Paulman!

Q: make spotlight work like it did in snow leopard

I have complained about this to apple many times. Suggestions, chats, etc. I get nowhere. I downloaded "easy find" but it isn;t that great either. My question is to make search (spotlight) work like it did in Snow leopard. Is it possible and how to do it. Search (spotlight) is 99% useless now. I search for a specific file  by name and thousands of irrelavent thing show up. I want nothing but .psd files, but anything that has .psd linked to it apparently shows up. xml files, php files, .html etc, etc. It's rediculous!

 

It was fool proof in snow leopard, but now my work flow has been completely destroyed. I can't tell you how many times i searched for a file by specific name which is a .psd file and pdfs, show up, xml, .html, .js, scss, etc.  is stupid and I HAVE NEVER created an xml file, or scss? the php files I never created are showing up, it's so frustrating.

 

Easy find does better, but not much. There are still hundreds of files that make no sense. I use to be able to add (negative) and not show certain types of file, like -xml and no xml files would show up, but that only work 10% of the time.  What happened to the search???

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on May 2, 2016 12:35 PM

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Q: make spotlight work like it did in snow leopard

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  • by Ferd II,

    Ferd II Ferd II May 2, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 7 (28,388 points)
    Applications
    May 2, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Paulman!
  • by Pmintz25,

    Pmintz25 Pmintz25 May 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 4 (1,634 points)
    May 2, 2016 12:52 PM in response to Paulman!

    I would do as Ferd suggests since this does not happen to me.

    Most of my files started on an old MacBook with 10.5, and have since been transferred to a rMBP in 2012, which is currently running OSX 10.11 El Capitan.

     

    Spotlight does not normally fabricate fake files, so I would suggest an index, and if that doesn't work, you may want to look through your folders and clean out old files.

  • by Paulman!,

    Paulman! Paulman! May 2, 2016 3:41 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 3:41 PM in response to Paulman!

    I've rebuilt the index dozens of times. The files it is finding exist, but they are not what i'm searching for. It's showing random css and xml files that have zero anything to do with the .psd file i am looking for. The .psd could be in text on the pdf, but it still shows it when I search for the file name and .psd at the end. 

     

    It just shows completely idiotic results, that are not even close to what I need. I don't need to see .js files when I search for a .psd file. Or a jpg. I don't give a rats anything about the .css file that has jpgs in the coding. I mean it doesn't tell you what made the result come up, just a random file with a .jpg on it. 

     

    I've had Apple help on the phone sending the results several times and it hasnt been fixed yet. I can't keep wasting days of my time tryoing to get spotlight to show me the same kind of results it did in snow leopard.  I'b be happy to set limits to avoid in preferences, but the results are costing me a lot of frustration and time.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 2, 2016 4:08 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 2, 2016 4:08 PM in response to Paulman!

    in Spotlight or Finder search, type in psd without the period.

  • by Paulman!,

    Paulman! Paulman! May 2, 2016 6:04 PM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 6:04 PM in response to dialabrain

    So if i type "psd"  it in spotlight I get a crapload of .js file. WORTHLESS! If i open finder I get Readme.txt files. WORTHLESS! Happens constantly. Spotlight is WORTHLESS.the other images are from 2008. (XRM...) the other files are years old and not even close to what I would want to show up.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 8.59.57 PM.jpgScreen Shot 2016-05-02 at 8.59.39 PM.jpg

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 2, 2016 6:18 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 2, 2016 6:18 PM in response to Paulman!

    When I type psd in Finder search, I get a drop down menu which gives me a choice of "Kinds" Adobe Photoshop documents, which when you select it will show ONLY psd files. If you need me to I can post  screen shots when I'm on one of my Macs that actually has psd files. Same with Spotlight.

    Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 9.11.59 PM.png

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 2, 2016 6:46 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 2, 2016 6:46 PM in response to Paulman!

    Here you go. I just installed PixelStyle so it's showing up.

    Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 9.43.19 PM.png

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 2, 2016 7:01 PM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 2, 2016 7:01 PM in response to Paulman!

