Cannot Rebuild Spotlight Index

Try rebuilding the mailbox.

Rebuild mailbox

If that doesn't work, try re-indexing the mailboxes. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.

Reindex messages For El Capitan, try looking in V3. Sierra use V4. High Sierra use V5.

Reindex messages (2) See post by Linc Davis

Everyone should be warned that after issuing one of these commands in Terminal (e.g. 'sudo mdutil -E /'), the return will be '/:' and then nothing. Wait! Do not do anything. Be patient. After a bit, Terminal will *then* return 'Indexing enabled.'

Can someone explain what the */ means in the instructions above, are we typing that somewhere?

I have the same problem. upgraded to Sierra. Mail not searchable (0 results), spotlight not working to search mail either, or apps for that matter.

Tried to add HD to privacy exclusion list in SL prefs, which failed with same error (Privacy error null)

I need to fix this urgently, could someone please clarify exactly what I need to do as I don't understand those instructions and don't want to break something

Well I have tried and tried. Done the procedure he says, several times. It actually did get spotlight working SLIGHTLY better (only had a dictionary result before but now have a few more) but still mail does not find any results even if i search for something sat in my inbox. I rely on mail search function heavily. Starting to wonder if the only way out of this is to do a fresh installation of Sierra and use migration assistant from my clone drive or TM backup drive. 😟

Spotlight not working see post by Linc Davis and other suggestions.

Thanks. I tried the sudo commands above and it didn't seem to work very well! Will have a look at the link thanks

You are welcome.

Thanks, OnTheEdge1.

This was successful for me when Spotlight and its indexing suddenly would not work (under Sierra 10.12.3), or would appear to index continuously without in fact doing anything useful.

Since I use Spotlight as an application launcher, and have for many years, my workflow was severely impeded as I tried to learn new habits.

Your suggestions fixed it, and quickly.

Actually, my thanks proved premature. About every other boot, the problem returned. What fixed it for me (apparently finally, after about 8 boots) was when I installed the full version of 10.12.4 over 10.12.3. The update installer might also work, but that is not what I used.

Thanks, Enver! I did all this adding and deleting too, and thought nothing was happening. But your comment about seeing the progress bar only if you try a search was spot on!

A

<Edited by Host>

Check: Re: Spotlight doesnt work after Sierra upgrade for solutions or:

"

What finally worked:

*/ Unchecked all spotlight pref's;

*/ Opened terminal and entered the next line: '

sudo touch /.metadata-never-index'

*/ Reopened terminal after the reboot and entered the next line: 'mdutil -sv /' and got the message "Indexing enabled"; followed by 'sudo mdutil -E /' and got the same message "indexing enabled".

*/ Opened system pref's > Spotlight and activated again all spotlight pref's.

*/ 'cmd+space' gave back reaction and all items could suddenly be searched again on my HD. When hitting enter in the spotlight search bar you could see a working indexating bar. 'mds_store' is active also, but just using a fraction of my memory now..."

Tried rebuilding Spotlight index. It did not work.

Moved had disk icon into Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy

Waited about a minute, deleted hard disk icon.

Failed to start rebuilding index.

Repeated after restarting MacBook — still fails to index.

Looks like it's rebuilding the index now. The progress bar does not show in Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy.

The progress bar does show if you initiate a new search.

This worked for me after several failed suggestions. Thanks for posting... I'm so much less productive without Spotlight. Good to have it back.