Resolved Unsearchable Folder

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

I have a folder with 6 files that all start with the letter P. If I go to the search box in that folder and search for P, nothing is found in that folder. The files in that folder are also not found in a search of the Mac.

I forced an index on the folder by adding it to the list of folders Spotlight is prevented from searching, and then removed it from the list. Over 12 hours has elapsed since then, so plenty of time for indexing.

These files are from an iPhoto Library exported from another computer and now stored on an external drive. I copied one of the folders to my desktop as a test to see if it behaved any differently, and it did not.

I have Read & Write permissions on the folder, and I applied those permissions to the enclosed files.

What is going on here?

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

And for anyone wondering what I’m doing, or why this is a problem: I’m trying to copy original files from an iPhoto Library that came from an old computer, and then import those files into Photos. I’ve done the same thing with another library from an earlier version of iPhoto that was on a different computer, and it worked fine.

I had originally tried to import this library to Photos, but it failed. iPhoto stored multiple versions of the same file, and different versions of those files have the exact same name and creation date, made possible by storing them in separate folders. The filing system was labyrinthian.

I’m trying to create a folder that only contains originals, and import/reference that folder. To do this, I search the Originals folder for “P”, kind is image, file size larger than 100KB, and that gives me the files I need. Or at least it did in the earlier version of iPhoto.

Gregg2 · Mar 18, 2021

The macOS Finder search function is notoriously horrible. I don't know why Apple has never addressed this issue. Many people recommend Easy Find, but I've never tried it. I just don't have a need to do Finder searches, so it doesn't concern me.

KernelG · Mar 18, 2021

I had a similar issue with a folder full of report files that had "sales", "previews", and "subscription" in the filenames (e.g. report-US-sales-2018-01.csv) going back a few years. Seems simple enough, but Finder returned nothing when searching for "sales". It worked fine with the other two words. Bizarre. I purged the Spotlight index, re-indexed many times, etc. Updated to Mojave, then Catalina, no change. I did report this to Apple at the time.

Ultimately, I had to use Easy Find instead. And I did for a while, but it looked like DEVONtechnologies had abandoned it with no updates for years, so I switched to Find Any File. It's not free, 6 whole bucks, but I much prefer it. Both apps have been updated for Apple Silicon, now, btw.

Testing my old "sales" Finder search now in Big Sur, however... It works. Good. Times.

OldMacs4Me · Mar 18, 2021

EasyFind or FindAnyFile are my go to search apps. I use so many secondary drives and partitions that Stoplight metadata is typically as corrupt as a congressman, so I disable it altogether and rely on the two apps I just mentioned.

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

My gut feeling on this is that it's not an error on the part of Spotlight, it's intentional, like hidden files. These files are not intended to be found in a search. It has something to do with the crazy filing system in iPhoto.

While a third-party search app may be able to see the files, I'd rather find out how this magic is being performed. I'd like to be able to hide files from Spotlight using this trick. I'm in no hurry. I guess I might eventually give up and try a different search app, but it would be a last resort.

chown33 · Mar 18, 2021

SpeQ said:
My gut feeling on this is that it's not an error on the part of Spotlight, it's intentional, like hidden files. These files are not intended to be found in a search. It has something to do with the crazy filing system in iPhoto.

While a third-party search app may be able to see the files, I'd rather find out how this magic is being performed. I'd like to be able to hide files from Spotlight using this trick. I'm in no hurry. I guess I might eventually give up and try a different search app, but it would be a last resort.

I was thinking something similar myself.

One simple way to discover whether Spotlight has any data on the files is to do a Get Info on a file from Finder. If it shows the pixel dimensions, then I'm pretty sure that Spotlight has metadata for the file. Related post:

Finding the dimensions of a photo (or video)

Make sure Spotlight indexing is enabled for the location where the images are stored. System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy AFAIK, Spotlight's metadata extractors are responsible for pulling the EXIF and other data out of photos and putting it in the volume's metadata store. That's where...

forums.macrumors.com

You can discover all the metadata for a file using the mdls command in a Terminal window. Simply type this with a single space after it:

Code:

mdls

Then drag a file from Finder and drop it on the Terminal window. The Terminal will expand the dropped item to its full Posix-style pathname.

Then click the Terminal window so it's in front, and press the RETURN key.

