trying to force SPOTLIGHT on VENTURA

[wfriedwald]

For years and years now, I have had problems with SPOTLIGHT on certain external drives. For no reason that I can figure out, SPOTLIGHT just doesn't work on these drives. I have posted here and in many other forums, and no one has been able to figure out why.

Okay, so far, that was all pre-VENTURA.

But now, I have a new 16TB drive - I filled it with about 8TB worth of files, and SPOTLIGHT is NOT working on it.

* can anyone provide me with a basic to-do of how to force SPOTLIGHT? (I know, the usual first step is taking it in an out of the do-not-index preferences pane in what is now called SETTINGS.)

* does anyone know if VENTURA has updated any aspect of SPOTLIGHT that might be helpful?

thanks as always for any suggestions / feedback

Happy Holidays - as my late father used to say, "Have a Merry XMAS and a Harry Connicka!"

w

 

[fisherking]

is it mac-formatted? are the other ones mac-formatted?

 

[wfriedwald]

yes, thanks, I forgot to put that in the post, yes, am attaching a screen shot. Yes, in Mac Format. Good point!

 

[fisherking]

the disks mount without issue?

try adding the new drive into the privacy window (with the '+' sign) in system settings>siri & spotlight>spotlight. click 'done'. maybe quit system prefs, reboot... then go back to that window and remove the new drive from that window; see if that forces spotlight to index it...

 

[wfriedwald]

okay, worth a try.

I tried that process just now, but only waited a minute before putting the drive BACK in the window. I'll try rebooting in the middle and see what happens.

first put drive into window
shut down & restart -
then take Drive OUT of window

Okay! I shall try!

w

 

[wfriedwald]

wow! this is very strange!

I put the drive into the window.
then I shut down
then I powered up again
and I look in the window
and the drive is NOT there - what??

somehow when I restart, the drive is NO LONGER in the window.
I swear I didn't take it out!

can anyone advise? this is quite the strangest spotlight-centric issue ever!

(PS: I tried this twice in a row, just to be sure, and it happened both times.)

 

[fisherking]

try dragging it in (make sure you click "done", then close the window. don't even restart, just reopen settings, check the window, it should be there. if it is, click on it and select the minus button, and click done...

 

[wfriedwald]

okay, yes, I added it,
clicked done
closed the window
exited settings

then re-opened settings
and yes, it's still there

so now I just took it out, I will report back if I can use spotlight to find anything on the 16TB drive.

thanks!

W

 

[fisherking]

okay, yes, I added it,
clicked done
closed the window
exited settings

then re-opened settings
and yes, it's still there

so now I just took it out, I will report back if I can use spotlight to find anything on the 16TB drive.

thanks!

W

give spotlight a little time to index everything on the drive. if this works, you can repeat the process with any other external drives that have the issue...

 

[wfriedwald]

thank you once again!

I remember, in older MAC OS systems, when SPOTLIGHT was in the middle of the indexing process, there would be a very small red dot (is that right) under the spotlight icon - but now it no longer does that, correct? Is there any way to tell if SPOTLIGHT is actually currently indexing or not?

Thanks yet again, I'll wait an hour or two and then try again.

w

 

[fisherking]

thank you once again!

I remember, in older MAC OS systems, when SPOTLIGHT was in the middle of the indexing process, there would be a very small red dot (is that right) under the spotlight icon - but now it no longer does that, correct? Is there any way to tell if SPOTLIGHT is actually currently indexing or not?

Thanks yet again, I'll wait an hour or two and then try again.

w

or just try a search now. & make sure the file types you want searched are checked in system preferences>siri & spotilight...

 

[wfriedwald]

yeah, not surprisingly, it's not working.

my test is:

I have the exact same file on two different drives:

yes SPOTLIGHT DID find the file on the first drive

but no, SPOTLIGHT did NOT find the exact same file on the other drive.

so back to the drawing board!

w

 

[fisherking]

try opening a finder window, go to your external drive, try the search option in that window (upper right); make sure the external drive is selected in search (upper left of the window)...

 

[wfriedwald]

thanks again. But, as before, SPOTLIGHT is NOT able to access anything on the drive, no matter how I look for it - whether in SPOTLIGHT itself or the finder or any other means. But worth trying, so thank you!

w

 

[fisherking]

thanks again. But, as before, SPOTLIGHT is NOT able to access anything on the drive, no matter how I look for it - whether in SPOTLIGHT itself or the finder or any other means. But worth trying, so thank you!

w

you're saying that if you go to the drive, open a finder window, and search that drive in the finder window, it does not find anything? this is not using spotlight...


EDIT: you could check out an app like find any file (i live & die by this app; and it's also on the app store...)

 

[wfriedwald]

no, I was using spotlight - I went to the window, clicked on the SPOTLIGHT icon, and specified that drive ... I can show you a screenshot, but yes, I was legitimately using spotlight.

I will be happy to check out FIND ANY FILE!

I also use (and recommend) both HOUDAH SPOT and NEOFINDER as third-party apps to help me find stuff. Both essential.

w

 

[wfriedwald]

hey, thank you for FIND ANY FILE - - - yes! it worked. it found the test file on the 16TB drive.

Now I have to figure out how to make FIND ANY FILE more customizable, ie, if I'm looking for a song, is there a way to search via the TITLE and the AUTHOR (artist) together? I will look into it - HOUDAH can do that, but it runs off SPOTLIGHT so it isn't always as useful.

thank YOU!

w

 

[fisherking]

hey, thank you for FIND ANY FILE - - - yes! it worked. it found the test file on the 16TB drive.

Now I have to figure out how to make FIND ANY FILE more customizable, ie, if I'm looking for a song, is there a way to search via the TITLE and the AUTHOR (artist) together? I will look into it - HOUDAH can do that, but it runs off SPOTLIGHT so it isn't always as useful.

thank YOU!

w

you still need to try a FINDER SEARCH, as i suggested.

open a finder window, click upper right, enter the file name. select your external drive (upper left), and it should find that file.. on that drive...

 

[wfriedwald]

I think I am doing it correctly, here, I'm enclosing two screenshots:

the first (I believe) is a finder search.

The second is FIND ANY FILE.

Tell me if I'm doing anything incorrectly!

thanks again!

 

[fisherking]

you can select the specific disk you want to search on with 'find any file' (instead of 'all disks'); and once you get results, click the white eye with the line thru it to NOT see invisible files or package contents (or trash); you do not want to mess with those files!