Spotlight ignores the first character I type

Same problem here so you're not alone. I've never opened so many obscure files.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

10.11.1 (15B42)

Same problem here, so you're not with the two of you either.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

10.11 (15A284)

Got this problem when upgrading to El Capitan. Most common error? Searching "hrome" instead of "chrome", opens up an obscure Excel file every time. Horrible for me, considering Alfred as a replacement for Spotlight.

I've got this too

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

Or you can use your Apple ID to register with this site and go the Apple BugReporter. Supposedly you will get an answer if you submit feedback.

Feedback via Apple Developer

Having the same issue. Filed a bug report.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

OS X 10.11.1 (15B42)

There appears to be a handful of people with this problem, but many others do not.

Do you have any third-party text substitution software installed?

Or, any other text-related system mods?

BetterTouch is the only thing I could think of...

Has anyone found how to deal with this?

I'm facing this issue since upgrading to El Capitan. Apple support contact attendants acted as the issue was very unusual and recommended to reinstall the El Capitan, but it also did not solve the problem.

Macbook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

Processor 3.1 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

OS X El Capitan 10.11.2

First, I want to note that this problem is being discussed elsewhere, though none of them provide a solution:

https://openradar.appspot.com/23222411

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7296308

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7318604

https://www.reddit.com/r/OSXElCapitan/comments/3wczrk/spotlight_eating_the_first _letter/

I too have this problem. I've spoken with three senior advisors with Apple Technical Support, none of them had a solution. I have this problem on both of my computers (both 15" MacBook Pro Retina). The problem arises most commonly when I spotlight search for "Things" (which is a todo list program); the subsequent spotlight search then loses the first letter that is typed. It seems like the problem arises after Spotlight does a certain kind of search.

I did a complete erase and reinstall of OSX. At first the problem was gone, but as I reinstalled software the problem came back. One time I observed that it came back as soon as I reinstalled "Things". However, another time I did an erase and reinstall of OSX and some programs (but not Things), and the problem recurred.

Given how relatively uncommon this problem seems to be, but some of us have had it on multiple computers, suggests to me that it is some software or setting that we have that has contaminated both computers. If I had the time I would repeatedly do erase and reinstalls to try to isolate what programs make the problem come back.

Any other ideas? Apple?

Hey guys,

I had the same problem. I always launch Spotlight using the CMD + SPACE keyboard shortcut. The problem would occur almost every time I launched Spotlight using the keyboard shortcut and then immediately typed, for example, the name of an app. I was able to get Spotlight to stop eating the first letter by disabling this setting…

1. System Preferences

2. Spotlight

3. UNCHECK Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Spotlight and Look up

Hope this helps until Apple fixes it.

-Taylor

Thanks! I was having the issue discussed in this thread, and so far, this has worked as a band-aid fix.

Same issue here, I'm a long time user of cmd+space to open just about anything on my Mac. El Capitan introduced this issue. The first input character types in, but then gets backspaced almost immediately by some sort of textfield refresh. The additional strange effect I've noticed is spotlight will work properly on subsequent uses in a short span of time, but say after 15mins it will again ignore the first character input when cmd+space is used again.

Thanks to Actin4life for making a bug report, I would as well, but I've learned in the past Apple will ignore duplicates.

Over all I love the Mac OS, but Apple not having a team of developers not working on these small quick fixes I feel is a very poor practice. Instead they are likely to fix this issue in next falls release of what I would only guess to be El Portal. In the mean time ignoring it as a non-breaking interface bug in El Capitan, and then introducing some other new bug in El Portal that only effects less than 20% of users that use it.

I'm going to try TaylorBo's suggestion: UNCHECK Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Spotlight and Look up

jlust,

I started having the problem again after some time had past, just like you said in your last comment. I posted too soon :-( I haven't been able to figure out a permanent fix.

-Taylor