enabled. Once I enabled it, spotlight now works!

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

$ sudo mdutil -a -i on

If you do not wish to enable indexing on all drives (with the above command), see the man page for the mdutil command.

**Also of note**

When I restart my iMac, spotlight briefly indexes for a minute or so before it starts "working again".

I created a clean install of El Capitan on a fresh VM and it behaves in the same manner. Only the VM is finished indexing in less than a minute. I am guessing that is because I only have the OS installed and no other programs.

Hope this helps!

Mark"

I upgraded my Macbook pro (13-in, early 2011) to El Capitan, and everything slowed to a crawl. After a thousand fixes, finally got it running right. However, Spotlight wouldn't show any results whatsoever, no matter what boxes were checked or unchecked. Your suggestion fixed it and it works great now. Thank you!

goober's solution did not work for me.

I upgraded to 10.11.3 several weeks ago and Spotlight seemed to be working. Today it doesn't work. Sometimes it does nothing when I type in a search term, at other times it shows an icon on the extreme right of the Spotlight search box. The icon looks like an app avatar (for example a chat icon or a computer to computer transfer). If I search a term it will return a message box that says Chat does work with this version or you don't have permission. I have used the Spotlight system preference to check every option on the list. I have also tried to add a folder and remove it but the system isn't allowing me to add anything to the Privacy list. I'm stumped.

I am also getting extremely frustrated with Mac OS X. With every revision it adds useless features and more and more bugs. It is the new Microsoft IMHO.

Got it working. I'm in USA but it wasn't working until I opened System Pref, Spotlight settings, unchecked (OFF) "Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Spotlight and Look Up" at the bottom of the window, THEN RE-CHECKED IT (ON). Now it works.

I tried every suggestion. Worked on this problem for weeks. But only the command line solution worked. You have to turn on indexing for all disks. Sorry I can't find it now, but search for two sudo command line fixes.

Apple is not here.

If you wish to let Apple know about this, post at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Some OS X features are not available in all regions. Please review http://www.apple.com/osx/feature-availability/#spotlight-suggestions

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

Takes 10 seconds to go through the steps. I haven't read all replies so I don't know if this was covered.

Spotlight Suggestions are available in only few countries:

https://www.apple.com/osx/feature-availability/#spotlight-suggestions

Even i have the same problem as its not available in India.

Try a simple reboot of your machine.