Spotlight Settings non-functional - please confirm

[X-X]

I'm trying to find out if Spotlight settings in Yosemite are broken for everyone.

Go to System Preferences > Spotlight ... and uncheck (deactivate) some categories like Applications, or Contacts.

Now close System Preferences and search for an application by name or a contact by name.

Results from deactivated categories will still show up in Spotlight despite the fact that they are turned off.

 

[X-X]

Can someone else confirm that too.

 

[theSeb]

When you make the change in preferences, the index does not get updated instantaneously. You need to give it time to rebuild, or force a rebuild yourself from the terminal. I am fairly sure that this is why you're seeing what you have posted.

sudo mdutil -E

That will rebuild all of the indexes, or you can specify a particular volume by adding /Volumes/Your_chosen_volume at the end. This will start the re-indexing process and that will take some time, depending on how much stuff you have. You can click on Spotlight in the top right, or hit cmd + space and start typing something. You will then see the indexing progress.

 

[X-X]

@theSeb:

No, Spotlight settings NEVER get honored. Huge bug.

You can restart the Mac or do whatever you want, deactivated categories keep showing up in the search results.

 

[theSeb]

@theSeb:

No, Spotlight settings NEVER get honored. Huge bug.

You can restart the Mac or do whatever you want, deactivated categories keep showing up in the search results.

There is no bug and the settings do get honoured. I switched off Applications and Contacts. Now compare the search for Handbrake. It no longer finds the application handbrake, like it did in the previous screenshot.

Now I am searching for my wife, who is definitely in my contacts. As you can see, it does not find any contacts

 

[JPamplin]

Works for me

I turned off Applications, then searched for VMWare - no app.

Turned it back on, searched for VMWare - there it is.

Sorry you're having trouble - try rebuilding your index.