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Spotlight Malfunction

mrjikey

mrjikey

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 7, 2005
33
0
Wa
Has anyone had the "spotlighting" feature of spotlight not work while using spotlight in System Prefrences since the last osx upgrade? Thanks for any info.
 
Whe I start typing in the search field, system prefrences window darkens like it's supposed to, but no spotlight shows up and no possible search results drop down from the search field.

Edit: I'm running 10.4.6 also.
 
When Spotlight plays up, I first remove a file named com.apple.spotlight.plist which is the preference file. Sometimes it gets corrupted and removing it can help resolve some issues

If that does nothing, then I reindex Spotlight by opening up the Spotlight pane of System Preferences (you'll have to find it manually :p ) and adding my hard drive to the Privacy tab, closing System Preferences, reopening it and removing the hard drive from the Privacy tab. This might take a while to reindex depending on your machine and the amount of files you have. :)
 
thanks for the advise. I'm re-indexing my computer now. Hope it works.
 
I did reboot. It didn't fix it though. It didn't create a new file either. Is that normal? Thanks.
 
That's not normal. Sometimes a corrupt V-100 file will do this although that's not the only way this can happen. Peruse through this thread, try some of the Terminal commands and tell us how you go. :)
 
I had it hiccup when I was using software in Rosetta mode on an Intel Mac. Turned off Rosetta mode and all was well. Never happened to me on PPC though.
 
This is weird. Are you sure there's no Spotlight preference file in the Preferences folder? Maybe start a new user account and see if the problems carry over. :)
 
I deleted this file from the preferences file. com.apple.spotlight.plist. But it has created a new one. When I go to my backup account it has the same symptoms as my main account has. :confused:
 
Thanks for all of your help:) I found the problem. After I repaired disk permissions the problem came into the open. My computer kernal panicked so I did a hardwear check and found out it was a faulty built in ram. Apple is sending a packaging box. Thankfully it is still under warenty:) Although I have to send it in, it's a relief to know what the problem is and that it's getting fixed. Thanks again.
 
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