Spotlight not working correctly even after reindexing

[greytux]

For months now, my Spotlight searches are very weird. Some results are returning while others are missing. I have only enabled Applications and Folders, but:

1. Only Apple Apps are found reliably, 3rd Party Apps sometimes only appear when typing 1-3 characters and disappear after I type more of its name
2. Folders are not found reliably, only some are
3. Files are not found at all, that's why I have turned it off completely for now

What I have already tried

• Rebuilding the Spotlight index according to Apple Support: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716
• Rebuilding the Spotlight index using command line using "sudo mdutil -E /"
• Running "First Aid" (formerly known as "Fix Disk Permissions") using Disk Utility

It still does not work correctly.

My Settings

Weird Results

1. Mail is found
   
   
2. Outlook is not
   
   
3. "fire" finds Firefox
   
   
4. "firef" does not
   
   
5. Most 3rd party apps are not found at all
   
   

Does anybody have more ideas on how to fix spotlight indexing?

I'm still on macOS Catalina, because this is a work computer and macOS Big Sur is not approved for use in our company yet.

 

[Jamalien]

Weird. Reinstall Catalina with Apple's app store utility I guess, something's bugged.

Or, considering how broken some other preference pane settings are (e.g. refresh rate in display), have you tried re-enabling all the spotlight categories and then rebuilding the index again. I think the vast majority of people don't touch the spotlight categories, so if something to do with that preference pane is broken and causing the rather 'easy to go unnoticed' issues you are having, its quite likely that it wouldn't get picked up by the rest of the community, (hence why I can't find anyone experiencing the same issue as you lol).

 

[chscag]

Just forget about Spotlight. It's been brain damaged for years. Instead use an app that can actually find something like EasyFind or Find any File:

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

A little collection of free utilities for the Mac to make your life easier.

www.devontechnologies.com

Find Any File

apps.tempel.org

 

[greytux]

I finally found a way to improve things. Deleting .Spotlight-V100 forced the spotlight index to reindex finally.

sudo rm -rf /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100
sudo mdutil -a -i off
sudo mdutil -a -i on