Search / Spotlight not finding everything.

[Garrod]

The search option in each Finder window and Spotlight, for some reason, is unable to find every file etc. with the name that I search for. This only seems to be only files (mostly movies files but it does include other apps and suchlike) that I've downloaded in recent times (say, a couple of months or so). I've run Disk Utility and repaired everything but still no use. I even re-installed Leopard and ran software update but still to no avail.

Any ideas anyone?

2.16ghz Core 2 Duo iMac 24", 2gb ram.

 

[zachsilvey]

if those files are extremely recent they might not be indexed yet but, it should have no problem if they have been on your computer for a couple months

 

[swiftaw]

Where are these files located? Spotlight doesn't search certain folders.

 

[forafireescape]

Are all your search options in System Prefs checked? If not, that could be limiting your results.

 

[Garrod]

Where are these files located? Spotlight doesn't search certain folders.

Mainly in my Documents, Movies or Pictures folders.

 

[Garrod]

Are all your search options in System Prefs checked? If not, that could be limiting your results.

Sadly, yes they are! It's getting to be a real drag now!

 

[jongriff]

I'm having a similar issue. My Spotlight is not finding any files that are located in my "Movies" folder in my Home directory. The folder is not on the exclude list, I have tried adding it and then removing it to force an index and also using terminal to re-index my computer all to no avail. Is there anyone who can shed any light on this anomaly?

p.s. as far as I can tell all my other files have been indexed

 

[MacGloster]

Check Owner of the missing files

After a long search i finally found out, why spotlight does not find files that are definitely on my HDD.

Open terminal and type SUDO ->type password

Go to the desired directory where a file is that can not be found

ls - l
Shows User and group

If the user is "_unknown" there is no Metadata (check with mdls <filename> ) in the file the file will not be indexed and thus Spotlight does not find them.

Even rebuilding the index will not work then.

Changing the user with "chown" will immediately add the indexing information and Spotlight finds the files.

B.T.W. if you type ls -l as normal user you will not get "_unknown". Instead the logged in user is displayed (very confusing)