Thousands of random files (.h, .py, .res, .str, and more) in Finder searches

Question

To preface, I'm not a developer, and I had a MacBook Pro previously for many years which did not do this, which is why I'm looking for a solution.

Currently, whenever I search anything in Finder, I am overloaded with thousands of files (.h, .str, .xml, res, .py, .css - and the list goes on) which make searching for anything completely redundant because I'm now trying to locate what I searched for in a sea of completely irrelevant files.

I'm not sure when or how my Finder started showing these files, but it wasn't when I bought it. I also had a MacBook Pro 2013 and 2019 before the M2 that didn't do this, so clearly something I installed or changed made this happen.

I'm not going to delete these files, obviously, but I need some way to stop this happening or remove them from search, the current detriment to my workflow is huge.

They aren't hidden files either, just to clarify. Many of these are coming from the Applications folder and within the program files of multiple programs, but not all of them. I've tried hiding Developer files from Spotlight with a spoofed Xcode app which didn't work.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Given the behaviour has changed between devices and, maybe, macOS versions, be sure to tell Apple about this regression.

You can try rebuilding the Spotlight index and/or excluding the problematic applications.

Rebuild the Spotlight Index

Apple recommend rebuilding the Spotlight index:

If you get unexpected results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help.

macOS Ventura or later

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings.
2. Click Siri & Spotlight in the sidebar, then scroll down and click Spotlight Privacy on the right.
3. Drag the disk or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add.*
4. Folder named Documents dragged into the Spotlight Privacy window
5. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added. Then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list.
6. Click Done, then quit System Settings. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the disk or folder. This can take some time, depending on the amount of information being indexed.

Exclude from Spotlight

If these files are within specific applications, add those applications to the Spotlight Privacy list:

Exclude locations from Spotlight searches:

• To exclude a location from Spotlight searches, click the Add button , then select a folder or disk. You can also drag folders or disks into the list.
• To include a location in Spotlight searches again, select the folder or disk in the list, then click the Remove button .

If you exclude a Time Machine backup disk, you continue to receive messages that Spotlight is indexing it. This indexing is necessary for Time Machine to function properly and can’t be turned off. Spotlight does exclude from searches items stored on the backup disk that aren’t part of a Time Machine backup.

Important: If you exclude certain files and folders, you may not be notified when updates become available for some apps. If you exclude your entire internal disk, you won’t be notified about any updates.