the problem is a little more deeper than having an app to use as a searcher/launcher, because for example when spotlight doesn't work also smart folders and others system utilities using search function stop working
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Spotlight and Finder search not working
- Thread starter macmaster24
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
the problem is a little more deeper than having an app to use as a searcher/launcher, because for example when spotlight doesn't work also smart folders and others system utilities using search function stop working
Do you guys get any similar crash do mds process, like me in this thread?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1282443/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1282443/
Solution (Worked for Me)
Hey there,
I was having this same problem on my MPB in Lion. Tried reindexing, repairing permissions, made a new user....nothing. Then I tried try this:
Boot to Lion’s recovery partition by holding “Command-R” at startup (or holding Alt/Option and selecting the recovery partition from the boot menu). Then, from the Utilities menu, choose Terminal. Type “resetpassword” into Terminal and hit Return. This launches the Reset Password menu. From here, select root (I also did users) and select "reset home folder permissions and ACLs"
Once I restarted, spotlight did a reindex again and then....VOILA!
Good Luck!
Hope this was useful!
Hey there,
I was having this same problem on my MPB in Lion. Tried reindexing, repairing permissions, made a new user....nothing. Then I tried try this:
Boot to Lion’s recovery partition by holding “Command-R” at startup (or holding Alt/Option and selecting the recovery partition from the boot menu). Then, from the Utilities menu, choose Terminal. Type “resetpassword” into Terminal and hit Return. This launches the Reset Password menu. From here, select root (I also did users) and select "reset home folder permissions and ACLs"
Once I restarted, spotlight did a reindex again and then....VOILA!
Good Luck!
Hope this was useful!
thank you for posting your experience, but as I said in previous page I tried this method and worked only for a couple of hours, then the problem returned
Spotlight issues - Microsoft Doc only
Chuckle on this one ... am re-indexing right now, as support suggested ... I encountered this problem in Pages ... shows all documents, old Word and new Pages ... then, when I enter a file name/abbreviation in spotlight, it shows only Word documents ... apparently Gates won the war here.
We'll see if the re-indexing works ...
----------
It didn't work ... still shows only MS Word docs ... will try EasyFind ...
Chuckle on this one ... am re-indexing right now, as support suggested ... I encountered this problem in Pages ... shows all documents, old Word and new Pages ... then, when I enter a file name/abbreviation in spotlight, it shows only Word documents ... apparently Gates won the war here.
We'll see if the re-indexing works ...
----------
It didn't work ... still shows only MS Word docs ... will try EasyFind ...
Same problem...
I have the same problem, except Spotlight works for me. Doing a search in the Finder, gives me blank results, but if I use Spotlight it gives me results. If I click on Show All in Finder, it opens a window with blank results. I tried reindexing, I tried the suggestion of booting into the recovery partition and resetting the user password, but nothing works. The search function will work for a little while, after restarting, but then after a little while it quits working and gives blank results. Any ideas?
I have the same problem, except Spotlight works for me. Doing a search in the Finder, gives me blank results, but if I use Spotlight it gives me results. If I click on Show All in Finder, it opens a window with blank results. I tried reindexing, I tried the suggestion of booting into the recovery partition and resetting the user password, but nothing works. The search function will work for a little while, after restarting, but then after a little while it quits working and gives blank results. Any ideas?
Open up console, just write console in the spotlight search and open the program. Under the "system diagnostics reports" do you have any crashes from mds_xxxxx ?
There was something with mds under "system diagnostic reports":
bash,cma,diskarbitrationd,grep,grep,grep,kextstat,kextstat,mds,p_2012-01-18-004225_localhost.shutdownStall
It has mds in the title. There were three or four of those. I looked at them, and they all had this in common:
Process: cma [219]
Path: /Library/McAfee/*/cma
Architecture: i386
UID: 0
I had installed McAfee a long time ago, and only used it once. I thought I had turned it off and uninstalled it, but apparently I hadn't. So, I uninstalled it and restarted. It's only been a few minutes, so I'll have to see if that fixes it.
FYI: During all this, Spotlight continues to work fine. When the search function isn't working in the finder (Command-F) Spotlight still works. However, when I tell it to Show All in Finder, it just gives me a blank window; no results.
Your question was right on, I did have some items with "mds" under system diagnostic reports. What does that mean? Is there something else I should do besides what I did?
Thanks for your help.
