Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
1
vote
2answers
386 views
Spotlight: Unable to index network SMB share
I'm trying to turn on spotlight for my NAS drive. I have it mounted in OSX 10.8.2 as the following:
/Volumes/Trogdor (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by soltrain)
mdutil returns the following:
...
0
votes
1answer
11 views
Why doesn't iPhoto show up in Spotlight search results?
Recently I noticed that if I do a Spotlight search (using the Spotlight menu on the menu bar), the iPhoto application is not included in the results. If I open a Finder window to the Applications ...
6
votes
3answers
147 views
How to add folder to Spotlight “do not index”?
Is there any way to programmatically add a folder to Spotlight's "Privacy" tab?
Either through Terminal or Applescript?
Often I want to click on an item in Spotlight results in Finder, and have that ...
7
votes
5answers
591 views
How can I create a Saved Search that excludes a specific folder from the results?
I'm trying to set up a Saved Search of my Mac that will exclude files in a folder called 'XYZ' from the search results. The reason is because I'm getting a ton of false positives from that folder that ...
2
votes
1answer
221 views
Why do some app spotlight results show the “.app” extension, but not all?
Even though I've explicitly set the Finder preference to display all file extensions, I'm still finding that some apps do not show the file name extension in their Spotlight result.
Here are some ...
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. ...
2
votes
1answer
30 views
Spotlight does not find file
I have the file Rprofile.site in /Macintosh HD/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/
Searching 'Rprofile.site' in Spotlight does not find the file, and I have to manually go to the folder containing the ...
0
votes
2answers
37 views
How to find files not containing comment x?
I try to find all "*.xyz" files in folder x which does not have comment "abc". This code does the opposite. I would prefer to use Spotlight if possible. How i can do this?
Thanks
do shell script ...
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
0answers
8 views
What backup methods preserve kMDItemDateAdded?
The attribute kMDItemDateAdded corresponds to the "Date added" column in the Finder, and is especially useful for the Downloads directory. Unfortunately, this attribute is not part of the filesystem ...
1
vote
1answer
280 views
Rules for Spotlight search (on osx 10.8)
I absolutely do not understand the rules that Spotlight (osx 10.8) uses to search my files. If I enter the query sbml and select filename from the dropdown menu, these are the results that come up:
...
0
votes
1answer
518 views
Spotlight doesn't work anymore in OS X Mountain Lion
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.
1
vote
1answer
20 views
Auto switch input source to English when entering Spotlight, typing URL in Safari, etc
I don't have files with non-english names, and don't type non-latin URL's, so question is how to auto switch system input source in these occasions.
1
vote
1answer
61 views
What's wrong with my Outlook search?
Ever since doing OS X 10.8 updates, a pair of machines with Outlook refuse to look back further than 2 weeks during e-mail searches. Spotlight settings all look OK. I even forced an index ...
0
votes
2answers
202 views
Spotlight on mid-2012 MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion Constantly Re-Indexing
On my 4-month old mid-2012 MacBook Pro I observe that Spotlight seems to want to ALWAYS re-index. I frequently notice that the performance will get unbearably slow and I can hear the hard drive ...
0
votes
1answer
859 views
Mac OS X Lion, can't find network files over SMB protocol using the Spotlight
I tried to find some files in a network volume mounted in a Mac OS X Lion over SMB using Spotlight. Didn't work.
BUT, when I tried the same search from a Mac OS X Snow Leopard it worked perfectly.
...
2
votes
2answers
103 views
How do I use Spotlight to find all MP3 that are encoded at 320 kbps?
In order to save more space on my music collection, I want to use XLD to convert all my CBR (constant bit rate) 320 kbps MP3 to VBR (variable bit rate).
How do I use Spotlight to find all 320 kbps ...
1
vote
1answer
27 views
Spotlight not indexing attachments of exchange Mail
I recently got a MBP and really love how quick spotlight is. I'm reading my exchange email via the Apple Mail app. The messages are indexed by spotlight but the contents of the attachments are not.
...
27
votes
8answers
17k views
How to stop OS X from writing Spotlight and Trash files to memory cards and USB sticks?
When plugging a USB stick into a Mac, OS X creates a number of hidden files on the stick, including a Spotlight index and Trash folder.
Example from the terminal for a USB stick "Untitled":
$ ls -a ...
0
votes
0answers
15 views
Is there a way to omit certain directories from where Mac OSX finds applications for its Applescript dictionaries et al?
Mac OSX maintains a list of applications for Applescript dictionaries, for the open-with list in finder etc.
This list gets collected from local directories (e.g. /Applications) but it finds as well ...
2
votes
1answer
36 views
Spotlight Doesn't Properly Show Preference Panes
I'm having an issue where Spotlight isn't properly showing results for System Preference panels. When I search for a preference panel by name (e.g. Sharing or Network), I don't get any System ...
1
vote
2answers
43 views
Using mdfind to evaluate the text content of a specified file?
I would like write an applescript to evaluate whether a particular file contains a specified string (perhaps as part of an if... then statement). I want to invoke a shell command using mdfind to do ...
0
votes
1answer
88 views
Can Spotlight show results for disconnected drives?
I have several external hard drives which I would like to search for files with Spotlight. They cannot be all connected at the same time.
How can I get Spotlight results for offline external hard ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views
Finder spotlight tool not “grepping” through all file types?
