Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
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)? ...
3
votes
1answer
564 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 ...
1
vote
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
vote
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
2answers
244 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
271 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 ...
1
vote
2answers
145 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
118 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
2answers
185 views
How can I alter the spotlight category spreadsheets to include ODS
In Lion, the "All My Files" smart folder in finder is based on spotlight search categories. While I can see how from System Preferences->Spotlight->Search Results I can alter the order of these as ...
1
vote
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 ...
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
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 ...
5
votes
4answers
2k views
Why would you choose Alfred over Spotlight?
Mac OS X is already loaded with Apple Spotlight, why use Alfred?
What does Alfred bring to the table that Spotlight doesn't?
5
votes
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
2
votes
3answers
699 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
215 views
Tips for using spotlight with webpages served via https
I've started using spotlight with webpages today. It will actually index the content of web pages in your history and bookmarks. It's great. But I can't find any documentation on how to use it.
...
5
votes
1answer
210 views
Why is mdfind only returning my most recently accessed files?
I've imported most of a javascript code base via mdimport (using the packaged SourceCode.mdimporter provided by Xcode) and it succeeds. However, mdfind only ever returns to me at most two results, ...
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).
...
7
votes
5answers
7k views
Spotlight reports “Indexing and searching disabled” in Lion
Lion keeps "losing track" of Spotlight information. Directories and Applications disappear, full text searches stop working, etc. I seem to need to re-index it once a week or so.
However, now it ...
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 ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Can I make a symlink (to a .app folder) in Applications directory show up in spotlight?
I used brew to install MacVim and it put it in /usr/local/Cellar/macvim/7.3-61/MacVim.app
I would like to be able to go to spotlight and type MacVim to launch the app. I tried creating a symlink in ...
3
votes
1answer
239 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 ...
4
votes
2answers
203 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 ...
24
votes
3answers
4k views
How to place Dictionary definitions higher up in spotlight results
I used to use spotlight fairly frequently to quickly look up words in a dictionary. With Lion, I've noticed that my dictionary results have dropped down much lower in the list of results:
I'd like ...
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 ...
11
votes
6answers
10k views
Why does Spotlight keep reindexing my system after updating to Lion?
Since I installed Lion, the Spotlight database keeps reindexing (which is taking several hours). It does this at least every second day.
Are any other users experiencing this problem with Lion (i.e. ...
2
votes
0answers
222 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 ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
Can you get SL “Today” folder behavior in Lion?
Snow Leopard had a default smart folder called "Today". This folder was awesome! All "Open" dialog boxes could easily display all of the files you've worked on "Today" (which are probably the ones you ...
4
votes
5answers
5k views
Lion not searching SMB volume
I just upgraded to Lion on my work computer and it seems like Spotlight doesn't index SMB volumes. This used to work for me perfectly under Snow Leopard. I've talked with Apple and they said it was ...
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
3answers
558 views
Login hangs on spotlight and no network is available
After upgrading to Lion, I boot up and most of my icons don't appear on the right side of the top menu bar and when I hover over spotlight, I get the spinning pinwheel and there's no network access. ...
8
votes
5answers
8k views
Searching by file name (as opposed to name and contents) in Lion
In earlier versions of OSX, when you search in a Finder window, it gave you the choice of searching by contents or file name. In Lion this choice seems to have disappeared, I can only search by ...
0
votes
3answers
601 views
Keyboard shortcut for Spotlight doesn't work in full screen Google Chrome on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
I've noticed that the Spotlight Search keyboard shortcut (cmd space) doesn't work if I'm running Google Chrome (12.0.742.122) as full screen application in Lion.
Is this a Chrome-related bug or is ...
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
votes
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 ...
3
votes
1answer
207 views
How to add Spotlight comments to the bundled OS X apps?
I'd like to add a Spotlight comment to TextEdit.app. Is that possible?
What I've done:
Open Finder
Browse to /Applications/
Select TextEdit
Press ⌘ + I (Get Info)
Click the lock icon to unlock the ...
0
votes
1answer
345 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, ...
1
vote
2answers
220 views
Mac not searching my files
Today I started my Mac (iMac) and when I tried to search in finder or spotlight it produce no results. I think its related to the search cache. I guess it gets corrupted. If this is the case How can I ...
2
votes
1answer
803 views
Spotlight sometimes can't find a file. (that actually exists)
I don't really understand how Spotlight works, I sometimes search for a file that I know it exists, and Spotlight doesn't find it.
Then I browse to it and it's there.
The volume or folders where it is ...
1
vote
1answer
190 views
Make Spotlight show files on unmounted volumes
Is there a way to make Spotlight show files that reside in different unmounted Volumes?
I think there is no official way of doing this, and that Apple does not provide a plugin API that allows this ...
3
votes
2answers
162 views
Removed Spotlight, now there's a gap I can't get rid of
I disabled and removed spotlight from my menubar to save performance and space. Now except for saving some space, I have a gap in my menu-bar I'd like to get rid of:
Anyone an idea how to get it ...
2
votes
2answers
383 views
Help: spotlight can't see Firefox in Applications folder?
(FYI, I'm using Snow Leopard.) I used to launch Firefox using spotlight by just typing "Firefox" to locate it. Since I didn't launch Firefox often, I didn't want it in my dock, so I just got in that ...
1
vote
3answers
239 views
Alternative to Quicksilver Triggers
Well after using QS for quite some time, it no longer works...Even when loading it on a clean SL build with latest Apple updates. When I set up a trigger they will only work until I reboot. At that ...
3
votes
4answers
1k views
Is it possible to run commands from spotlight?
I run commands in terminal a lot and i'm wondering if it is possible to run the commands from spotlight. For example in spotlight would like to run the command(because i have a lot of network ...
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 ...
