swissbaboon

Q: Spotlight not searching in pdf content

Hello everyone,

 

I have a lot of pdf files with typical useless names coming from taxes, banks, ... I need to search some specific words in their content in order to classify and rename them. However, what ever is my OS X version (I have different macs) Spotlight is completely unable to do a search in my pdf files, whatever is their origin or content, and even though I add the search specification "content". Any other program can (but it is not the goal to have different SW for a job that should natively be done). So, what should I do with my pdf files or with Spotlight settings in order to enable spotlight to do its job?

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jan 14, 2016 8:43 AM

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Q: Spotlight not searching in pdf content

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  • Helpful answers

  • by rusty141,Apple recommended

    rusty141 rusty141 Jun 6, 2016 11:17 PM in response to swissbaboon
    Level 1 (15 points)
    iPhone
    Jun 6, 2016 11:17 PM in response to swissbaboon

    First - make sure the PDFs you are trying to search have readable content by opening them up in Preview and searching for some text that should be in there. This confirms there is content to search.

     

    Second - check the Spotlight settings in System Preferences has PDF selected, so that it is indexing PDFs

     

    If these two are correct you should be able to search PDF content

  • by ddrenger,

    ddrenger ddrenger Jun 15, 2016 8:45 AM in response to swissbaboon
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 15, 2016 8:45 AM in response to swissbaboon

    Did anyone answer this. I don't get content search for pdfs..

    pdfs are checked in preferences

    My pdfs are searchable

  • by ddrenger,

    ddrenger ddrenger Jun 15, 2016 8:49 AM in response to swissbaboon
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 15, 2016 8:49 AM in response to swissbaboon

    Hi,

    Did you ever get spotlight to search content of pdfs? Please tell me if there's a solution if you have a sec.

    Thanks in advance.

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Jun 16, 2016 9:41 AM in response to swissbaboon
    Level 7 (20,606 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 16, 2016 9:41 AM in response to swissbaboon

    I am using OS X 10.11.5, but the following applies to several preceding generations of OS X.

     

    The first thing that you need to verify is that in System Preferences : Spotlight panel : Search Results tab that you have PDF Documents checked for Spotlight Indexing. If not, do so, and under the Privacy tab, drag/drop your Macintosh HD desktop icon into the Privacy window. Wait a few seconds, and then remove it from the Privacy window. Spotlight will then reindex your drive, and your PDF documents.

     

    Now, you can use the Spotlight search syntax: kind:PDF "search term"

     

    I have a PDF here that has the word Transportation in it. When I replace "search term" with "Transportation" — the very first PDF it finds has this string in it, though other PDFs are shown due to the kind:PDF clause.