Hello again,
when you see the crashlog, in the beginning of the file there should be something like this:
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000
Does it look like that? I mean the 0x0000000000000000 part..
because if it do, it would confirm my suspicions, and it seems to be a bug.
:/
I don't see anything like that. Since I uninstalled McAfee I haven't had any crash reports under the System Diagnostic Reports heading. However, search is now broken again. Spotlight works, when I click on it in the upper right corner and do a search, however searching in the Finder (Command-F) simply gives blank results. I'm lost.
i've had the same issue since i upgraded to lion -- occasionally a reboot fixes it - but not always - i cannot search email properly either - and when i perform a spotlight i get just 'web' results. i cannot add anything to privacy page - getting the same error message (unknown)
this needs to be fixed - spotlight is an integral part of os x. as for using another app - sure i could but this is built in and i need it to work in email (mail).
i've never installed macaffee.... and i have no mds entries that i can see in console. really the only item that locks up regularly is cleanapp and of course MS apps
.
there are a lot of crash reports (user) for qtkserver. (for which i uninstalled 3ivx)
even upgrading to 10.7.3 didn't change anything (had a firmware update too -which of course shouldn't matter).
any help would be appreciated.
this needs to be fixed - spotlight is an integral part of os x. as for using another app - sure i could but this is built in and i need it to work in email (mail).
i've never installed macaffee.... and i have no mds entries that i can see in console. really the only item that locks up regularly is cleanapp and of course MS apps
.there are a lot of crash reports (user) for qtkserver. (for which i uninstalled 3ivx)
even upgrading to 10.7.3 didn't change anything (had a firmware update too -which of course shouldn't matter).
any help would be appreciated.
spotlight failure
In my opinion spotlight has been a disaster from the time it was introduced, given that it often was unable to locate files that were sitting right on the desktop in front of my face, etc. But it did have some functionality. In 10.7 it seems to work about as well, but will not search across a network at all. Zip, zero, nada.
Which makes it useless in my office. If we can't solve this problem we will be downgrading or (worst case scenerio) changing platforms.
In my opinion spotlight has been a disaster from the time it was introduced, given that it often was unable to locate files that were sitting right on the desktop in front of my face, etc. But it did have some functionality. In 10.7 it seems to work about as well, but will not search across a network at all. Zip, zero, nada.
Which makes it useless in my office. If we can't solve this problem we will be downgrading or (worst case scenerio) changing platforms.
ok so in ts today i have
repaired permisssions
removed 3vxi (for another issue)
ran scripts
cleared caches
rebuilt spotlight 3 times - rebuild is super quick - meaning it never completes
deleted .spotlight-v100 folder
emptied trash
restarted (3 time)
after rebooting i saw it indexing and thought - YAY -- then a min later it stopped -- i searched for 2 items installed today (alfred and bitcasa -- btw - alfred works on spotlights engine - so if spotlight engine is failing so is alfred) -- nope i doesnt find them... failed.
i dont know what else today - gonna call apple ts tomorrow - this is stupid.
on a side note -- when alfred opened terminal to rebuild spotlight i get this error
/:
Error: unable to perform operation. (-400)
No index.
this is AFTER i literally just completed a reboot and indexed (earlier a complete shut down too).
repaired permisssions
removed 3vxi (for another issue)
ran scripts
cleared caches
rebuilt spotlight 3 times - rebuild is super quick - meaning it never completes
deleted .spotlight-v100 folder
emptied trash
restarted (3 time)
after rebooting i saw it indexing and thought - YAY -- then a min later it stopped -- i searched for 2 items installed today (alfred and bitcasa -- btw - alfred works on spotlights engine - so if spotlight engine is failing so is alfred) -- nope i doesnt find them... failed.
i dont know what else today - gonna call apple ts tomorrow - this is stupid.
on a side note -- when alfred opened terminal to rebuild spotlight i get this error
/:
Error: unable to perform operation. (-400)
No index.
this is AFTER i literally just completed a reboot and indexed (earlier a complete shut down too).
This worked for me...
http://christianboyce.blogspot.com/2011/08/bring-back-for-in-lion-finder-sidebar.html
http://christianboyce.blogspot.com/2011/08/bring-back-for-in-lion-finder-sidebar.html
Addicted to Spotlight, now buggy in Lion 10.7.4 on MacBook Mid 2007
I use my Mac a bit different than most might; since I'm a heavy keyboard user and can operate more efficiently this way than on the mouse, I use Spotlight very heavily. The best example is this: Any time I set up a new user on my Mac, I immediately remove everything from the dock since I prefer it only show the currently running apps (with exception to Terminal and Activity Monitor) and when I want to start a new app, I press Command+Space, type part of the name, and hit return once it's the top hit and highlighted. This has been my primary method of opening new apps since Leopard, and has worked flawlessly until Lion.
