Spotlight on MacOS High Sierra doesn't respond first time

OK, that's a sampling of around 7 more computers that do NOT have this problem. Thanks? I'm not sure how you're attempting to help. It's fairly common-sense that the vast majority of users are not going to have this problem. We are the few that DO and are looking for a solution.

You're probably not here to help, just nay-say.

dialabrain wrote:

If you find that insulting I doubt anyone can help.

People will still be able to help with this issue regardless. You just didn't think your sticky-keyboard theory thru before suggesting it.

dialabrain wrote:

If it was an Apple software problem we would all experience it.

That is an elementary assumption and untrue. Thousands of Apple software problems have prior existed specific to hardware and been later patched. It's fairly common.

But you're on your own.

Nah. Not at all. That's why this site exists.

That's a bit of a fallback answer. It's kind of assumed if all else fails take it to Apple. I think the vast majority of posters here are looking to fix it themselves starting with a technical lead from others who have solved their issue.

All mac users know about the Apple store. Not very helpful, but there was an attempt so thanks.

One of my several Macs started doing the same after update to HS (among several other well discussed issues). Usually everything could be fixed by unsetting and resetting the preference. So I gave up and tried to fix this issue (that really drives me crazy) the same way.

In this case i went to Preferences › Siri, changed the shortcut there to Off, then disabled Ask Siri. Then in Preferences › Spotlight › Keyboard shortcuts turned both off. Closed Preferences, reopened it again, turned both Spotlight shortcuts on, then turned Siri and Siri shortcut on. It seemed to have fixed this problem.

Unfortunately after a while the same started to happen again. Every single time I wanna invoke the Siri search bar via the keyboard shortcut, it never works. I have to use the shortcut twice.

(No external keyboard here, no bloatware junk etc., just plain vanilla 10.13.2 on MBA11"…)

What has worked for me so far (after a few days with not a single shortcut fail) is to turn off the hold-to-speak function of Siri.

I moved Siri’s icon to the top right status bar for easy access.

I believe this new shortcut was not properly tested on our older hardware and probably never will be so this workaround unfortunately becomes the solution.

Good luck and let us know if this works for you too.

Great suggestion! Thanks!

I opened System Preferences and clicked on Siri. There was a keyboard shortcut of "Hold Command Space." That seemed like a potential conflict with my "Command Space" shortcut for Spotlight. I turned off the Siri shortcut and will test to see for a day or two.

Hope the fix works.

Yep, turning off the Siri shortcut (or Siri entirely for that matter) fixes Spotlight shortcut/dialog. Nonetheless I'd like to have both working ;D

Seem the most common denominator here in the thread is that it affects mostly MacBook Airs.

Go ahead and report that to  via Feedback, so they fix it for us!

Turning off Siri worked for me too. No stupid software installed.. was experiencing the issue on a fresh sierra install upgraded to High Sierra 10.13.2.

This is definitely an OS bug.

No thanks to the technical support members here. Thanks everyone else.

I don't know what could cause that other than some third-party software conflict.

Try running in Safe Mode and see if it's the same.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

Did you try connecting the keyboard directly to your Mac?

If it doesn't occur in Safe Mode it's most likely a software conflict.

You're welcome. Safe Mode does clear. number of caches so perhaps that's all it was. Hopefully you'll have no problems.

Try installing EtreCheck and post the report here. Perhaps something will stand out.