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I can't get Spotlight to search for any documents.

When I search the Finder for documents, nothing happens and the Spotlight search through the menu bar only shows up web searches.

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onyx solved the prob – polyglot Mar 1 at 21:22
Please post your answer as a real answer below, using the "Answer your question" button. Thanks! – slhck Mar 1 at 21:38

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Go to System Preferences. Click on Spotlight. Click on Privacy tab. Click "+" to add a privacy location. Select "Macintosh HD" (or whatever you have named your hard drive).

Wait a few minutes and enter System Preferences again. Go to the Spotlight Privacy tab. Select "Macintosh HD" from the privacy list and remove it.

This is a simple way to force Spotlight to re-index your system.

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Doesn't work on LION 10.8.2. Spot light won't allow me to add my HD to the privacy list. Says I don't have the permissions to do so. So, is there another solution? Or is is different for LION 10.8.2. Anyone else have any solutions? – user45665 Mar 21 at 1:34
@user45665 you will need to be a local administrator of your computer to do this. If you are then you may have permissions issues with your disk, which you can use Disk Utility to fix. – bispymusic Mar 21 at 14:08
@user45665, also just FYI... Lion is 10.7.x and Mountain Lion is 10.8.x. If you have 10.8.2 then you have Mountain Lion. My fix above works going back to (I believe) 10.4.x – bispymusic Mar 21 at 14:09

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