Spotlight not showing apps in results

[engseng]

After updating to Sequoia 15.1, the Spotlight search no longer shows Apps in the results. It still shows Messages and Documents. Under Spotlight settings I have checked Applications for the Search Results. Anyone else having this same issue?

 

[dreikelvin]

I am having the same issue on my M1 Macbook Air with Sequoia 15.1. Totally puzzled. Spotlight settings give me nothing. Even checking indexing on my volumes via the Terminal. Everything seems fine. For no reason at all, it stopped showing me apps via spotlight.

 

[mijail]

I had the same problem. I fixed it by recreating the Spotlight db:
1. Add the whole disk to the privacy exclusions in System Settings - Spotlight - Search Privacy
2. Remove the disk
3. Wait for the re-indexing to complete. Might take some hours. You'll see the progress in the spotlight search dialog.

 

[dreikelvin]

I had the same problem. I fixed it by recreating the Spotlight db:
1. Add the whole disk to the privacy exclusions in System Settings - Spotlight - Search Privacy
2. Remove the disk
3. Wait for the re-indexing to complete. Might take some hours. You'll see the progress in the spotlight search dialog.

this is the solution!

 

[p33t3r]

I had the same problem, but got an error when I tried to add my whole disk, or any folder on the disk, to the privacy exclusions in Spotlight, so that wasn't possible for me.
A reinstall of Sequoia seems to have fixed the problem.

 

[Speed38]

I had the same problem. I fixed it by recreating the Spotlight db:
1. Add the whole disk to the privacy exclusions in System Settings - Spotlight - Search Privacy
2. Remove the disk
3. Wait for the re-indexing to complete. Might take some hours. You'll see the progress in the spotlight search dialog.

This did not work for me on my 2020 iMac macOS 15.1.1

 

[Just_Kevin]

I noticed this with a few programs. Once I opened them via Launchpad, they appeared next time I used Spotlight.

 

[Speed38]

Here is what appears to have fixed it for me:

Restarted in Recovery Mode and ran Disk First Aid on all volumes: all were OK.

• Followed these Apple Instructions:
• Choose Apple menu  > System Settings.
• Open Spotlight settings:
• macOS Sequoia or later: Click Spotlight in the sidebar, then scroll down and click the Search Privacy button on the right.
• Drag the disk or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add
• From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added. Then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list so that it can be reindexed.
• Click Done, then quit System Settings. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the disk or folder. This can take some time, depending on the amount of information being indexed.

Waited a minute, invoked Spotlight, searched for several apps in my Apps folder and it failed to find Apps and put them right at the top of the Spotlight hits about 80% of the time nor did Spotlight displayed the word “Indexing” under the results which is usually does when you try and re-index a drive.

So ran Terminal and did this:

Last login: Sun Nov 24 12:31:21 on console
bobby@Roberts-iMac ~ % mdutil -sa
/:
Indexing enabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
Indexing disabled.
/System/Volumes/Preboot:
Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/TimeMachine 1:
Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/TimeMachine 2:
Indexing enabled.
bobby@Roberts-iMac ~ % sudo mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data
Password:
/System/Volumes/Data:
Indexing enabled.
bobby@Roberts-iMac ~ %

 

[Ben J.]

I had the same problem. I fixed it by recreating the Spotlight db:
1. Add the whole disk to the privacy exclusions in System Settings - Spotlight - Search Privacy
2. Remove the disk
3. Wait for the re-indexing to complete. Might take some hours. You'll see the progress in the spotlight search dialog.

Fixed it for me.

 

[Speed38]

Fixed it for me.

I tried that first, low-hanging fruit and all, but it failed to do anything. Had to take the nuclear option I set forth.

 

[p33t3r]

BTW, my problem came back a while after my re-install of 15.1, but it seems that 15.2 has fixed the problem, at least for me for now.

 

[younker]

I have the issue now on 15.3.1 and 15.4 beta. and the solution worked for me this time. But I hope Apple can permanently solve the problem.

 

[emdub]

Problem is back in 15.4