Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Spotlight can't search files in ONE folder

T

TWLreal

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 9, 2006
295
1
Someone gave me a folder full of fonts from his system, which is OS X just like mine.

But Spotlight or the Finder search can't find any file from this folder. It's as if they were invisible. Any way to force it to be indexed?
 
Make sure that (1) your Spotlight prefs aren't set to ignore that folder, and (2) you have permissions to that folder.
 
I don't believe I have changed any preferences in Spotlight and I have full read and write acccess to that folder and I am the owner.
 
TWLreal said:
I don't believe I have changed any preferences in Spotlight and I have full read and write acccess to that folder and I am the owner.
Click to expand...
Just to be sure (weird stuff happens), go to System Preferences...->Spotlight and make sure the Privacy tab shows no folders (or at least not the one you want to search). Also, be sure the "Search Results" tab has the right file types selected.
 
TWLreal said:
I don't believe I have changed any preferences in Spotlight and I have full read and write acccess to that folder and I am the owner.
Click to expand...

Check permissions on the files as well. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would ignore it. Frankly, I'm not sure why it would ignore it even if you didn't "own" the files within it.

Perhaps it's upset that you're trading fonts that you haven't purchased. :p
 
Spotlight preferences are fine. Permissions to subfolders and files are good too.

This is pissing me off. The fonts are sorted by type and there are a lot of subfolders. So I need to be able to find them through the Finder or Spotlight.
 
When did the copy take place? Perhaps it's just too soon?

Also, have you run Repair Permissions?
 
Just out of curiosity, if you open the main folder (the one Spotlight doesn't see) and do a ⌘-F in it (Find), can you search that way?

Also, if you Get Info on one of the files you think should have been found, does it have the right info (i.e., the right comment if you're searching for that, the right name, etc. - I don't know your search criteria)?
 
emw said:
When did the copy take place? Perhaps it's just too soon?

Also, have you run Repair Permissions?
Click to expand...
It's been a week. And no.
jsw said:
Just out of curiosity, if you open the main folder (the one Spotlight doesn't see) and do a ?-F in it (Find), can you search that way?
Click to expand...
No. The folder seems to be completely invisible.
jsw said:
Also, if you Get Info on one of the files you think should have been found, does it have the right info (i.e., the right comment if you're searching for that, the right name, etc. - I don't know your search criteria)?
Click to expand...
None of the files on my system have Spotlight comments. I am searching by filename, which works for my own fonts folder.
 
If all else fails, rebuild the Spotlight index. (An easy way to do this is add the volume to the Privacy tab, then remove it).

I can't speak for anyone else, but Spotlight is, for me, broken. It's not just one Mac either, but both my MacBook Pro and G5 PowerMac. Every now and then it stops finding any results for any search, and the index has to be rebuilt. Even more annoying, sometimes it will find some results but not all - so I can never trust the results it gives me.

I've since downgraded to Panther on the G5 - at least the search results there are reliable.
 
That's pretty messed up.

I would much rather have a working Windows-style search right now rather than the indexed Spotlight which doesn't work.
 
Chalk me up as another one very disappointed with Spotlight. It often doesn't find files I'm staring at - and yes, I repair permissions, check ownership and the whole nine yards. One thing I noticed is that this is particularly a problem with System files - Spotlight just does not work at a lower unix level files, as if "you don't need that"... infuriating. I've pretty much stopped using it - since I'm organized and know exactly where my regular files are... and the files I really need to know (System level), Spotlight is useless. What a mess. I hope they fix it in Leopard (the list of things to fix in Leopard is so long, it'll almost certainly end in giant disappointment once it comes out).
 
OldCorpse said:
Chalk me up as another one very disappointed with Spotlight.
Click to expand...
I agree completely. We might have our differences about Leopard's improvement over Tiger (;)), but the poor search capabilities, the indexing issues, the inability to see "files you shouldn't"... all of it stinks of bad implementation. The info is there, the capability to do things like genuinely smart Smart Folders is there... it's just not implemented properly.

I think the average consumer is served well enough by Spotlight. But I think the prosumer and pro markets need something better. And just a few implementation tweaks, without even messing with the underlying stuff, would go a long way. For example, just adding a "not" to the parameters would help enormously. The underlying implementation supports it. The Smart Folder XML supports it. Just the GUI doesn't. :mad:
 
As I'm pretty sure you know, jsw, Spotlight in Leopard is reported to contain Boolean logic (finally!) in the GUI interface. Something which I've been pining for, personally. As to access of system files, no idea. :p
 
jsw said:
I agree completely. We might have our differences about Leopard's improvement over Tiger (;)), but the poor search capabilities, the indexing issues, the inability to see "files you shouldn't"... all of it stinks of bad implementation. The info is there, the capability to do things like genuinely smart Smart Folders is there... it's just not implemented properly.

I think the average consumer is served well enough by Spotlight. But I think the prosumer and pro markets need something better. And just a few implementation tweaks, without even messing with the underlying stuff, would go a long way. For example, just adding a "not" to the parameters would help enormously. The underlying implementation supports it. The Smart Folder XML supports it. Just the GUI doesn't. :mad:
Click to expand...

Just to make clear: I like the idea of Spotlight - it's a fantastic tool, and extremely useful. Provided it's actually implemented correctly :)

Now, from what we hear vast improvements are planned for it in Leopard, and I can't wait to see it. As the sizes of hard drives grow, search will become central to the way we use computers. Spotlight was a first implementation of that capability, and naturally it falls somewhat short. It can and must be improved.

Regardless, you'll never please all of the people all of the time. Some folks are happy with Spotlight as it is. I'd like more. Then again, I'm super pleased with Dashboard and widgets (not that they can't be improved) and use it all the time, while many can't stand it, and regard it as a waste of resources. And so it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back