Why doesn't Spotlight index .odt files?

Files made by OpenOffice have an extension of .odt. Unfortunately, I can't get Spotlight to find .odt files or .png images. Is there a way that I can tweak the settings somehow?


Thank you.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Mar 5, 2016 5:53 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 6, 2016 5:13 AM

LibreOffice comes with a Spotlight importer in its bundle. You can confirm this with the following terminal command:


/usr/bin/mdimport -L


, which lists available importers and included in this list should be:


"/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter. mdimporter"


If this seems okay you can re-index your files by following these instructions:


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201716


Once re-indexing is complete, try typing a phrase from one of your '.odt' documents to see if it's found. Use Console.app to search for error messages from 'OOoSpotlightImporter'. I've never had any trouble with the importer myself, but cross-platform applications such as LibreOffice don't always have the resources to devote to such Mac-specific niceties.


C.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 6, 2016 5:13 AM in response to polishedstaple

LibreOffice comes with a Spotlight importer in its bundle. You can confirm this with the following terminal command:


/usr/bin/mdimport -L


, which lists available importers and included in this list should be:


"/Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/OOoSpotlightImporter. mdimporter"


If this seems okay you can re-index your files by following these instructions:


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201716


Once re-indexing is complete, try typing a phrase from one of your '.odt' documents to see if it's found. Use Console.app to search for error messages from 'OOoSpotlightImporter'. I've never had any trouble with the importer myself, but cross-platform applications such as LibreOffice don't always have the resources to devote to such Mac-specific niceties.


C.

Mar 9, 2016 12:03 PM in response to polishedstaple

This might help, from the search field in a Finder window, enter : kind:odt

Select Kinds : Open Document Text

User uploaded file

Finder should create a smart folder for your seach criteria :

User uploaded file

You can do the same by entering : kind:p

Select Kinds : Portable Network Graphics Image

User uploaded file

Finder should create a smart folder for your seach criteria :

User uploaded file


This should also work for .odp & .ods files :

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

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Why doesn't Spotlight index .odt files?

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