Since I upgraded to Lion, Spotlight has been buggy at best... often it does actually work fine. In many cases though I'll end up with no results in the list at all, sometimes the app I know is installed in the Applications folder doesn't appear (when it has before even on Lion) and the worst is when it shows the app I want, it's highlighted as the top hit, but hitting return does not do anything (I have to grab this archaic device I have called a mouse and click on the app).
This is more than mildly annoying, like I said, I rely on Spotlight.
I am not interested in hearing about alternative apps, I only want to get Spotlight working as it did before.
I checked under System Diagnostic Reports in Console.app but do not have any crashes for mds_* however performing a search for "spotlight" in All Messages does return some messages about mdwrite and one about mdimport, complaining about Assertion failure...
Like so:
I should also note that I've had some other issues, like preferences not saving (remedied by removing all my personal and system-wide preferences files and copying in just those which I need) and with installing new apps (like Firefox, there was an existing Firefox.app and when I dragged in the new one, I was asked for root password and even though I entered it, correctly, it said the file could not be overwritten... remedied by deleting it manually first). Since I have these other issues it seems that the problem is likely not a fault in the Lion OS (not directly at least) so I am trying to find out what the culprit is and fix it ASAP, it has been slowing me down majorly and I've resorted to keeping some important apps on my dock...
My next step will be to boot into recovery partition and setting a new password for root and "reset home folder permissions and ACLs" so I'll post again or edit this with the results (first if it doesn't work I intend to do the same for my regular user accounts).
If none of that works, I'll post a full list of all apps installed on my system from System Information.
Any other recommendations (with exception of replacing Spotlight functionality through another app, or using some "antivirus" app) would be appreciated.
Edit (6/18/2012): On the 12th right after posting this I performed the password reset as mentioned above, first for root, then waited for Spotlight to rebuild, however unfortunately this did not seem to help much. Next I performed the password reset for my user, and again waited for Spotlight to rebuild, and this time the problem doesn't seem to appear as much, although every once in a while the app I want to open will appear as the Top Hit but the enter key will not open it... At least now it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was, and it doesn't slow me down nearly as much.
Unfortunately the problem still isn't gone completely, and in the Console app I can see errors for mdwrite, even if it's less often than before I hoped to get rid of this completely. I'm posting part of one of the logs for the mdwrite error, it seems to suggest the problem is stemming from the Keychain on the system. While I would love to continue tackling this issue, the chances of me getting the opportunity this month are fairly slim. In any case hopefully I'll eventually get to it and will re-edit this post with more updates if I do.
I use my Mac a bit different than most might; since I'm a heavy keyboard user and can operate more efficiently this way than on the mouse, I use Spotlight very heavily. The best example is this: Any time I set up a new user on my Mac, I immediately remove everything from the dock since I prefer it only show the currently running apps (with exception to Terminal and Activity Monitor) and when I want to start a new app, I press Command+Space, type part of the name, and hit return once it's the top hit and highlighted. This has been my primary method of opening new apps since Leopard, and has worked flawlessly until Lion.
Since I upgraded to Lion, Spotlight has been buggy at best... often it does actually work fine. In many cases though I'll end up with no results in the list at all, sometimes the app I know is installed in the Applications folder doesn't appear (when it has before even on Lion) and the worst is when it shows the app I want, it's highlighted as the top hit, but hitting return does not do anything (I have to grab this archaic device I have called a mouse and click on the app).
This is more than mildly annoying, like I said, I rely on Spotlight.
I am not interested in hearing about alternative apps, I only want to get Spotlight working as it did before.
I checked under System Diagnostic Reports in Console.app but do not have any crashes for mds_* however performing a search for "spotlight" in All Messages does return some messages about mdwrite and one about mdimport, complaining about Assertion failure...
