What's wrong with my Spotlight?

[MacDanny75]

Not sure Spotlight works the same in Leopard as it did in Tiger. Captured an example where a file in my Movies folder didn't show-up (attached).

Any hints or tips why?

Thanks!

 

[robf]

Does it show much more when you click show all?

EDIT: Also check your spotlight preferences in System Preferences, you may of unselected Movies in the search location list.

 

[TEG]

It simply appears that Spotlight hasn't indexed that folder since you updated it 5 minutes earlier. I believe that to improve speed over Tiger, the updating in Spotlight was given a larger interval. If this had been several hours or a day later and it didn't show up, then I'd be concerned.

TEG

 

[robf]

It simply appears that Spotlight hasn't indexed that folder since you updated it 5 minutes earlier. I believe that to improve speed over Tiger, the updating in Spotlight was given a larger interval. If this had been several hours or a day later and it didn't show up, then I'd be concerned.

TEG

I have just created a directory within the Movies directory and Spotlight found it within several attempts instantly.

 

[MacDanny75]

Thanks for the comments. The File was a couple of hours old. There aren't many options in Spotlight prefs in terms of how long it takes between each index. It's still not showing up. Perhaps tomorrow it would have run through it's indexing thing...

Thanks again.

 

[ihabime]

Does it find the file if you just type LAX? or Hotel?

 

[MacDanny75]

Does it find the file if you just type LAX? or Hotel?

Nope. Not even if I type in the entire file name exactly.

 

[ltldrummerboy]

Try installing MainMenu and then do this. But first go into Spotlight preferences and make sure a certain box is checked.

 

[benpatient]

I bet you a half a million bucks that Spotlight has that file in its index, and that the index doesn't need rebuilding. You've run into spotlight's "smart" new features that make it worthless for finding your files.

see my post about halfway down this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/449993/

I posted this at the Apple discussion forums and got back a few people telling me I was doing something wrong. Then I had them create a folder called 1234567 on their desktops and search for 234567. The folder they created doesn't show up. I then got a bunch of "wow, that is really dumb and frustrating" comments before the thread was deleted.

 

[MacDanny75]

Thanks all for your input.

I'll try re-building the directory, but I do have the tick-box for PDF's checked.

I've encountered similar things to the 1234567 folder test.

I think they have changed the way Spotlight serrches that is different to how it was in Tiger. Disappointing as Spotlight as contextual search was supposed to replace finder, and indeed I used it all the time. It just doesn't work anymore.

Not sure what apple are up to. If it's not broken, why 'fix' it...

 

[ihabime]

I don't think your problem is related to the 1234567 issue, I created a file called LAX to Hotel and spotlight finds it whether I type all or part of the name. It seems like your problem is related to spotlight not indexing correctly. Does spotlight find any of the files in your Movies directory? Try opening spotlight preferences and add your movies folder in the privacy tab, wait a few seconds, then remove it. That should cause that folder to be reindexed. If you still have the problem do the same for your whole home directory.