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jimjazzuk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 11, 2011
5
0
Anyone else have this issue since upgrading to lion?

It's very frustrating. I've tried adding and removing volume to privacy settings in spotlight prefs to try and force it to index, but to no avail... any ideas anyone?

when i search nothing come up, even if i put in a letter like 'a' or something
 

Leia1912

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2007
52
0
I've had the same issue. This is what Apple told me to do:

Hold down the Option button and click on "Go" in the Finder menu. You'll see the Library appear in the drop-down list. Go to the Library.

Go to the Preferences folder.

Remove the com.apple.spotlight.plist (the name is either that or very similar).

Restart.

Your computer should now be finding things on the drive again.
 

basher

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2011
571
136
Glendale, AZ USA
And that worked for you?

I went to my local Apple store and was able to reproduce my issue on three different Macs. Also the Apple staff I spoke with was surprised of the issue and could only offer a solution of looking for a third party product.

Oh well.
 

amit.bhansali

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2011
4
0
Can not search in Mac OS X 10.7 Finder

Totall agree. For the first few days, I could not search in Mail 5 (but I think it takes time to reference the emails and not it works fine).

The Finder just says "Searching" and only finds things on my local Mac. It can not find anything on servers I am connected to (which worked perfectly fine in Snow Leopard, and that too Windows Servers!).

Any help?

Anyone else have this issue since upgrading to lion?

It's very frustrating. I've tried adding and removing volume to privacy settings in spotlight prefs to try and force it to index, but to no avail... any ideas anyone?

when i search nothing come up, even if i put in a letter like 'a' or something
 

Leia1912

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2007
52
0
I'm sorry for the slow reply--I thought I'd subscribed to this thread, but I didn't get any notice of a follow-up message.

Yes, the remove the plist trick works to get Spotlight to find things on your drive.

It doesn't solve all of my issues with Spotlight--a refusal to look INSIDE documents, not just by name; issues with the integrated search in Mail--but it does let you find files on the drive.

To clarify: I have talked to AppleCare on the phone a LOT about this, including escalating my case upwards. My case is currently in the hands of the software engineers and I've received occasional emails from Apple with investigation questions, so they're working on it. (In the last go-round, they wanted to see a screencast of Spotlight malfunctioning, which I provided.) So, the bottom line is: the programmers are aware of Spotlight misbehaving.
 

amit.bhansali

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2011
4
0
Hi Leia1912,

Any suggestion on why its not searching on mounted volumes? I can not search anything thats mounted - I can only perform searches on my Mac.

Thanks for your help.

I'm sorry for the slow reply--I thought I'd subscribed to this thread, but I didn't get any notice of a follow-up message.

Yes, the remove the plist trick works to get Spotlight to find things on your drive.

It doesn't solve all of my issues with Spotlight--a refusal to look INSIDE documents, not just by name; issues with the integrated search in Mail--but it does let you find files on the drive.

To clarify: I have talked to AppleCare on the phone a LOT about this, including escalating my case upwards. My case is currently in the hands of the software engineers and I've received occasional emails from Apple with investigation questions, so they're working on it. (In the last go-round, they wanted to see a screencast of Spotlight malfunctioning, which I provided.) So, the bottom line is: the programmers are aware of Spotlight misbehaving.
 

Leia1912

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2007
52
0
Hi, Amit,

I don't know why Spotlight isn't searching your external drive, but I'd try to do the same steps--go into your Spotlight prefs, add the external drive to your privacy list, close Spotlight, open again and remove the external drive from the privacy list--and then see if that does anything for you. If it doesn't, ditch the .plist. Other than that, I'm out of answers, but call Apple, because they need to know Spotlight in Lion is, frankly, not ready for prime time.
 

amit.bhansali

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2011
4
0
Still not working :(

Hi Leia1912,

It's still not working. Searches perfectly fine on my local drive, but nothing mounted. It was working perfectly prior to upgrading.

This is forcing me to use Foxtrot, which is great (but on a trial).

Nobody else having these issues!?

Hi, Amit,

I don't know why Spotlight isn't searching your external drive, but I'd try to do the same steps--go into your Spotlight prefs, add the external drive to your privacy list, close Spotlight, open again and remove the external drive from the privacy list--and then see if that does anything for you. If it doesn't, ditch the .plist. Other than that, I'm out of answers, but call Apple, because they need to know Spotlight in Lion is, frankly, not ready for prime time.
 

markhi43

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2012
2
0
Solution

I have had this problem for ages.

I HAVE FOUND A VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION

not promising it will work for you but you may as well try it

>open finder window
>click on settings icon (drop down button along top bar)... looks like a cog
>press "show view options"

VOILA

I HOPE THIS HELPS PEOPLE!!

MARCUS :)
 
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