Like so:
Code:
6/12/12 7:22:58.949 PM mdwrite: *** Assertion failure in -[MDKeyRing _copyKeychain], /SourceCache/Spotlight/Spotlight-627.32/xpc-services/mdwrite/MDKeyRing.m:118
6/12/12 7:23:29.452 PM mdimport: Paths: id(501) (
"/Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Font.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/Microsoft Office.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Audio.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/ParallelsMD.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/EvernoteSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/RichText.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/uuid.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Application Loader.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/MZSpotlight.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/CoreMedia.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Chat.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PS.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/vCard.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto8.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Bookmarks.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/SystemPrefs.mdimporter",
"/Applications/ScreenFlow.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/ScreenFlow.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iCal.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Cyberduck.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Cyberduck Spotlight Importer.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/MIDI.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/QuartzComposer.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Colloquy.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Colloquy.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Automator.mdimporter"
)I should also note that I've had some other issues, like preferences not saving (remedied by removing all my personal and system-wide preferences files and copying in just those which I need) and with installing new apps (like Firefox, there was an existing Firefox.app and when I dragged in the new one, I was asked for root password and even though I entered it, correctly, it said the file could not be overwritten... remedied by deleting it manually first). Since I have these other issues it seems that the problem is likely not a fault in the Lion OS (not directly at least) so I am trying to find out what the culprit is and fix it ASAP, it has been slowing me down majorly and I've resorted to keeping some important apps on my dock...
My next step will be to boot into recovery partition and setting a new password for root and "reset home folder permissions and ACLs" so I'll post again or edit this with the results (first if it doesn't work I intend to do the same for my regular user accounts).
If none of that works, I'll post a full list of all apps installed on my system from System Information.
Any other recommendations (with exception of replacing Spotlight functionality through another app, or using some "antivirus" app) would be appreciated.
Edit (6/18/2012): On the 12th right after posting this I performed the password reset as mentioned above, first for root, then waited for Spotlight to rebuild, however unfortunately this did not seem to help much. Next I performed the password reset for my user, and again waited for Spotlight to rebuild, and this time the problem doesn't seem to appear as much, although every once in a while the app I want to open will appear as the Top Hit but the enter key will not open it... At least now it doesn't seem to be as bad as it was, and it doesn't slow me down nearly as much.
Unfortunately the problem still isn't gone completely, and in the Console app I can see errors for mdwrite, even if it's less often than before I hoped to get rid of this completely. I'm posting part of one of the logs for the mdwrite error, it seems to suggest the problem is stemming from the Keychain on the system. While I would love to continue tackling this issue, the chances of me getting the opportunity this month are fairly slim. In any case hopefully I'll eventually get to it and will re-edit this post with more updates if I do.
Code:
Application Specific Information:
*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', reason: 'Couldn't reset keychain settings! [osErr:100013]'
*** First throw call stack:
(
0 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8a8a8f56 __exceptionPreprocess + 198
1 libobjc.A.dylib 0x00007fff8d2d9d5e objc_exception_throw + 43
2 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8a8a8d8a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106
3 Foundation 0x00007fff8a08971f -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 169
4 mdwrite 0x00000001062c7564 mdwrite + 38244
5 mdwrite 0x00000001062c78dc mdwrite + 39132
6 mdwrite 0x00000001062c8a33 mdwrite + 43571
7 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88ccc3f0 dispatch_once_f + 53
8 mdwrite 0x00000001062c82e4 mdwrite + 41700
9 mdwrite 0x00000001062c5de4 mdwrite + 32228
10 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8a89aefc __invoking___ + 140
11 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8a89ad94 -[NSInvocation invoke] + 132
12 CoreFoundation 0x00007fff8a89af64 -[NSInvocation invokeWithTarget:] + 52
13 mdwrite 0x00000001062c941c mdwrite + 46108
14 mdwrite 0x00000001062cb42a mdwrite + 54314
15 mdwrite 0x00000001062cb6ce mdwrite + 54990
16 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88ccd497 _dispatch_source_invoke + 649
17 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cca143 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 71
18 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cca2a0 _dispatch_queue_drain + 210
19 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cca132 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 54
20 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cca2a0 _dispatch_queue_drain + 210
21 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cca132 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 54
22 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff88cc992c _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 198
23 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8c13c3da _pthread_wqthread + 316
24 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8c13db85 start_wqthread + 13
)
objc[43787]: garbage collection is OFF
abort() called
terminate called throwing an exception
Last edited:
This fixed my issue with non-working Spotlight,
Here is a solution of my problem using Spotlight in Lion the recent days (not exactly the same as the the reporters problem): http://superuser.com/questions/231517/how-can-i-quit-frozen-spotlight-without-rebooting-my-computer
For me, Spotlight wasn't responding at all, it has been working fine all the time until recently, it was pretty much the same state as stated in previous posts in this thread, everything was setup correctly, but it seemed the cache was all empty or something.
