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Spotlight bug?

F

fuzzy_logic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
For some reason, Spotlight doesn't work on my System Preferences window. No mather what I type in, everything just dims. Any ideas?

P.S: I tried having Spotlight re-index everything but it didn't work.
 
sorry, no idea about your problem, but how in the hell did you get spotlight to re-index itself? I've not found any way of doing it...
 
fuzzy_logic said:
For some reason, Spotlight doesn't work on my System Preferences window. No mather what I type in, everything just dims.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem on one machine, so you are not alone! The other one doesn't have the problem.

I just wish I could find a way of getting it to work. 😕
 
Bighandz said:
I have the same problem on one machine, so you are not alone! The other one doesn't have the problem.

I just wish I could find a way of getting it to work. 😕
Click to expand...


I even tried replacing System Preferences.app and it doesn't work. Damn!

gbulmer: There's a thread on macosxhints.com that teaches you how to force spotlight to reindex your drives.
 
Reindexing

I saw this in one of the other threads: you can force reindexing by using the mdutil command in the Terminal. You need to be an administrator because it requires you to use sudo. Type:

sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/volumename

where volumename is the the drive you want indexed. The easiest way to make sure you get the volume name correct is to drag it from a Finder window to the Terminal window. After hitting enter, you will be prompted for your administrator password.

You can also force Spotlight to index volumes that it otherwise wouldn't, such as mounted disk images (as long as they're mounted, writable and have enough available space). The command for that is:

sudo mdutil -i /Volumes/volumename

See man mdutil for more info. 😉
 
When I edit IPTC Metadata with GraphicConverter the changes do not show up in Spotlight I even tried creating a new image file with IPTC metedata Spotlight will bring up the new file but not the metadata

I have, however been able to read IPTC metedata from photos from www.corbis.com. I wonder if GraphicConverter uses some nonstandard form of IPTC?
 
Fixed It...

fuzzy_logic, I may have the answer.

In some late night inspiration I realised it may be one of the 3rd party preference panes I have installed causing the problem. It was.

These are located in /Library/PreferencePanes and ~/Library/PreferencePanes.

I moved them all to temporary subdirectories and restarted System Preferences: spotlight search worked. I then added them back a few at a time, and found that the problem was with SCPlugin (the controller for a utility that integrates Subversion into the Finder).

I don't know if you're using SCPlugin, but if not, maybe it's one of those other little suckers that's causing your problem.

I hope this helps.
 
I read that Spotlight can be activated by pressing Cmd+Space. Mine doesn't work like this. And I just had to retype this as my keyboard had changed to GREEK overnight. WTF???
 
Bighandz said:
fuzzy_logic, I may have the answer.

In some late night inspiration I realised it may be one of the 3rd party preference panes I have installed causing the problem. It was.

These are located in /Library/PreferencePanes and ~/Library/PreferencePanes.

I moved them all to temporary subdirectories and restarted System Preferences: spotlight search worked. I then added them back a few at a time, and found that the problem was with SCPlugin (the controller for a utility that integrates Subversion into the Finder).

I don't know if you're using SCPlugin, but if not, maybe it's one of those other little suckers that's causing your problem.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Man, it's EXACTLY the same thing that was causing my problem. I removed SCPlugin and everything worked like a charm. Thanks a lot dude!
 
skunk said:
I read that Spotlight can be activated by pressing Cmd+Space. Mine doesn't work like this. And I just had to retype this as my keyboard had changed to GREEK overnight. WTF???
Click to expand...
Go into the Keyboard & Mouse section in System Preferences, then go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.

If you've got the input menu enabled, cmd+space changes inputs on it (which could explain how it's changed to Greek)

Just scroll down and disable them, and Spotlight should work fine. 🙂
 
andrewfee said:
Go into the Keyboard & Mouse section in System Preferences, then go to the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.

If you've got the input menu enabled, cmd+space changes inputs on it (which could explain how it's changed to Greek)

Just scroll down and disable them, and Spotlight should work fine. 🙂
Click to expand...
Aha! Good work, Sherlock! 🙂
 
gbulmer said:
sorry, no idea about your problem, but how in the hell did you get spotlight to re-index itself? I've not found any way of doing it...
Click to expand...

The EASIEST Way to Get Spotlight to Re-Index:

1. Open Spotlight Preferences
2. Click on the Privacy Tab and click + and add your hard drive.
3. Close System Preferences
4. Go back to the Privacy Tab in System Preferencesand remove the hard drive from the privacy tab.

This forces spotlight to re-index your entire drive.
 
BWhaler said:
The EASIEST Way to Get Spotlight to Re-Index:

1. Open Spotlight Preferences
2. Click on the Privacy Tab and click + and add your hard drive.
3. Close System Preferences
4. Go back to the Privacy Tab in System Preferencesand remove the hard drive from the privacy tab.

This forces spotlight to re-index your entire drive.
Click to expand...


Well done!! - Simple is always best 😉

aussie_geek
 
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