If there's metadata in Spotlight's index, it should spit out a bunch of stuff. If not, then much less stuff will be output. You can see the difference by trying mdls commands on an image that you know is indexed, and another one on a disk (or disk image) where Spotlight has been disabled.

If there is metadata for one of the curiously unfindable images, you can drag-select all the text in the Terminal window, then copy and paste it into a post here. Please use CODE tags, as shown above.

You can also use mdls on the folder enclosing the images. That might be revealing, too.

If there isn't metadata on the folder, but there is on the images, then I have an ls command that might show additional info (extended attributes, xattr's) for the files and folder. I can post that after you let us know what mdls says.

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

Interesting... Okay, I'm going to post this in 4 separate comments, and label each to try and keep it less confusing.

As far as the Get Info, the dimensions and EXIF data appears to be the same on both type of files, the ones that can be found and the ones that can't.

I didn't copy the file path line in Terminal because it showed my user name. Let me know if you think that is relevant, and I will post that with my user name redacted, @chown33

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

This is a file that can't be found:

Code:

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemAcquisitionMake                 = "Panasonic"
kMDItemAcquisitionModel                = "DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemBitsPerSample                   = 24
kMDItemColorSpace                      = "RGB"
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2009-04-03 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2009-04-03 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.jpeg"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.jpeg",
    "public.image",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator                         = "Ver1.0 "
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2021-03-18 00:33:04 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 29
kMDItemEXIFVersion                     = "2.2"
kMDItemExposureMode                    = 1
kMDItemExposureProgram                 = 1
kMDItemExposureTimeSeconds             = 0.0015625
kMDItemFlashOnOff                      = 0
kMDItemFNumber                         = 8
kMDItemFocalLength                     = 6
kMDItemFocalLength35mm                 = 36
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 1024
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = 2370962
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemHasAlphaChannel                 = 0
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemISOSpeed                        = 80
kMDItemKind                            = "JPEG image"
kMDItemLastUsedDate                    = 2021-03-18 15:01:41 +0000
kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking            = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemLogicalSize                     = 2370962
kMDItemMeteringMode                    = 5
kMDItemOrientation                     = 0
kMDItemPhysicalSize                    = 2371584
kMDItemPixelCount                      = 4915200
kMDItemPixelHeight                     = 1920
kMDItemPixelWidth                      = 2560
kMDItemProfileName                     = "sRGB IEC61966-2.1"
kMDItemRedEyeOnOff                     = 0
kMDItemResolutionHeightDPI             = 72
kMDItemResolutionWidthDPI              = 72
kMDItemSupportFileType                 = (
    iPhotoPreservedOriginal
)
kMDItemUseCount                        = 6
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2021-03-17 04:00:00 +0000",
    "2021-03-18 04:00:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedDate                = (
    "2021-03-18 15:02:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedUserHandle          = (
    501
)
kMDItemWhiteBalance                    = 1

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

This is a file that can be found:

Code:

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "P1000007.JPG"
kMDItemAcquisitionMake                 = "Panasonic"
kMDItemAcquisitionModel                = "DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemBitsPerSample                   = 24
kMDItemColorSpace                      = "RGB"
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2005-04-22 15:08:31 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2005-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2005-04-22 15:08:31 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2005-04-22 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.jpeg"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.jpeg",
    "public.image",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator                         = "Ver1.0 "
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2021-03-17 14:08:47 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "P1000007.JPG"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0
kMDItemEXIFVersion                     = "2.2"
kMDItemExposureMode                    = 0
kMDItemExposureProgram                 = 2
kMDItemExposureTimeSeconds             = 0.25
kMDItemFlashOnOff                      = 0
kMDItemFNumber                         = 2.8
kMDItemFocalLength                     = 6
kMDItemFocalLength35mm                 = 36
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2006-02-22 02:35:32 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2006-02-22 02:35:32 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "P1000007.JPG"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = 1446264
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemHasAlphaChannel                 = 0
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemISOSpeed                        = 200
kMDItemKind                            = "JPEG image"
kMDItemLogicalSize                     = 1446264
kMDItemMeteringMode                    = 5
kMDItemOrientation                     = 0
kMDItemPhysicalSize                    = 1449984
kMDItemPixelCount                      = 4915200
kMDItemPixelHeight                     = 1920
kMDItemPixelWidth                      = 2560
kMDItemProfileName                     = "sRGB IEC61966-2.1"
kMDItemRedEyeOnOff                     = 0
kMDItemResolutionHeightDPI             = 72
kMDItemResolutionWidthDPI              = 72
kMDItemWhiteBalance                    = 0

