spotlight stopped working

[angee]

hi
Spotlight was working fine; then just stopped.

I haven't changed any settings. Does anyone have any ideas?

I can type words into the dialogue box, and nothing happens.

Thanks.
Angela
(new mac mini user -- Windows convert)

[tag]

Have you checked the Spotlight preference pane? I know you said you didn't change any settings yourself, but perhaps something got changed you weren't aware of? Make sure you local HD isn't listed under the 'Privacy' tab, and that all the categories under 'Search Results' are checked off. If thats all fine, only thing I could think of is perhaps something happened to your Mac's spotlight indexes, which Im not sure what needs to be done to fix that.

[Chrispy]

I'm having a similar problem myself.... if anyone knows how to force spotlight to index the drive please let me know. Thanks

[mackaveli]

to index the drive go to spolight preferences> privacy

add the main drive macintosh HD, then remove it and then spotlight should reindex it

[Blabberlicious]

to index the drive go to spolight preferences> privacy

add the main drive macintosh HD, then remove it and then spotlight should reindex it


If only.

Trying to add/remove Folders to the Spotlight search preferences fails too.

If I drag the HD icon to the privacy panes, I get a spinning beach-ball for a few seconds, then nothing.

So now I have no means for find anything on my mac.

Cutting edge stufff.

I should add that, previously, Spotlight had 'died' when I tried to upgrade from to Tiger from Panther.

This was a clean install.

really poor.

[Sedulous]

The only way I know to force spotlight to reindex is to delete the .Spotlight-V100 file in your root directory.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Apple suggests the same as mackaveli: Spotlight: How to re-index files and folders (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301562). But it's a bit worrying that Blabberlicious had problems with that...

Have you tried the wonder drug against all problems in Mac OS X: Repairing permissions?

[Blabberlicious]

The only way I know to force spotlight to reindex is to delete the .Spotlight-V100 file in your root directory.

No good.

Tried that.

Spotlight starts rebuilding, but stops after 2 mins. Then can't find anything.

I feel an archive reinstall coming on - no time to do a wipe.

[Sedulous]

Have you tried to verify your disk?

[jelloshotsrule]

rather than starting a new thread i dug this up from the grave... anyone have any new ideas on how to force spotlight to index? it's quite possible i missed a more recent thread/post that had more options; if so i'm sorry...

basically i have the same problem as blabberlicious:

spotlight worked, then stopped (not sure if it coincided with a software update of any sort)

it will not allow me to add anything to the privacy list. beachball spins for a bit and then no results.

i haven't tried the deleting that file, but will try it tonight when i get home... any other options?

[Johnny Rico]

Spotlight is bunk. It indexed my drive when I installed x.4 but whenever I do a search for anything, the results it comes back with include about half the files on my hard drive.

[jelloshotsrule]

where's that spotlight file in the root directory? i mean, where exactly is it? is it hidden?

[jelloshotsrule]

so i tried a whole bunch of command line stuff yesterday, and it could never do anything with the spotlight index. always gave me an error on the various commands.

i eventually deleted the spotlight directory folder on one of my hdds and when i restarted it indexed. however, i still get no search results from it! weird.. i'll try some more stuff today probably.

[jelloshotsrule]

so i did some command line stuff that turned off spotlight on a global scale... then i deleted all the index folders, then i turned spotlight back on (editing some "VI"?) and restarted..... and bam! everything re-indexed and works again

just in case someone else has a similar problem.

[crazzyeddie]

so i did some command line stuff that turned off spotlight on a global scale... then i deleted all the index folders, then i turned spotlight back on (editing some "VI"?) and restarted..... and bam! everything re-indexed and works again

just in case someone else has a similar problem.

Can you be a little more specific? :p

I've tried forcing Spotlight to re-index using the terminal, but what commands did you use to turn it off and back on, etc... I really don't want to do an Archive and Install, its finals week :(

[studiovisive]

Greetings, I had this same problem and it is because I installed shapeshifter from unsanity.com. Actually the problem is with the application enhancer that is needed to run that app. As soon as I uninstalled shapeshifter and the application enhancer and viola.... spotlight works, and i can see shared printers again!

[me_94501]

Greetings, I had this same problem and it is because I installed shapeshifter from unsanity.com. Actually the problem is with the application enhancer that is needed to run that app. As soon as I uninstalled shapeshifter and the application enhancer and viola.... spotlight works, and i can see shared printers again!
Except spotlight runs as root and APE won't affect root processes. They aren't related. Also, the console clearly says what file it was working on when the indexer crashes (at least most of the time).