terry78

Q: Spotlight - disable Internet search does not work

I cannot disable Internet search in Spotlight.  I've followed the instructions in OS X El Capitan: About Spotlight Suggestions and Spotlight still searches the Internet even after a cold reboot.  In System Preferences>Spotlight>Search Results  I've verified that "Allow Spotlight Suggestions in Spotlight and Lookup" is not checked and "Bing Web Searches" is also not checked as well as verifying that "Spotlight Suggestions" is not even in the list.  Location services are not enabled for Spotlight.

 

This is frustrating and time-consuming because every search for a file on my hard drive has the search results finding it and then quickly overlaying five or six unrelated Internet search hits that I must "deny" to get back to the search results for the file. Most of the time I even need to redo the Spotlight search because the first search is the first Internet web site that was suggested by Spotlight.

 

OS X 10.11.5 on MacBook Pro 13-inch mid-2012

Posted on Jul 7, 2016 3:24 PM

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Q: Spotlight - disable Internet search does not work

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 7, 2016 5:06 PM in response to terry78
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jul 7, 2016 5:06 PM in response to terry78

    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.

    I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. That's what I suggest you use, even if your preferred browser is something else.

    Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    defaults read com.apple.Spotlight orderedItems | pbcopy

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any one of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

    Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.

    The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.

    The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.