    Spotlight using .psd…

    Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 9.52.36 PM.png

    So either you have software installed which is interfering with searches, you need to re-index Spotlight correctly, you have one or more corrupted plist files, or your install is bad and needs redone.

  • by Paulman!,

    Paulman! Paulman! May 3, 2016 5:30 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 3, 2016 5:30 AM in response to dialabrain

    It is great that it seems to be working for you, but I can never get it to work. I have already had support on the phone a few ties for this and they have no answers, I reinstalled, updated, deleted .plist etc, etc. Nothing fixes it. This is through the last 5 or 6 system updates.

     

    So why is Pixel style showing up? Because it has PSD in it's name? - oh wait it doesn't. Why is it showing up at all? This is basically the issue. There is no reason that should show up in results when doing a search. This is the problem I am having, only on a much larger scale.

     

    Search is broken. Maybe you have a less broken version you can use, but I have wasted a lot of time trying to get it to work like the previous versions. It is causing me huge amounts of time that I don't have.

     

    I'm not sure how you get a list of filenames and kinds as I don'rt have that. If this is teh suggestions things in the preferences, If I turn that on, the rare instance I can find something, is made ten times harder.

     

    I have talked to Apple several times. I appreciate the responses, but I have already done all of the things that people would try to fix it, but it doesn't help.

     

    I guess I complain to apple again, fill out the feedback thing again and then complain until it is fixed. (if it ever gets fixed)

     

    If you search for a specific name, there is no reason that items should show up without the searched text in the name.  (pixelStyle doesn't even have a "d" in the name. Why is it showing up?) I guess if you rotate the p 180 it could be a "d"

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 3, 2016 5:48 AM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 3, 2016 5:48 AM in response to Paulman!

    FWIW, PixelStyle showed up because "PSDBVersionInfo.pdf" is in the contents of the App.

  • by Eau Rouge,

    Eau Rouge Eau Rouge May 3, 2016 5:59 AM in response to Paulman!
    Level 4 (2,862 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 3, 2016 5:59 AM in response to Paulman!

    As you are looking for .psd files why don't you set the Spotlight Preferences to only search for Images,

    this might just get rid of all the other search results..

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-03 at 13.58.42.jpg

  • by Paulman!,

    Paulman! Paulman! May 3, 2016 7:26 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 3, 2016 7:26 AM in response to dialabrain

    See this is the problem with how it work now. I am not going to search for the "contents" of a file when I type in the exact name. I search for the file names, or file types.  It would be like trying to find a friends house by typing in what he has inside the house. So to go to Larry;s house, here is his couch breand name... STUPID.

     

    I wouldn't be searching for a .png file by typing "Dreamweaver" into the search. I want something to show up that is named .png. how it is helpful to list hundreds of things that have .png buried in the document's code?  I get .html files, word documents, .js, css files. Everything bunched in stuff that is irrelevant to the search.

     

    It used to work. It worked beyond I would even expect, but now it is a time wasting endeavor.  I just want there to be a way to tell it to NEVER show ,my .js files when I'm looking for a word document.

  • by Paulman!,

    Paulman! Paulman! May 3, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Eau Rouge
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 3, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Eau Rouge

    I search for everything I create at all times and I need certain things searchable. I tried to limit the search in this area, but then I have to change it everytime i need to search mail, or a movie type etc. I use search to not have to drill 5-10 folders deep for a file. It should save time, but not waste it by showing completely irrelevant results.

     

    I would be happy to have a way to tell spotlight to never show certain types of file. You can add folder to not search, but not file types, (that I know of).

     

    I want there to be a way to tell spotlight to not show .css, .js, .xml, scss, etc. I will NEVER search for a css file in spotlight.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain May 3, 2016 7:35 AM in response to Paulman!
    Level 5 (6,171 points)
    Mac App Store
    May 3, 2016 7:35 AM in response to Paulman!

    You mean like this?

    Screen Shot 2016-05-03 at 10.31.52 AM.png

    or this?

    Screen Shot 2016-05-03 at 10.34.30 AM.png

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