Spotlight showing Developer

[CavemanMike]

Spotlight search doesn't have developer as a category I can uncheck.

I seemingly don't have Xcode installed (and I don't think I ever did).

It leaves spotlight so cluttered and terrible looking, I'm not using it anymore, now that I discovered Alfred.

So, this problem isn't really upsetting me now that I'm not using spotlight, but am slightly curious having only spent about 10 minutes searching for a solution, I gave up.

Not a big deal, but if you know, I'd love to too!

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Shirasaki]

Does those xxx.c, xxx.h files look just like files only developer could create?
But if there is no option to uncheck this category, then it is bad.
But mine does have a "developer" category, although I have Xcode installed.

 

[KALLT]

Have you perhaps installed the developer command-line tools? Some programs require them, such as package managers. They should be located in /Library/Developer.

I am not sure which process is responsible for adding the developer menu. But if the checkbox is not there, you might be able to disable it in Terminal. You can check first whether the relevant entry is there or not:

defaults read com.apple.spotlight orderedItems

Check for a value called “SOURCE”. If none is there, then add it with this command:

defaults write com.apple.spotlight orderedItems -array-add '{ name = SOURCE; enabled = 0; }'

If the value is there, then you can temporarily replace the entire key with the command below. Afterwards, open Spotlight settings in System Preferences and check/uncheck (or vice-versa) a random entry to repopulate the list.

defaults write com.apple.spotlight orderedItems -array '{ name = SOURCE; enabled = 0; }'

Alternatively, you can do all this by editing the com.apple.spotlight.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences with an editor that supports this format, or you just use Prefs Editor.