Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
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0answers
208 views
Spotlight Woes! Can't search, can't reindex, can't find
Help!
Spotlight stopped working ... if I go to spotlight search (top right), it just hangs.
Same with Apple-F in Finder ... it causes Finder to hang for a minute or so. Cannot search.
I went to ...
0
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0answers
98 views
Search across networked drives that are only sometimes connected
I've got networked drives at work and networked drives at home. What's a way to set up search so that it automatically applies searches to each drive when connected without having to rebuild the index ...
3
votes
2answers
285 views
Can I use Spotlight to search for files by name?
My most common search pattern is to search for files based on their name. When I try this in Spotlight (cmd-space) it rarely works. Is there a way to make Spotlight search for file names, and to place ...
0
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1answer
141 views
Is there a way Spotlight indexes my Skim bookmarks/notes ?
I find Skim is a great pdf file reader and want to spend a great deal of time adding notes and bookmarks to some of the pdf files I have.
I know Spotlight indexes pdf files but it doesn't seem to ...
1
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1answer
102 views
How to find out which file triggered an action from spotlight
I've created an applescript application (in automator) to open ssh urls. The application is bound to the ssh:// url.
I've got a lot of user@host.inetloc files and search these in spotlight. Selecting ...
1
vote
2answers
418 views
Does Spotlight search work with a Time Capsule?
I would like to use a Time Capsule as a file server for 3-4 Macs in a small network.
I've 600 GB of data, and a lot of small files. My colleagues work a lot with Spotlight to find files. I would like ...
2
votes
3answers
72 views
Can you tweak or customize Spotlight to find first specific files and folders?
For example, I have two folders named Edit but the one I use most frequently, shows up second on Spotlight.
Can you anyhow influence the precedence and importance of found files in Spotlight?
0
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2answers
175 views
Sorting of Spotlight's search results is disabled in Lion
I can't sort Spotlight's search results - sorting by Name, Date Modified, et. al appears to be disabled. Google seems to be useless in finding a resolution to this - although I suspect a previous ...
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0answers
215 views
“Search files” in a NAS using AFP and Samba?
I've a Synology NAS with all data from our Mac company division, 1 Terabyte of data.
The problem is that the "search" files isn't working. Before, we used Spotlight with success: it works, and it was ...
1
vote
1answer
536 views
Finder crashes when searching in spotlight or opening Applications folder
I have a non-admin account (Standard account) that I normally use on my iMac. For the past 2 days I have been having a really strange issue.
If I search for "Chrome" or "Firefox" on spotlight, ...
1
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1answer
146 views
Smart “Applications” folder
How to create a "smart" Applications folder that unifies the content of other three folders?
In my machine I have three versions of OS X installed (for testing purposes) in different partitions, each ...
5
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3answers
2k views
How do I make Spotlight stop indexing my Backup drive?
I have a 2TB external drive I use for Time Machine. At random intervals, it will decide to spin up and my entire UI freezes until it's finished. This is incredibly annoying.
It appears that this is ...
0
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2answers
578 views
iPhone 4/4s Spotlight Search Problem
Spotlight Search on iPhone 4s doesn't show any results.
Everything is checked under Settings -> General -> Spotlight Search.
Restart doesn't help. New contacts don't appear.
2
votes
3answers
330 views
Changing OS X Spotlight priorities for specific applications
I'd like to fiddle with Spotlight's priorities so that when I enter 'photo', my first returned result is Adobe Photoshop, and not Photo Booth.
I understand how to change priorities for or disable ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views
Adding tags to files in OS X: How to use, where are tags stored, and will they work on a network?
I've heard it is possible to add tags to a file's meta data in OS X, and have Spotlight search through such tags.
In a nutshell, how would one access this feature in Finder – not Spotlight ...
8
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3answers
6k views
How do I disable Spotlight?
How can I disable Spotlight completely on Mac OS X Lion?
It's using up a lot of resources and I never really use it, so I want to disable it.
The only feature I might want to keep is the icon in the ...
5
votes
1answer
316 views
Make Spotlight indexing use less CPU?
