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shadownddust

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2008
45
0
Recently, spotlight just stopped calculating math functions and I'm not sure why. When I enter an equation, it doesn't try to solve it, but it still finds files with the numbers included and other hits. It's mostly a minor nuisance, but I have no idea why it even stopped, since everything else seems to work fine. Any ideas?
 
I had that happen to me. I had accidentally added my drive to the privacy list in Spotlight. If that's not the problem, add it to privacy, then remove it - that will cause a new index and should fix the problem.

edit: seems like the symptoms were the same as yours, although I can't explain why other results would show and calculations wouldn't
 
Ok, I'll try that and see if it helps.

Out of curiousity, how long does it take for your computer to fully index your drive? With about 25 gigs left on my drive, it usually says it will take a few hours. Seems a bit long and maybe related.
 
Not sure if you're doing this or not, but don't include the "=" sign. Mine will do math without the =, but wont with it.
 
Open Terminal and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.spotlight CalculationEnabled YES

If that fails, try deleting Spotlight's preference file, located in Your Username/Library/Preferences and look for "com.apple.Spotlight.plist".
 
Open Terminal and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.spotlight CalculationEnabled YES

If that fails, try deleting Spotlight's preference file, located in Your Username/Library/Preferences and look for "com.apple.Spotlight.plist".

No luck with either of those. I haven't seen the preference file come back after deleting it though, am I doing something wrong?
 
I'm having the same problem, and none of the fixes here have helped for me. Eagerly awaiting any other possiblities!

jW
 
Applications folder

I moved my calculator app from a sub folder i had it in back to the main 'applications' tab in Finder, works fine now.

Hope this helps.
 
Mine stopped working after the most recent update. :confused:

And mine. It's very, very annoying - I use, or rather used, that tool a lot. Tried all the above to no avail.

I'm beginning to wonder if Apple haven't had to remove it quietly for some reason? (Things that are useful are often patented to someone else?)
 
I checked and calculator is still in my applications folder. This happened a few months ago too, but I did a reinstall of OSX for another reason and then it was back to normal. But now it no work.
 
Old thread, but I can't find any newer relevant ones.
10.6.8 Snow Leopard

Spotlight does calculations fine, unless they contain a comma.
For example 2**3 works and 2^3 works but not pow(2,3)
Also not working are fmod(3.2,4.5) and hypot(3,4)

10.7.0 Lion is just out so won't investigate this further.
 
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