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

This is the folder with the file that can't be found:

Code:

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "Test Folder"
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2021-01-28 22:13:16 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2021-01-28 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2021-01-28 22:13:16 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2021-01-28 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.folder"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.folder",
    "public.directory",
    "public.item"
)
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2021-03-18 00:33:04 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "Test Folder"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2021-01-28 22:13:16 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2021-01-28 22:13:16 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "Test Folder"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = 6
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = (null)
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemKind                            = "Folder"
kMDItemLastUsedDate                    = 2021-03-18 22:27:02 +0000
kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking            = 2021-03-18 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemUseCount                        = 4
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2021-03-18 04:00:00 +0000"
)

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

This is the folder with the file that can be found:

Code:

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "Panasonic DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2021-03-17 12:50:31 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2021-03-17 15:11:02 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.folder"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.folder",
    "public.directory",
    "public.item"
)
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2021-03-17 19:49:58 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "Panasonic DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2021-03-17 15:11:02 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2021-03-17 12:50:31 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "Panasonic DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = 2704
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = (null)
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = ""
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemKind                            = "Folder"
kMDItemLastUsedDate                    = 2021-03-17 15:10:13 +0000
kMDItemLastUsedDate_Ranking            = 2021-03-17 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemUseCount                        = 8
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2021-03-17 04:00:00 +0000"
)

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

The same camera took both pictures/files, FWIW.

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

These are the differences I see in the files (I may be missing something):

Differences in files:

Code:

found
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0

lost
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 29

found
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0

lost
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 1024

Items listed in lost file that are not listed in found file:

Code:

kMDItemSupportFileType                 = (
    iPhotoPreservedOriginal
)
kMDItemUseCount                        = 6
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2021-03-17 04:00:00 +0000",
    "2021-03-18 04:00:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedDate                = (
    "2021-03-18 15:02:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedUserHandle          = (
    501

SpeQ · Mar 18, 2021

One thing I'm curious about is how that folder would behave on the specific computer that iPhoto was on. I suspect the files would be found, but I'm not certain. The files were on an external drive, linked/referenced to the app, they were not actually on the computer.

I don't have time to test that tonight, maybe tomorrow. That computer isn't hooked up right now.

chown33 · Mar 18, 2021

SpeQ said:

These are the differences I see in the files (I may be missing something):

Differences in files:

Code:

found
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0

lost
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 29

found
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0

lost
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 1024

Items listed in lost file that are not listed in found file:

Code:

kMDItemSupportFileType                 = (
    iPhotoPreservedOriginal
)
kMDItemUseCount                        = 6
kMDItemUsedDates                       = (
    "2021-03-17 04:00:00 +0000",
    "2021-03-18 04:00:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedDate                = (
    "2021-03-18 15:02:00 +0000"
)
kMDItemUserModifiedUserHandle          = (
    501

I'll setup my own differential compare later.

The fact that a file that can't be found has kMDItemPixelHeight and PixelWidth tells me with pretty high certainty that Spotlight is indeed extracting metadata for the files and storing it.

This piques my interest on the folder:

Code:

lost
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 1024

I'll have to see if I still have any reference info for what that flag-bit is for. I'll show an xattr command below, which I'm pretty sure is where that flag resides, and where the metadata is pulling it from.

This one looks interesting on the file:

Code:

kMDItemSupportFileType                 = (
    iPhotoPreservedOriginal
)

If there's an xattr associated with that, then it can be removed. It would be interesting to find out if that's on every file in there.

The xattr command can list xattr's attached to files, and dump them in hex. If you're comfortable with man pages, then use man xattr or xattr -h for details.

To list the xattr's for a file or folder:

Code:

xattr -l

then drag the file or folder and drop it on the Terminal window. That's a lower-case ell, not a digit one. And there's a space after it.

