System settings search not working

[Ben J.]

First few hours with my new Mini M2 Pro, and first try with Sonoma. Most things are working surprisingly well. I've become pretty reliant on the search function in system settings on Ventura the last year, so when it now shows no results at all, I feel a bit helpless.

There are a few mentions out there of this happening with Ventura, so it's not necessarily Sonoma related, but no solutions.

Any thoughts?

(I found this problem when I wanted to turn off having to type password to exit screensaver. Where do I find the options for that?)

 

[njvm]

If you go into View, the System Setting options will be displayed alphabetically - select Screen Saver then Lock Screen Settings and then change 'Require password ...' to Never (this is in Ventura 13.6.1). In the search box you could also enter 'require' and the following listing will come up.

Hopefully, this is what you were after?!

 

[Ben J.]

Thanks. I found that there is now a separate panel in system settings called Locked Screen, that has the options for login required or not. Those options are no longer in the Screen Saver panel.

The title of this thread is my main issue still, though; the search in system settings is not working, at all. No search results come up, ever. I'd really like to find a solution to this, especially now, setting up a new mac with a new macOS, that even has changes in how system settings is layed out.

(Curious thing, in Avid Pro Tools, there is a search function for finding and activating audio plugins, and many people have reported it to be non-functional on Sonoma. For me, it works.)

 

[chown33]

Check if Spotlight is still indexing. If so, wait for it to finish.

It's conceivable that Settings search relies on Spotlight metadata, so if indexing isn't finished, search won't work.

 

[Ben J.]

Check if Spotlight is still indexing. If so, wait for it to finish.

It's conceivable that Settings search relies on Spotlight metadata, so if indexing isn't finished, search won't work.

No mds process activity. Nice try.

 

[Ben J.]

Going thru system settings, I saw that 'System Settings' was enabled in the Spotlight settings, so I tried searching with spotlight for some system settings items - same result; nothing from system settings, just online guides on how to use them etc.

 

[bogdanw]

Going thru system settings, I saw that 'System Settings' was enabled in the Spotlight settings, so I tried searching with spotlight for some system settings items - same result; nothing from system settings, just online guides on how to use them etc.

Disable it, close System Settings, open and enable again.

 

[Ben J.]

Disable it, close System Settings, open and enable again.

I tried. No difference.

 

[Ben J.]

Interesting thing; I just installed 14.1.1 on an external drive. It had my carboncopycloner backup of Data volume from last night on it. I was expecting the installer to let me know the volume would be erased, but instead Sonoma was installed and the Data volume taken into the volume group, and the mac booted straight into the external after finishing.

It worked fine, including the system settings search!!!
Still not working when booted from the 14.1.1 on the internal.

This is pretty strange.

 

[chabig]

Does it work in other user accounts (I bet it does)? That would indicate something going on in that specific user account. I'd suspect the Spotlight database is at fault. Maybe deleting that database and rebuilding it will help. Onyx is an app that lets you do that easily.

 

[Ben J.]

Does it work in other user accounts?

Good question. I'll be checking.

 

[Ben J.]

Does it work in other user accounts (I bet it does)? That would indicate something going on in that specific user account. I'd suspect the Spotlight database is at fault. Maybe deleting that database and rebuilding it will help. Onyx is an app that lets you do that easily.

Confirmed. I created a new user, and system settings search worked fine.
Investigation goes on…

 

[Ben J.]

Since I just clicked 'cancel 'on all the usual warnings about enabling extensions etc on the external clone, where the search worked, I thought I'd try to enable a few of them and see if it made the problem appear. No success.

Then I booted from the internal again, and tried to disable extension stuff and permissions, still no success. So, I tried to boot from the internal in safe mode - the search problem persists!

I haven't forced a rebuild of the spotlight index yet, because I think it's a long shot. Wouldn't the spotlight index be the same across users and boot drives, anyway? I will try it eventually, if nothing else helps.

 

[Ben J.]

Searching for this issue on the web has turned up very little.
One exception is three comments at the end of this MacObserver article, but it offers no clues. At least I'm not alone.

 

[Ben J.]

I've spent hours and hours today on this. Trying different angles to make the issues go away, without success. I say issues, that's because there are two: system settings search not working, and App Store not logging in. Both work on my bootable external Sonoma plus clone of internal, and not working on my internal with same version of Sonoma.

Long story short, after trying a few installation/migration procedures without success, after installing Ventura 13.6.1 and migrating the user account from a few days ago, the same as I used w/sonoma, issues are gone.

So, it seems like a Sonoma issue to me. (Edit: maybe a setup/migration assistant issue, going from Ventura to Sonoma) - I'm OK not going with Sonoma. Who knows what else might go belly up.

Staying on Ventura, but still very much enjoying my new M2 Pro mac mini. I've been using Ventura since february, so I'm confident its solid, and it's nice to have System Settings search and App Store working.

 

[MikB]

I get this search problem also in the Messages app on macOS Ventura. There it specifically says there will be results when indexing is done. Except it's never done. Either that, or there are no results. Also words I know for sure are in there are not found.

 

[Nilfmonkey]

Hi, I'm not sure if this was solved, but I can add a bit more to the problem description based on my experience. I seem to be having exactly the same problem (search bar in system settings not working at all, though I'm in Ventura) and on top of that the search bars in command-space Spotlight, Messages, Mail, and Notes also aren't working - though notably the Finder search bar IS working. In Activity Monitor, the spotlightd process is chronically at 17% CPU usage. MDS process isn't active.

