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Search box is not finding things

D

Droooooj

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2009
104
5
London, UK
Dunno why, but recently when I type parts of filenames in the search field (circled in red below) it doesn't always find things I know are on my system and am able to find manually.

The search box used to sit on the right of all my windows, but now it's on the left. My trouble seems to have started when this move occurred, after an update I assume. I'm currently running 10.4.11

Any ideas how I can make it find any file, anywhere, like it used to?

27ywv3t.jpg
 
Droooooj said:
Dunno why, but recently when I type parts of filenames in the search field (circled in red below) it doesn't always find things I know are on my system and am able to find manually.

The search box used to sit on the right of all my windows, but now it's on the left. My trouble seems to have started when this move occurred, after an update I assume. I'm currently running 10.4.11

Any ideas how I can make it find any file, anywhere, like it used to?

27ywv3t.jpg
Click to expand...

Can you upgrade to Leopard? Tiger's Spotlight search sucks.
 
Can't upgrade from Tiger, it's a works machine. :-/
(My home machine is the same however (using snow leopard).)

So, in Tiger I tried to do the Add/Remove Macintosh HD in the Spotlight Privacy, but it won't let me add it, either by dragging the icon or pressing the + button and adding it.

It acts as if it's about to in both cases, but then just doesn't.

Any ideas what's going on?

I could try and do the Terminal method if someone could confirm what the path of my HD would be? Is it just '/' ?
 
Droooooj said:
I could try and do the Terminal method if someone could confirm what the path of my HD would be? Is it just '/' ?
Click to expand...

Yes, / is the path to the current boot volume (presumably your HD).

The way I used to do it in Tiger was:

sudo mdutil -i off /

sudo mdutil -E /

(i.e., stop indexing, erase index)

Then I'd verify the HD with Disk Utility, maybe dump some old cache files or something. Finally restart the indexing with:

sudo mdutil -i on /

Give it about an hour before trying to do a search.
 
Hal Itosis said:
Yes, / is the path to the current boot volume (presumably your HD).

The way I used to do it in Tiger was:

sudo mdutil -i off /

sudo mdutil -E /

(i.e., stop indexing, erase index)

Then I'd verify the HD with Disk Utility, maybe dump some old cache files or something. Finally restart the indexing with:

sudo mdutil -i on /

Give it about an hour before trying to do a search.
Click to expand...


that's some advanced shiz right there, hal
 
Ok, have just run the commands. Fingers X'd.

didn't realise indexing was going on all the time, pre OSX it'd specifically tell you it was indexing.

does it now just run in the background, or only occur when 'idle' or something?
 
Ok, have tried entering filenames that exist on my machine into the bar and still no luck. :-/

My drive is 120gb, pretty full. Should it take so long to index?
 
Droooooj said:
Ok, have tried entering filenames that exist on my machine into the bar and still no luck. :-/
Click to expand...

Are you saying it can't find anything anywhere... or, that you've come up with a few particular items and/or locations which don't show up?

Droooooj said:
does it now just run in the background, or only occur when 'idle' or something?
Click to expand...

It happens in real time, as files are added/deleted/edited.
 
Not saying it can't find anything, if I search for '.txt' it returns a few hundred results.


But if I search for a specific filename it seems to draw a blank.

eg, in the OSX default Pictures folder, I've got 1 level of 35 folders all named by date, each folder containing files like DSCN0285.JPG and IMG_0511.JPG.

Searching for those specific filenames returns absolutely nothing, yet I know they're there.

Also, if I copy the filename of an MP3 that's in my iTunes folder and paste it into the search bar, it returns 0 results.

But - I've just tried duplicating a jpg file from the Pictures folder onto the desktop. I then did a search and it found the new Desktop version instantly, but not the original. What's going on?!
 
Just wondering: did you ever verify the HD with Disk Utility like I alluded to in post #5?
 
:eek: No, I must admit I didn't do that step, as I've not been having any other problems.

Are you thinking a b-tree or whatever it's called these days is mangled?
 
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