Copy and paste the text into a post here, with CODE tags.

chown33 · Mar 18, 2021

Oops, I made a mistake above. This belongs to a file, not a folder:

Code:

kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 1024

I found a header-file ("Finder.h") that lists what the bit is. It turns out to be a custom-icon indicator: if the bit is set, the item MIGHT have a custom icon, if it's clear, it doesn't. More specifically, if it's set the Finder will check for a custom icon, and if it's clear it won't check. That's for Ye Olde Findere fromme dayes of yore, and I don't know how relevant that particular bit is any more. It was always dependent on finding an actual custom icon in the resource fork.

Anyway, the bit being set has essentially no significance. It may signify that the file had a custom icon at some point in the past, or it may just have been accidentally set by something.

The kMDItemSupportFileType = ( iPhotoPreservedOriginal ) still strikes me as something that may be worth looking into. If I see anything in the xattr dumps, I'll post.

I did my diffs on the posted data, and didn't see anything else that looked promising. There's still another avenue that may hold something, which is the ACLs that can be attached to files or folders. Getting those will use the 'ls' command, and I can post it after the xattr output has been posted and I have a chance to rake through it.

SpeQ · Mar 19, 2021

I’m beginning to suspect this path will not lead to success because I do not possess the necessary skills, knowledge and tools. And even if I had the ability to change the metadata, there are thousands of files…? I will continue to play along, because it's interesting, but I'm warning you this may come to a dead end because of a lack of capability or willingness on my end.

I didn't know what an xattr was so I did a search, which led me to this:

In macOS, extended attributes are most often seen in the 'Photos Library' and 'Photo Booth Library' - these are folders with a bundle bit applied so that they appear in the Apple Finder as a single file, this is done to hide the files so that they can be managed by a single application.

That sounds promising.

If there's an xattr associated with that, then it can be removed. It would be interesting to find out if that's on every file in there.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe I'm trying to use files from the wrong folder. I'll explore that later.

SpeQ · Mar 19, 2021

The hex dump is 259606 characters. I will paste sequentially in four posts.

chown33 · Mar 19, 2021

I apologize, I've made another mistake. I don't need to see the hex dumps of the resource fork. It's way too much data. I just need to see the xattr names listed.

Can you try again without the -l.

Don't worry about the giant posts above, I can take care of them later.

SpeQ · Mar 19, 2021

So I looked into a different folder in that iPhoto Library, called "Modified" (the earlier folder was "Originals"). Modified would be the file versions that have been adjusted, like rotated, for example. When I opened the folder while it was on the external drive, it behaved the same - no results were found when searching for "P". But when I copied the folder to my desktop, it behaved normally, i.e., results were found for "P". I think in this case, the folder on the external drive is just not indexed, maybe somehow blocked from being indexed.

Here is the mdls for that file, which has the same file name as the files I posted earlier:

Code:

_kMDItemDisplayNameWithExtensions      = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemAcquisitionMake                 = "Panasonic"
kMDItemAcquisitionModel                = "DMC-FZ20"
kMDItemBitsPerSample                   = 24
kMDItemColorSpace                      = "RGB"
kMDItemContentCreationDate             = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemContentCreationDate_Ranking     = 2009-04-03 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate         = 2009-04-03 09:51:18 +0000
kMDItemContentModificationDate_Ranking = 2009-04-03 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemContentType                     = "public.jpeg"
kMDItemContentTypeTree                 = (
    "public.jpeg",
    "public.image",
    "public.data",
    "public.item",
    "public.content"
)
kMDItemCreator                         = "QuickTime 7.6"
kMDItemDateAdded                       = 2021-03-19 14:14:26 +0000
kMDItemDateAdded_Ranking               = 2021-03-19 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemDisplayName                     = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemDocumentIdentifier              = 0
kMDItemEXIFVersion                     = "2.2"
kMDItemExposureMode                    = 1
kMDItemExposureProgram                 = 1
kMDItemExposureTimeSeconds             = 0.0015625
kMDItemFlashOnOff                      = 0
kMDItemFNumber                         = 8
kMDItemFocalLength                     = 6
kMDItemFocalLength35mm                 = 36
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate             = 2009-04-03 21:36:45 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate                  = 2009-04-03 21:36:44 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode                   = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags                   = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon                 = (null)
kMDItemFSInvisible                     = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden             = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery                  = (null)
kMDItemFSLabel                         = 0
kMDItemFSName                          = "P1050620.JPG"
kMDItemFSNodeCount                     = (null)
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID                  = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID                   = 501
kMDItemFSSize                          = 2215851
kMDItemFSTypeCode                      = "JPEG"
kMDItemHasAlphaChannel                 = 0
kMDItemInterestingDate_Ranking         = 2009-04-03 00:00:00 +0000
kMDItemISOSpeed                        = 80
kMDItemKind                            = "JPEG image"
kMDItemLogicalSize                     = 2215851
kMDItemMeteringMode                    = 5
kMDItemOrientation                     = 1
kMDItemPhysicalSize                    = 2215936
kMDItemPixelCount                      = 4915200
kMDItemPixelHeight                     = 2560
kMDItemPixelWidth                      = 1920
kMDItemProfileName                     = "sRGB IEC61966-2.1"
kMDItemRedEyeOnOff                     = 0
kMDItemResolutionHeightDPI             = 72
kMDItemResolutionWidthDPI              = 72
kMDItemWhiteBalance                    = 1