Trying to add one directory in the privacy list was pretty much the same issue as stated here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1462997?start=0&tstart=0 some crash of some unknown reason, so Spotlight actually was malfunctional, and therefore it was probably not a cache issue after all I searched for ideas, answers and solutions, and the descriptions that made most sense led me into running:
And now everything is working perfectly fine, just did a Spotlight-search after running the command and I let the re-index process be run and completed it's working great, so far...
But the other solution in the first link might be woking too:
Anyway, I got Spotlight working again, I'm happy for now, lets hope it will continue working...
Here is a solution of my problem using Spotlight in Lion the recent days (not exactly the same as the the reporters problem): http://superuser.com/questions/231517/how-can-i-quit-frozen-spotlight-without-rebooting-my-computer
For me, Spotlight wasn't responding at all, it has been working fine all the time until recently, it was pretty much the same state as stated in previous posts in this thread, everything was setup correctly, but it seemed the cache was all empty or something.
Trying to add one directory in the privacy list was pretty much the same issue as stated here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1462997?start=0&tstart=0 some crash of some unknown reason, so Spotlight actually was malfunctional, and therefore it was probably not a cache issue after all I searched for ideas, answers and solutions, and the descriptions that made most sense led me into running:
Code:
sudo killall mdsBut the other solution in the first link might be woking too:
Code:
killall SystemUIServerAnyway, I got Spotlight working again, I'm happy for now, lets hope it will continue working...
I also have had nothing but trouble with Stupidlight. Absolutely pathetic. I've also tried re-indexing things, killing SystemUIServer, etc... Idiotic. Mac OS X never ever got searching working decently.
Right now I have two search windows in the Finder, configured identically (same search scope: "This Mac" & "Contents", and exactly the same search text), and THEY SHOW DIFFERENT THINGS! What the ...? Stupid Mac OS X. One window shows a bunch of things, the other shows NOTHING AT ALL. I've clicked each of the buttons back and forth a few times on the window which shows nothing, but still no results. Closing both windows and trying again now shows nothing.
Is there a difference as to whether the search window was brought up by Stupidlight's menu-bar-icon's "Show all" option or via Finder's "Find" command? Since the windows look identical and have all of the same options, there should be no difference, but... stupider things have happened.
Ah, so friggin' stupid, Crapple!
Sorry for the rant. This gets me every time I actually try to use Apple's pathetic search 'features'. Back to the Web-based Gmail interface for me I guess. I'm on 10.6.8 at the moment.
Right now I have two search windows in the Finder, configured identically (same search scope: "This Mac" & "Contents", and exactly the same search text), and THEY SHOW DIFFERENT THINGS! What the ...? Stupid Mac OS X. One window shows a bunch of things, the other shows NOTHING AT ALL. I've clicked each of the buttons back and forth a few times on the window which shows nothing, but still no results. Closing both windows and trying again now shows nothing.
Is there a difference as to whether the search window was brought up by Stupidlight's menu-bar-icon's "Show all" option or via Finder's "Find" command? Since the windows look identical and have all of the same options, there should be no difference, but... stupider things have happened.
Ah, so friggin' stupid, Crapple!
Sorry for the rant. This gets me every time I actually try to use Apple's pathetic search 'features'. Back to the Web-based Gmail interface for me I guess. I'm on 10.6.8 at the moment.
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
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
Zap the PRAM?
Hi,
I had a malfunctioning Spotlight.
After zapping the PRAM, it seems to work again.
Zapping the Parameter RAM is done by:
1. shutting down the computer
2. directly after switching it on, press keys: [ALT (OPTION)] [CMD] [P] and [R] all at the same time and holding them down until you hear the restart chime again (second time).
3. release the keys and let your computer start-up normally.
Good luck!
Hi,
I had a malfunctioning Spotlight.
After zapping the PRAM, it seems to work again.
Zapping the Parameter RAM is done by:
1. shutting down the computer
2. directly after switching it on, press keys: [ALT (OPTION)] [CMD] [P] and [R] all at the same time and holding them down until you hear the restart chime again (second time).
3. release the keys and let your computer start-up normally.
Good luck!