Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
18
votes
11answers
40k 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 ...
26
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 ...
27
votes
8answers
18k 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
9k views
Spotlight indexing appears stuck, what can I do?
My Spotlight index got corrupted, preventing me from searching messages in Mail.app. I added my HD to Spotlight's privacy list to delete the index. I then removed it from the privacy list so Spotlight ...
12
votes
6answers
11k 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. ...
6
votes
5answers
4k views
How Can I Search A Specific Type of File in Mac?
Is there any way to search a specific type of file using Spotlight? I remember there was a special command or something that I had to put in front of the search phrase but I cannot remember it now.
...
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 ...
2
votes
2answers
641 views
How can I have Spotlight Comments actually get indexed by Spotlight?
I'm running the latest OS X (10.8.1). Yesterday I discovered the Spotlight Comments feature, so I went through many of my Applications and put useful comments in that field. For example, on Music ...
1
vote
3answers
387 views
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 ...
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 ...
5
votes
2answers
4k views
Removing spotlight icon from menu bar persistently
I tried to remove spotlight form the menu bar with the following trick:
sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search
killall SystemUIServer
Unfortunately if I ...
7
votes
5answers
8k 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
3k 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 ...
7
votes
5answers
716 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
959 views
How to ensure that spotlight indexes my entire drive?
Spotlight, is a fantastic tool. Took some years, but now I use the command line tools and it's awesome. However today, I found that spotlight does not index /System (!) I'd like spotlight to index ...
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 ...
6
votes
1answer
877 views
Why does my Spotlight index get corrupted?
Recently I have been having an issue where at least once a month my Spotlight index gets corrupted, and I can no longer search the content of mail in Mail.app. I can fix the problem by taking my HD ...
3
votes
1answer
631 views
Is “All My Files” slow because of my git and svn repos?
All My Files is often painfully slow, long beach ball spins when I open a new finder window.
The thing is I actually like it... and I'm wondering if perhaps it's because of all my GIT and SVN repos ...
3
votes
5answers
278 views
How useful is spotlight?
Personally, I am happy with Spotlight in the sense I just use it for finding something. But, I'm also not happy with Spotlight, as I sometimes feel it slows down my Mac pretty much. Even, I can find ...
2
votes
1answer
276 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 ...
2
votes
3answers
394 views
Mac Dictionary improvements
I tend to use the dictionary a lot on the mac. Its annoying to launch the app everytime i need to lookup a word. Are there any other apps/hacks to avoid this annoyance? Spotlight lookup is awesome, ...
2
votes
3answers
420 views
Editing iPhoto-specific metadata
Perpetua:2011-01-16 ashley$ mdls IMAG0107.jpg
...
kMDItemComment = "Cat with is tongue out."
So, here's my question. xattr can be used to modify some ...
1
vote
2answers
253 views
Exclude files from “central metadata store”
I'm fairly familiar with the mdfind utility. I find it's very useful when I can't find a file or when I need to find a file with certain contents. The problem is that I need to exclude some files from ...
7
votes
5answers
4k views
Spotlight in upper right screen corner in Mountain Lion
In the System Preferences panel for Spotlight in OS X 10.8, it claims "Spotlight is located at the top right corner of the screen". On my system, this no longer appears to be true; the Notification ...
2
votes
1answer
342 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
vote
1answer
191 views
Multiple languages for dictionary Look up in Spotlight
How can I handle several languages at the same time in Spotlight ?
When a word exists in several languages including english, Spotlight gives me results in english. I would like to have all the ...
1
vote
2answers
148 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 ...
1
vote
1answer
280 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 ...