Whenever spotlight begins indexing my files, my computer's fan starts spinning like crazy. Is there any way to essentially tell spotlight that it doesn't need to finish as quickly as possible, and ...
4
votes
1answer
886 views
Spotlight, infinite indexing, secondary drives, and NAS
I have several Mac OS X 10.5.8 editing bays, each with at least one additional internal drive, most sized 500GB-1TB. All Macs are also sharing a NAS Isilon cluster 100TB (nfs mount) for shared media ...
1
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2answers
398 views
In Lion Spotlight search results, how do I find which folder contains a specific file?
I recently upgraded to Lion. I also installed Microsoft Office 2011. In Spotlight, how do I now find in which folder a document is? It used to be that hovering the mouse over the doc would show the ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
How do so set “date added” metadata in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
The Finder in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion shows a new piece of file metadata, "Date Added," which tracks the date an item was added to a folder. After upgrading to 10.7, none of the items in my ~/Downloads ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
Any side-effects when sharing a Time Machine backup disk between Lion and Snow Leopard?
Is there anything to consider if I want to share a Time Machine backup drive between a Lion machine and a Snow Leopard machine (a USB drive that I would be rotating between the two computers)? ...
1
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2answers
144 views
Spotlight indexes wrong HD
Mac Mini Server, OSX Server 10.6.8, dual drive
I cloned the first hard disk (HD1) to HD2 using CCC, thus creating a bootable copy.
However, now I discover that when I startup from HD2, Spotlight has ...
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0answers
324 views
Spotlight has been indexing for 3 months [closed]
I have had a major problem with my Spotlight, it has been indexing for 3 months.
3
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1answer
557 views
How do I open a file from Spotlight in Finder?
When I search for something e.g. a PDF file, in Spotlight and has i displayed in the search results list. How can I open the file in Finder? If I click on it, the file is opened e.g. in the pdf ...
2
votes
1answer
332 views
Prevent automatic removal of the Spotlight index due to low disk space
I am guessing that when disk space runs low, it automatically deletes the Spotlight index to make room for virtual memory. Then when space becomes available it reindexes. But I'm not sure about that. ...
1
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2answers
470 views
Spotlight indexing of back up drive
I've seen some posts about whether you can stop spotlight constantly indexing your time machine backup drive. It seems you can't have it attached to your computer and not have it indexed.
I have been ...
1
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1answer
555 views
How can I enable search by filename in finder on Lion
Before switching to Lion (on Snow leopard) I used to open a directory (like my Downloads) and start searching using the search box at the top right of the finder window for a file and there was an ...
1
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1answer
310 views
Spotlight is disabled for my main volume
$ sudo mdutil -i on /
/:
Error: unable to perform operation. (-400)
No index.
Lately, I'm low on drive space on my main volume. But after I just deleted some stuff, the error remains:
$df -h
...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
Spotlight can't see renamed label in Lion
Spotlight has an operator, -label, that lets you search for files with a certain color label applied (e.g. Red, Green.) A dropdown auto-populates with label colors when you type the operator into a ...
0
votes
2answers
243 views
How would I restore Spotlight search to my menu bar? (10.7)
For some inexplicable reason, I decided to delete (not hide) Spotlight from my Mac via a terminal command. I downloaded the 10.7.2 update, hoping it would fix this by redownloading Spotlight, but it ...
2
votes
1answer
266 views
.app extension in Spotlight or Alfred
I would like to have all applications names displayed without the .app extension in Spotlight or Alfred. Reeder for example is listed as "Reeder", whereas Sparrow is listed as "Sparrow.app".
Which ...
3
votes
1answer
342 views
Force Spotlight to index a normally un-indexed folder
Spotlight only indexes a limited number of folders and doesn't index all of the files on your system. This makes sense and for the average user this usually isn't a problem. However, I recently ...
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1answer
117 views
Spotlight and Alfred can't find Photo Booth
For some reason, neither Spotlight nor Alfred can find the Photo Booth app. The app clearly exists in the Applications folder, and it runs fine, but typing in Photo Booth to Spotlight only returns ...
