Am I missing something? When I use Spotlight to find items I need to delete (say when I am deleting an application and trying to find and remove all preferences, etc.) and then move them to the Trash, their locations in Spotlight are not updated in real time. This can result in confusion as to which items I have moved to the Trash and which I haven't. Of course I can always just look in the Trash but I would expect that Spotlight should updates its search results for me. Am I wrong or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
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Why Doesn't Spotlight Update Search Results as Items are Moved?
- Thread starter sgmorr
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It's just a bad interface. Spotlight searches are able to get this information, you can see this if you use Spotlight from the Finder and have the delete button in your toolbar (the delete button will be faded out). For whatever reason, they decided not to make this information easier for people to find.
It's a good idea to send feedback to Apple about problems like this. Then they can get a better idea of what bugs users actually care about
It's a good idea to send feedback to Apple about problems like this. Then they can get a better idea of what bugs users actually care about
Thanks, but I don't think I explained my problem in enough detail. Spotlight correctly updates when I add anything to my HD. The problem I have is this. For example, suppose I wish to delete the browser, MS IE from my HD. I then do a Spotlight search. It shows me the app in Applications and then maybe something in Preferences at the user level and then maybe something in Preferences at the System level. Then I look at the results in the Show All view and then begin to selectively delete items I want to remove. When something is deleted, its path in the Spotlight search result does not change. The app, MS IE, may have been moved to the Trash but it still shows up in Applications. Of course, I know I could close Spotlight and then do a new search for MS IE and it would show up in Trash but this seems lame. Prior to Spotlight, I could do a Find search and when something was moved to the Trash, it showed up in Trash in real time. Thanks.
iMeowbot said:It's just a bad interface. Spotlight searches are able to get this information, you can see this if you use Spotlight from the Finder and have the delete button in your toolbar (the delete button will be faded out). For whatever reason, they decided not to make this information easier for people to find.
It's a good idea to send feedback to Apple about problems like this. Then they can get a better idea of what bugs users actually care about
What do you mean by using Spotlight from the Finder? Do you mean using it from the little blue magnifying glass or do you mean expanding the search by selecting "show all"? Also, which delete button are you talking about? Thanks.
Right, if you use the search from the Finder toolbar, that's also a Spotlight search. To see the delete button I mentioned, control-click on the toolbar, pick customize, and drag the red delete button up there.sgmorr said:
If you run a Spotlight search from inside the Finder and delete some of the results, the deleted items won't turn gray or anything, but they will be shown as deleted in the status bar at the bottom, and the delete button in the toolbar will be faded. The "basic" Spotlight search from the menu bar won't even tell you that much
Thanks, iMeowbot, the status bar at the bottom of a File > Find Spotlight search is more what I had in mind. Thanks for pointing that out. I had just been stuck using Spotlight from the blue magnifying glass icon. I like the Finder version better I believe.
Is the File > Find version different in any other way from the Spotlight icon version or is this just a different presentation of the same function? Why so much duplication? Thanks.
Is the File > Find version different in any other way from the Spotlight icon version or is this just a different presentation of the same function? Why so much duplication? Thanks.