Hit and miss search!

[dazzer21]

I don't know why, but I'm having real grief with Spotlight; I'm running 10.5.8 on an iMac. This has been a semi-recent development - all was fine until about a month ago but it's become increasingly noticeable to the point where I'm writing this.

If I open a window where I can see the file I want to find, then open a new Finder window and type the name of it next to the magnifying glass at the top of the window, it doesn't find it (with File Name OR Contents selected - using This Mac as the search drive).

Pressing CMD-F and entering the relevant specifics won't locate it either, neither will CMD-Space Spotlight. It seems to be more prevalent when searching for folders rather than single files...

I've repaired the disk and repaired the permissions in Disk Utility but I just don't know - any ideas. Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

 

[dazzer21]

Thank you for that. Question, though - how long should it take to index a 320GB drive with 69GB free? I started it yesterday afternoon and it's still going. What's more, I had Microsoft Word freeze the machine earlier and I had to re-boot. It's still indexing. is this right?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thank you for that. Question, though - how long should it take to index a 320GB drive with 69GB free? I started it yesterday afternoon and it's still going. What's more, I had Microsoft Word freeze the machine earlier and I had to re-boot. It's still indexing. is this right?

It can take quite a while, depending on many factors. You could also have apps lock up and have other performance issues during the re-indexing process. It's best just to let it finish.