2
votes
0answers
221 views
How can I integrate custom search app's results to my iPhone's spotlight search? [closed]
Is it possible to extend iOS spotlight's search results to include
data from my application? My iOS app has a separate search interface
but it would be great if there was a way to provide the results ...
1
vote
2answers
196 views
Spotlight can't find m4a files
I used to use Spotlight to directly start iTunes at a track I wanted to listen to by searching for it. However since upgrading to Lion I've not been able to do this with .m4a music files (mp3s still ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How can I set Spotlight metadata to files?
I am looking for a command line utility (I need to use it in a script) that can set Spotlight metadata to files.
0
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0answers
195 views
How can I view the items in the Spotlight cache?
I'd like to view the data spotlight has imported. Is this possible?
EDIT: For example I can do this:
mdutil -svvv /Volumes/h8rdrive
and find out this volume was indexed.
I'd kind of like to ...
1
vote
1answer
278 views
Do I need to re-index my Volume?
I recently installed a brand new HD in my macbook pro.
I did this by cloning the original drive.
Everything (almost) is working fine, but I did give the Volume a different name, it used to be ...
2
votes
3answers
693 views
How to create a spotlight search for all files inside a folder?
In Lion, you have All My Files to search everything in your home folder. However, when you activate finder's spotlight, via command + F you can start searching only by first typing something.
How can ...
6
votes
1answer
85 views
Indexing words separated by underscores
When searching using Spotlight for, say, the word "Exotic", it fails to report the file Important_Exotic_Class.h, containing a C++ class by that name.
Can you think of a method to make Spotlight ...
3
votes
1answer
238 views
Delaying spotlight indexing to avoid the fan noise
I am attending a meeting in a quiet room where everyone has a soft voice, and my mac decides to index for spotlight (the job is 'mds'), bringing the fan to 6200rpm. It's not too bad, just a bit ...
3
votes
1answer
93 views
Spotlight pop-up effects
I saw someone with a Macbook Pro using the Spotlight feature several times, and every time the Spotlight opened, it used a certain effect that's not like what I see in other Macs (I use Leopard).
...
3
votes
1answer
325 views
Limit Spotlight to mail
The thing is I hate Spotlight like every software burning my cpu for no reason when I am working and I could put my cpu to better use BUT it is required to search in mail bodies with Mail so I still ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views
How long should Lion take to set up Spotlight?
I updated my Mac from Snow Leopard 10.6.8 to Lion. Everything went well. The computer restarted when the OS setup finished. Now, Spotlight setup has been running for more than two hours. Is something ...
3
votes
2answers
201 views
Is there a way to provide a sort order to an mdfind query?
In trying to get a list of all music files from a particular album using mdfind I see that the files aren't necessarily returned in any order. I'd prefer album/track order if possible, but can't find ...
1
vote
6answers
265 views
Is there a way for Spotlight or Launchbar or Quicksilver or similar to just return matching folders not files?
I frequently need to just get a finder window up that's a ton of folders deep.
There's only so many favorites you can put in the finder sidebar.
I'd happily configure a dedicated launcher to just ...
3
votes
5answers
366 views
How to increase size of the Spotlight search results window?
Is it possible to increase window width of the Spotlight search results under Mac OS X 10.6.6? I mean the semi-transparent "instant search result" window appearing at the top right corner under ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
How to disable Developer and Web Searches in Spotlight?
Yesterday I upgraded to Lion and it seems it got some additions on Spotlight - the Developer and Web Searches groups.
Sadly I couldn't find a way to disable them. There isn't an option in the ...
0
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1answer
343 views
Spotlight menu shows results, but Finder window doesn't
When I type anything into the Spotlight menu in the top right corner, I get the normal list of top results. But if I then click "Show All", or if I just go to the Finder and initiate a search there, ...
0
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1answer
113 views
how to stop spotlight indexing an attached camera
When I attach my video camera (for the purpose of importing some clips into FCP-X) I noticed that spotlight is indexing the camera (which does show up as an external disk when I connect it, via the ...
