Spotlight fails to index Word docs, but Siri DOES!!

This fix worked for me (on OS X Yosemite)! Didn't have to replace any of the files -- just rebuilt my Spotlight index, which took about a day to complete, and then the keyword search started working on my DOCX files. Here's how to rebuild your Spotlight index:

How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

I have macOS Sierra 10.12.2 installed. My System Preferences : Spotlight : Search Results categories are all selected. I have no issue finding text in Word .doc/x documents. If I make changes to a Word document, and want these indexed right-away, I may logout/login, and indexing begins immediately.

In Spotlight, or Finder search window:

• astring kind:word
• "white-space search" kind:word

I don't use Siri for the document searches.

Found a bit of a workaround, though I'll admit it's not a very elegant one.

As it happens, I back up all my work files on my MacBook Air to OneDrive. I just discovered that the search box on OneDrive's website is halfway decent and *does* search within the text of DOCX files.

Annoyingly, you only have the option to "Search everything" so you can't limit your search to a specific folder. But you *can* narrow your search to particular files (like Documents) and to files you modified in the last day, week, month, etc.

I just gave it a try and a search for a keyword that turned up empty on a Spotlight search on a folder I knew had a document that contained the keyword worked when I did the same search on OneDrive.

If you've got a few folders that you're always searching, this might partially solve the problem -- though I agree it's a royal pain that Apple hasn't fixed this.

For what it's worth, weirdly I *do* seem to be able to find XLSX files that contain keywords, but not DOCX files.

Chad

So turns out you kind of *can* search within a specific folder using the "Search everything" box on the OneDrive website -- just type the name of the folder into your search.

Just gave it a try and when I typed in "folder name keyword" I only got the file within that folder that had that keyword in it, not the loads of other files I have in other folders with that keyword in it. Looks like you can also do the same thing with specific file extensions too (so like .docx). So you can make your search pretty narrow.

Hope this helps someone while we wait for Apple to come up with a more permanent solution.

Also: Someone mentioned using Word's own (clunky) search option to find documents with a particular keyword. I've never used this before and couldn't find it anywhere when I opened Word. Would appreciate a pointer on how I can find this (I'm using Word 2016).

Thanks!

Chad

One other point: This problem may be not be universal (which is maybe why it hasn't been a huge priority for Apple).

The OneDrive folder I mentioned in my earlier post is synced to my iMac at home, which -- like my MacBook Air at home -- is running OS X Yosemite. I just tried searching on keywords from the Finder at work and it *works*. The exact search I couldn't do last night at home I can do on my work Mac. This is searching the exact same folder for the exact same keyword -- in both cases, a OneDrive folder synced to the cloud.

In case it's helpful, the one thing that's different from my Mac at home at my Mac at work is the version of Office that I'm running. I'm running Office 2016 at home (just recently updated from 2011, though was having the problem before the update, too). At work, I'm using Office 2008.

However, the files that I'm able to find on my work Mac are ones I created at home using Office 2016. But I know an earlier poster made reference to some "interpreter" file they replaced that got things working, so maybe there's something to that -- that the version of Office indirectly messes up Spotlight indexing.

Chad

I also already had the 2 files in place, and had the 2011 microsoft plugin, but then ran the terminal command; and sweet J, I am returning Word results!!!! I just followed all of jpdemers instructions

macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

I entered the text string “Pegasus-23-X” in LibreOffice 5.3.* Writer and saved it as a docx on El Capitan. I dragged this onto my iCloud Drive folder, and then on my macOS Sierra 10.12.3 machine, dragged that Word document directly to the Desktop from iCloud Drive.

Within 5 minutes, I could perform a successful Spotlight search on that preceding string, and isolate the single docx document on the Desktop. Same result in the Finder Window search box. This is not a unique occurrence, as my Word document searches are consistently accurate on either El Capitan or Sierra. I don't use Siri.

Check that your boot partition is not stuck in System Preferences : Spotlight : Privacy panel, and that Document category is checked in Spotlight Results panel.

I agree; that is scary.

I posted to the earlier thread on this, and I still have not figured out the problem, despite--as I said there--getting a senior advisor from Apple on the phone.

How is it that a Mac does not perform one of the most basic functions of a computer--searching content?

In your earlier posts on this you mention workarounds. Is there a workaround or alternative app that you are using at the moment, as Apple continues to ignore this issue?

klk9876 wrote:

I agree; that is scary.

I posted to the earlier thread on this, and I still have not figured out the problem, despite--as I said there--getting a senior advisor from Apple on the phone.

How is it that a Mac does not perform one of the most basic functions of a computer--searching content?

In your earlier posts on this you mention workarounds. Is there a workaround or alternative app that you are using at the moment, as Apple continues to ignore this issue?

FWIW, just as OSX doesn't natively support writing to NTFS formatted drives, it doesn't support .docx files. It does support searching .doc files by content. As far as why you would have to ask Apple.

As far as a workaround, you can open .docx files in Pages and save it as a Pages document and search that file for content for example.

Thank you for the reply.

I have hundreds of docx (and other microsoft format) files, and I'm not about to save them all in another format to be able to search them.

Apple has known about this problem for multiple years. It's, as the previous post said, at their doorstep.

You're welcome. It is not a problem. I think it has to do with an arrangement between Microsoft and Apple. Whatever the reason as you pointed out, it's been true for years. It's not as if Apple couldn't read/search .docx files. After all, Pages can read docx files. There is a reason docx files are treated differently. Personally i don't know what the reason is.