In addition, now my iPhone Settings search bar doesn't work either! Which make me think this is some system setting that is synced to all devices through iCloud. Although the search bars in the above mentioned apps do work on my iPhone.

I've tried resetting the spotlightd process and restarting the Mac, but no good, and I also scanned for viruses.

 

[ankedesign]

Okay, so i've got the same similar problems since being upgraded to Sonoma.
The same as @Nilfmonkey, none of my search bars are working
- notes: not working
- spotlight: working eratically (only apps, but only if you select them yourself from the results)
- search in settings: not working

I my case, the upgrade is done on another admin account (it's my work computer), and my user account, although it does had official admin rights, is always having problems with not being permitted to install updates.

HOWEVER:
On the account that has done the actual update, the search works everywhere. So it might be a permissions problem.

leaving this here just in case this bring someone closer to solving the issue.

 

[ankedesign]

The above appeared to be the key to the solution:
I found

MacOS Sonoma: Spotlight Issues - A… | Apple Developer Forums

forums.developer.apple.com

Solution that worked for me:
Tried the same mdutil commands displayed above, but I did it as another local super user who is also an admin.
I'm logged in with the mobile admin account.

- In the terminal I did "su <<name of other admin user>>”.
- Then tried "sudo mdutil -E /"
- "sudo mdutil -i off "
- "sudo mdutil -i on /"

And all my search bars are working again.
(hope this will stay after a restart)

 

[whiskyrider]

I have this problem as well, and have had it for quite awhile. I migrated from an M1 Mini to my current M2 Mini and I don't recall exactly when this problem appeared. Spotlight results, Mail app search, System Settings search are all non-functional, though Finder search does work.

I got frustrated with this tonight (again) so tried finding a solution (again) and came upon this thread. I was in the process of trying this:

but I did it as another local super user who is also an admin.

but noticed that as soon as I created a new account to try, my System Settings search began to respond. I tested Mail and the search was now working there as well. Weirdly, Spotlight also regained some functionality but did not return any results from `/Applications`. 🤷‍♂️

To further test, I deleted the newly created user and search was still working.

However, after rebooting the problem had returned. All searching was dead again.

I thought the previous experiment had perhaps revealed that the problem is some buggy behavior related to the Users system, so I returned there. This time, I tried just creating a User group. Upon doing this, I got the same result: search functionality began working correctly again. I could now search System Settings, Mail app, etc. successfully. Spotlight was still weird; I got no `/Applications` results, though it could search more places. Weirdly, for example, Spotlight could return actual mail messages, but not the Mail app itself.

I expect things to break again after rebooting, and presumably I can get a hacky fix by doing something User related (create a group, new user, etc).

I don't know if this information helps but it would seem this issue is somehow related to Users. Perhaps something went weird during the migration process?

 

[whiskyrider]

Following up on my previous post, just in case this might help someone.

Two developments in the days since posting:

1. The issue does return after rebooting, and sometimes just after awhile without rebooting. I have no idea why or what causes it to malfunction.

2. The hack with the User functions still works, but I have discovered that I don't even have to complete an action. Simply tapping the button to "Add User..." then cancelling out of the dialog causes my search functions (Settings, Mail) to begin working again.

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

 

[Ben J.]

2. The hack with the User functions still works, but I have discovered that I don't even have to complete an action. Simply tapping the button to "Add User..." then cancelling out of the dialog causes my search functions (Settings, Mail) to begin working again.

That is so weird. Should be a kind of clue. Some mac expert/geek have any input on this? What would happen behind the scenes, when starting and cancelling the creation of a new user, that would have this result?

 

[mrCrumbSnatcher]

Following up on my previous post, just in case this might help someone.

Two developments in the days since posting:

1. The issue does return after rebooting, and sometimes just after awhile without rebooting. I have no idea why or what causes it to malfunction.

2. The hack with the User functions still works, but I have discovered that I don't even have to complete an action. Simply tapping the button to "Add User..." then cancelling out of the dialog causes my search functions (Settings, Mail) to begin working again.

🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Regarding #2 - That worked for me. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ZarathustraX]

The above appeared to be the key to the solution:
I found

MacOS Sonoma: Spotlight Issues - A… | Apple Developer Forums

forums.developer.apple.com

Solution that worked for me:
Tried the same mdutil commands displayed above, but I did it as another local super user who is also an admin.
I'm logged in with the mobile admin account.

- In the terminal I did "su <<name of other admin user>>”.
- Then tried "sudo mdutil -E /"
- "sudo mdutil -i off "
- "sudo mdutil -i on /"

And all my search bars are working again.
(hope this will stay after a restart)

TL;DR:
sudo mdutil -E / This fixed it for me with no other fussing around.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Long version:
I had a similar problem and solved it. In case it helps someone, I'll share my details:

• Sonoma 14.5
• Mac mini M1
• 🔍Search field NOT working in System Settings...
  • but worked fine in ⌘-space spotlight, to find sub-sections inside System Settings.

Because I'm lazy, I tried doing what @ankedesign suggested but WITHOUT creating a new user.
1. Open Terminal
2.

 sudo mdutil -E /

...
now for curiosity, and because I saw this command resets the spotlight index, I tried going into System Settings before doing the rest. TADA! It worked. For me at least, no need to do any of the other steps or other users or groups.
This may not work for everyone, but I'd definitely try this first before anything else.

Cheers!
P.S. Thanks @ankedesign !

 

[donblanco]

THANK YOU - sudo mdutil -E is the way