Spotlight not finding any local documents or folders

[revheck]

Spotlight not finding any local documents.

I have a 2020 Macbook Air running 10.15.5. My spotlight is only finding applications. It does not find any local files or folders. No bookmarks, no contacts, no local pdf or doc files.

I have confirmed that all file and folder types are checked under Preferences --> Spotlight -->Search Results.

I have confirmed no folders or drives are listed under Spotlight --> Privacy

I have re-indexed my entire drive several times:

• By first adding my drive to Spotlight --> Privacy and then deleting it.
• I have used the terminal command: Sudo mdutil -E /

Behavior does not change. What to do?

 

[bernuli]

Spotlight not finding any local documents.

I have a 2020 Macbook Air running 10.15.5. My spotlight is only finding applications. It does not find any local files or folders. No bookmarks, no contacts, no local pdf or doc files.

I have confirmed that all file and folder types are checked under Preferences --> Spotlight -->Search Results.

I have confirmed no folders or drives are listed under Spotlight --> Privacy

I have re-indexed my entire drive several times:

• By first adding my drive to Spotlight --> Privacy and then deleting it.
• I have used the terminal command: Sudo mdutil -E /

Behavior does not change. What to do?

Guessing could be permissions or Privacy problem of some sort. I would create a new user, reboot and then log on as new user, then create some documents and see if spotlight works for new user.

 

[revheck]

Guessing could be permissions or Privacy problem of some sort. I would create a new user, reboot and then log on as new user, then create some documents and see if spotlight works for new user.

Thanks for the suggestion, but that did not work. I created a new user account and some documents. Spotlight does not find them. I added the Documents folder to Spotlight Privacy, then deleted it, just to make sure Spotlight would index them. Did not help.

r

 

[chabig]

How are you invoking Spotlight?

 

[revheck]

How are you invoking Spotlight?

Cmd-Space and type in the name_of_file that I know exists.

Get no response.

 

[chabig]

Weird. I have no idea. Sometimes downloading and running the latest combo updater fixes weird problems.

Download macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Combo Update - Apple Support

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management in the Energy Saver settings for notebooks, an option to control automatic prominence of video tiles on Group FaceTime calls, and controls to fine-tune the built-in calibration of your Pro Display XDR. The update also improves the...

support.apple.com

 

[Taz Mangus]

One thing to try is boot into Safe Mode, login to your user account, wait for your Desktop to load. Reboot back to normal mode. Now try your spotlight search.

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.

support.apple.com

 

[LuisN]

Spotlight not finding any local documents.

I have a 2020 Macbook Air running 10.15.5. My spotlight is only finding applications. It does not find any local files or folders. No bookmarks, no contacts, no local pdf or doc files.

I have confirmed that all file and folder types are checked under Preferences --> Spotlight -->Search Results.

I have confirmed no folders or drives are listed under Spotlight --> Privacy

I have re-indexed my entire drive several times:

• By first adding my drive to Spotlight --> Privacy and then deleting it.
• I have used the terminal command: Sudo mdutil -E /

Behavior does not change. What to do?

Try ONYX. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

 

[alfon_sico]

Catalina 10.15.7 and Spotlight doesn't seek Applications folder neither files in general

I've tried terminal rebuild and Onyx repair but it doesn't fix. I've tried add folder in Private Spotlight Setup but it doesn't add any folder. It show me an "unknown error" when I try to load any folder in the list

 

[hawkeye_a]

I was about to start a similar thread. Spotlight has been malfunctioning for a long time for me (even after a couple of re-installs of MacOS). The functionality to find/search for files on macOS seems to be pretty much broken.

One use case:
I plug in an external backup USB HDD
Navigate to a folder
Type a filename in the toolbar spotlight field
Make sure the search domain in set to the folder
Nothing shows up in the search results

Browsing the files in the folder, i can see the file exists. (I just tested it again just now to confirm it is still an issue).

16" MBP, macOS 10.15.5, filevault enabled