I am trying to understand how the new dropbox folder on macos works with Spotlight Search.
system: macbook pro, macOS 13.2.1 and DropBox v169.4.5684
This version of DropBox puts locally stored files in ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropBox
I know that many people have found that Spotlight will not index files in that directory without forcing a rebuild of the Spotlight index. I have rebuilt the Spotlight index successfully and now have the following two different behaviors:
If I use spotlight to search for any file that is stored on my mac in the directory ~/Library/CloudStorage/DropBox/tmp/ , Spotlight search is SUCCESSFUL, finding the file with a full text search or a search for the name of the file. It also reports the file's full path correctly.
But, if I navigate to that directory using the Finder and search for that file using the search box in that Finder window, that search FAILS, whether I search for the file name or the text contents of the file.
Two other bits of information:
A. the Dropbox directory itself and all the directories and files in it have extended attributes. For example, the xattr command reports these attributes for the Dropbox folder:
$ xattr -lx Dropbox
com.apple.FinderInfo:
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020
com.apple.file-provider-domain-id:
00000000 63 6F 6D 2E 67 65 74 64 72 6F 70 62 6F 78 2E 64 |com.getdropbox.d|
00000010 72 6F 70 62 6F 78 2E 66 69 6C 65 70 72 6F 76 69 |ropbox.fileprovi|
00000020 64 65 72 2F 38 65 30 34 36 66 65 35 2D 61 38 37 |der/8e046fe5-a87|
00000030 33 2D 34 62 33 36 2D 38 65 62 30 2D 62 36 34 62 |3-4b36-8eb0-b64b|
00000040 63 39 65 64 65 64 30 36 |c9eded06|
00000048
com.dropbox.attrs:
00000000 0A 12 0A 10 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF |................|
00000010 FF FF FF FF 10 F0 BD 9C 8E 0B |..........|
B. When I cd in the terminal to any of the directories in the Dropbox directory, linux commands such as ls, attr, less, and grep all work normally.
So, the files are there and Spotlight knows they are there. Why won't the directory ("folder") specific searches work???
