How to fix Spotlight search results?

[bearinthetown]

My Spotlight used to work fine, but recent update macOS broke it. Now, it gives me some weird files at the top and only returns apps after several seconds. How can I make it make sense again? Ideally, I don't want it to return files at all, just apps, system preferences etc.

 

[318iphone]

System Settings/Spotlight toggle off what you don't want to see. Then reindex... https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321

 

[bearinthetown]

I did it before asking here, but it didn't work. It still gives me some weird file results and finding apps takes too long.

 

[!!!]

1. Disable spotlight via mdutil in the terminal
2. Remove the .Spotlight-V100 folder from the root of your drive
3. Remove ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight
4. Reboot
5. Re-enable spotlight

Anything else and you risk whatever corrupted files/memory infecting the new indexing and borking that as well. That said, keep in mind it may take a while to reindex, and you may have to reboot after the first reindex, let it index anything else it finds, and reboot again.

Just remember while doing this that Apple introduced Spotlight over 20 years ago and are now adding "AI" into it while it continues to randomly break itself during regular use.

 

[Fishrrman]

If spotlight can't "find it" for you, then try BOTH of these two small and FREE utilities:
- EasyFind
and
- Find Any File.

I turned spotlight OFF from the time it was first introduced, must be going on 15-20 years ago. Disabled it, removed indexes, never touch it.

'Nuff said about that!