We've got this development stack that's mostly javascript, and if I'm looking for a variable definition or something I can use Finder's spotlight tool to easily find the file that contains the ...
5
votes
1answer
209 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, ...
2
votes
1answer
71 views
Spotlight for currency conversion
I know that Calculator app has ability to convert currencies but is it possible to get this shortcut in Spotlight like that:
currency 100 USD to GBP
18
votes
11answers
38k views
How to fix slow Spotlight and Time Machine after upgrading to 10.7.5?
Since updating to 10.7.5 both Spotlight and Time Machine are very slow.
To index a normal system drive Spotlight calculates to need several days.
As a result Time Machine takes up to an hour or more ...
0
votes
0answers
75 views
Document files with incorrect date stamps
Often the document files I create, modify and save show up only to have incorrect date stamps, as if they haven't been indexed correctly (or at all). This happens with any document file type ...
3
votes
2answers
163 views
How can I do a full text search of plaintext files in my DropBox folder?
I understand that Spotlight will search the full text of files in any folder and will show files that contain instances of the searched text. But I would also like to see highlighted instances of the ...
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?
4
votes
6answers
1k views
Spotlight is broken on my main partition in OS X 10.7.4
Not long after updating my main OS X installation from Snow Leopard to Lion, Spotlight stopped working on that partition, and I'm desparately trying to get it working again. It will find no files for ...
0
votes
1answer
3k views
How to delete email messages from Spotlight search on iPhone?
I have a iPhone 4S running iOS 6. Spotlight seems to find deleted e-mails on iPhone, how can I delete e-mails permanently from Spotlight results?
Could this potentially be a bug in iOS 6? I am ...
0
votes
1answer
94 views
Remove all references to Parallels 7 Windows 7 VM programs
My system has been polluted with references to programs residing in a Windows 7 VM in Parallels 7.
For example, Windows programs show up in Spotlight, and in Safari settings under General->Default ...
3
votes
2answers
150 views
Have Automator add original path to Spotlight Comment for a file when moving to the trash
Is there a way to add the original path of a document as a Spotlight comment in Mountain Lion?
I have created an automator workflow that automatically adds the Timestamp and user when a file is moved ...
0
votes
1answer
106 views
Mac - spotlight stuck on top
How do I get rid of it? It doesn't show up on task manager. It isn't dead, it responds to the mouse wheel and scrolls up and down.
Screen shot below...
2
votes
2answers
92 views
Spotlight Cmd+Enter to open containing folder does not work
When you type something in spotlight, highlight a result and hit Command+Enter, it should open the containing folder in finder (For reference). However, it does not work on my OSX 10.8.2 MBPR. The ...
3
votes
2answers
91 views
Non-recursive spotlight search?
When using the Spotlight search at the top right of a finder window, I often want the search to be non-recursive, i.e. only look at files in that specific directory, not any directories within it. Is ...
1
vote
2answers
86 views
Does the search in Finder need spotlight?
I just reinstalled OS X Lion and turned off the spotlight immediately.
I noticed that search in Finder stopped working. Is this because of disabling spotlight? Is there a way to get this back without ...
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
138 views
Quicksilver and Spotlight
I have found that I need to run both Quicksilver and Spotlight. I consider this to be a waste of CPU and memory and would like to eliminate one of them probably Spotlight. The reason I would like to ...
0
votes
1answer
28 views
Index screenshots
I want to be able to search through text in my screenshots that I made. Prizmo does the OCR feature pretty well and also has an Automator action provided. Unfortunately, though, I have no idea how to ...
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 ...
2
votes
0answers
344 views
Why can't I search files and folders on my external NTFS drive on Mountain Lion?
I have tried to re-index my external drive by removing it from Spotlight's privacy settings and putting it back there. I tried with mdutil in the terminal and I've got the following log:
bb:~ bb$ ...
-1
votes
3answers
128 views
How can I hide the privacy tab from Spotlight.prefpane?
I am using spotlight search on my MacBook, and am excluding a few folders from spotlight search. My problem with Apple's method of excluding the folders is that excluding them actually calls attention ...
3
votes
1answer
120 views
Spotlight search iTunes Match
Back before I used iTunes Match, I enjoyed being able to search my library via spotlight. Now it seems that this doesn't work anymore. I guess this is because the music is not stored locally, but ...
0
votes
0answers
44 views
Why does “ATSFontFindFromContainer failed: count = 2” appear thousands of times in my system.log?
Just now, I looked at Console Messages and system.log in the Console application. I saw thousands of repetitions of messages like the following:
Dec 30 00:01:54 MyName-2 com.apple.quicklook[39867]:
...
0
votes
1answer
311 views
How to make Spotlight index PDF documents to search faster or on my command?
I need to search some words in many PDF documents. It worked very well when I searched over old documents but my OS X has not indexed yet the new PDFs. How can I search over the new PDFs?
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. ...
3
votes
2answers
76 views
Disable dictionary results in Spotlight?
How can I remove dictionary results from Spotlight results? I've typed "chrome" into Spotlight and looked up chrome in the Dictionary one too many times, and now opening Chrome takes an extra ...
0
votes
0answers
75 views
Add spotlight indexing for CSV files
On my system (Mountain Lion) Spotlight doesn't do a full-text search for comma-separated values, but I can search them with Spotlight if I rename them to .txt for example.
Is there a way that I can ...