Using this folder may be the solution to my problem, but I'm still curious, and I may want those originals at some point.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention that might be important. To view the contents of this iPhoto Library, you have to right-click and chose "Show Package Contents".

chown33 · Mar 19, 2021

SpeQ said:
... And even if I had the ability to change the metadata, there are thousands of files…? ...

That's no problem at all. Once we figure out what works on one file, it's pretty straightforward to apply it to a folder subtree with as many files as you want. It's basically making an Automator app that runs a Terminal command (shell commands) on all its drag-n-dropped inputs. If it works on 10 files it will work on 10,000.

SpeQ · Mar 19, 2021

chown33 said:
I apologize, I've made another mistake. I don't need to see the hex dumps of the resource fork. It's way too much data. I just need to see the xattr names listed.

Can you try again without the -l.

Don't worry about the giant posts above, I can take care of them later.

No worries, due to that I learned how to create the Word Count service with Automator, something I've always wanted but never got around to.

This doesn't look like much info, is it what you were expecting?

The original "lost" file:

Code:

com.apple.FinderInfo
com.apple.ResourceFork
com.apple.lastuseddate#PS
com.apple.macl
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemSupportFileType
com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_77uh53gptiw5hm3x7m4o6zsnq4
com.apple.quarantine

The same file name from the Modified folder:

Code:

com.apple.FinderInfo
com.apple.macl

chown33 · Mar 19, 2021

SpeQ said:
So I looked into a different folder in that iPhoto Library, called "Modified" (the earlier folder was "Originals"). Modified would be the file versions that have been adjusted, like rotated, for example. When I opened the folder while it was on the external drive, it behaved the same - no results were found when searching for "P". But when I copied the folder to my desktop, it behaved normally, i.e., results were found for "P". I think in this case, the folder on the external drive is just not indexed, maybe somehow blocked from being indexed.

...

Using this folder may be the solution to my problem, but I'm still curious, and I may want those originals at some point.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention that might be important. To view the contents of this iPhoto Library, you have to right-click and chose "Show Package Contents".

It's quite possible that Finder search doesn't return the contents of Packages. I know it won't go inside app packages (which is what every .app actually is).

It's also conceivable that the com.apple.quarantine xattr is affecting the search results. That xattr is attached to things that are downloaded, prior to their first use. It could be a safety measure for Finder to omit those, since it would be imprudent to make them trivial to open.

You can try moving the contents to another non-package folder. If that solves the problem, then dang, that was easy.

chown33 · Mar 19, 2021

SpeQ said:
No worries, due to that I learned how to create the Word Count service with Automator, something I've always wanted but never got around to.

This doesn't look like much info, is it what you were expecting?

The original "lost" file:

Code:

com.apple.FinderInfo com.apple.ResourceFork com.apple.lastuseddate#PS com.apple.macl com.apple.metadata:kMDItemSupportFileType com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_77uh53gptiw5hm3x7m4o6zsnq4 com.apple.quarantine

The same file name from the Modified folder:

Code:

com.apple.FinderInfo com.apple.macl

Yeah, that's about what I expected. I'll look into the hex data later.

Resolved Unsearchable Folder

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