Questions tagged [spotlight]
Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's OS X and iOS operating system.
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How to free up miscalculating Storage on MacOS that occupies 90GB of my MacOS
I have just reinstalled my MBP on Sonoma but I cannot install any software because of the insufficient storage error. However, the Storage setting shows I still have plenty of space but the Disk ...
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How to search file contents on iOS?
Is it even possible? Like, for example, list all php files that contain the word “filter”?
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Sonoma update results in disk bloat [duplicate]
After updating to 14.1.1, something creates 35 GB files in HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/FileProvider/number/wharf/wharf/propagate. I have turned off OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google ...
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How to analyze and solve FileProvider bloat after Sonoma update? [closed]
After updating to 14.1.1, something is creating 35 GB files in HD/Users/username/Library/Application Support/FileProvider/number/wharf/wharf/propagate.
I have turned off OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google ...
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Finding where program lives
I installed a program yesterday in a mess of terrible installation instructions and I have no idea where it lives. I have files that default to opening that program, but that doesn't tell me where it ...
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How to disable Podcast results from Spotlight
The only way I found is to uncheck "Documents" from "Siri and Spotlight" settings. But I lose results for documents in general. Any tips how to do that with keeping the Documents ...
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macOS 14.1.1 Spotlight crashing
I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch(Intel, 2020, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports) that is running macOS Sonoma 14.1.1(23B81) and when I press the spotlight icon and try to type anything, the text field disappears, and ...
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Spotlight on Sonoma gets out of focus
I mostly start my apps via Spotlight. Since the Sonoma update Spotlight seems to be started out of focus and the enter button sometimes has no effect.
So what I do is hit Cmd+Space and enter my search....
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finder search not issuse
I have enabled showing hidden files in Finder and I can see them when viewing containing folder. However, when I search for such files they do not show in the search results.
Specifically I was ...
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Spotlight Not Showing Core Applications on macOS Sonoma 14.0: How to Fix?
Title:
Spotlight Not Showing Core Applications on macOS Sonoma 14.0: How to Fix?
Problem Description:
I used to rely on Spotlight to quickly open Core Applications like Finder, Contacts,Photos, and ...
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Spotlight: "VolumeConfiguration.plist" missing. Is it required, and how to modify?
I am seeing inconsistency in how Spotlight is working on Shared Volumes and it appears the presence, or lack of, and the content of
/Volumes/GodzillaClone/.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
...
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When I save a photo in MacOS Messages, where does it go?
In order to save myself from having to convert files from HEIC format, I decided to send the photos from my phone to my computer using Messages.
I clicked this icon next to the photos in the MacOS ...
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How does mdfind (filename) pattern matching work? Punctuation in the search string gives non-intuitive results
There are multiple ways to use mdfind to find files with a given name; here are two that work in some cases:
mdfind -name barfoo
mdfind "kMDItemFSName == '*barfoo*'c"
The former finds ...
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Accessing 'Other Users'
When I look at 'About this Mac/Storage' nearly half of my hard disk (120GB) is taken by 'Other Users'. I am the only person using this MacBook (OSX 12.6.5) and I have no memory of creating any other ...
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Spotlight not jumping to app window
New to Mac and if I noticed correctly, an app launched via Spotlight jumps to it/focuses/brings to front even though Spotlight was invoked on another Desktop. It still works in the same Desktop but ...
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System Settings in Spotlight in Sonoma
We can use Spotlight to bring up the Bluetooth on/off toggle, for instance.
How does one toggle the setting without using a mouse?
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/50-new-macos-sonoma-features/#37....
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Apple Mail: Search and smart folders no longer work
Several weeks ago, Apple Mail on my MacBook Pro M1 running Ventura suddenly no longer showed any e-mails in my smart folders (such as "Today" or "Unread"). Also, Mail's search was ...
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How to list the content of a whole drive to keep it searchable when disconnected?
I would like to keep track of what files I have on the external drives where I store everything I do not need to access every day. Still, I would like to have some way to know what drive I should ...
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Thousands of random files (.h, .py, .res, .str, and more) in Finder searches
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 ...
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Unexpected results using info from `mdls` to search via `mdfind`
I wanted to find what program created a dot file.
I ran mdls /path/to/file on the file.
john@iMacEth ~ % mdls /Users/john/Library/Application\ Support/.lldb_info_3F4AF17D8C
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate ...
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Spotlight always 1 Search Behind
Have the strangest issue on my computer. Let's say I go to Spotlight and search "ABC" -- it displays the results from the search I made previous. So now if I reopen Spotlight and search &...
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Making Finder use embedded JPG thumbnail for preview
I know that macOS has a crippled support of HEIF files, because it can't open those with a bit depth > 8 bits:
Why can't Preview Export 16-bit HEIC images?
Actually I have 16 bits HEIF files ...
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Cannot find mail folder
For some reason I cannot find my folder v10 folder where my mails are stored. I wanted to reindex my my mails als client is (again) stuck at "copying messages..." but in my ~/Library/mail ...
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How can I tell Spotlight to consider RAW files as images
I would like to do a text search on my RAW files. The text search feature works very well with JPG, PNG... but it doesn't consider RAW files as images.
Is there a way to add the RAW extension (.ARW in ...
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mds_worker taking forever with Time Machine and Monterey
MacBook Air with Monterey 10.5.
After attaching my Time Machine USB drive for my weekly backup, the pure file transfer (a few GB) took less than a minute but afterward mds_worker keeps running for ...
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Is there any documentation on the expression language supported by Spotlight calculations?
As most know, you can type mathematical expressions into Spotlight and it will show the result, which you can copy with Cmd-C to paste into other applications. It's mostly intuitive, especially to ...
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What does the & operator do in the spotlight's calculator?
When using the spotlight's calculator function, I noticed that & can be used as an operator. For example:
5 & 4 = 4
5 & 3 = 1
5 & 2 = 0
5 & 1 = 1
My question is what is this ...
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Spotlight search puts Finder window in background behind other windows
Usually a Spotlight search presents choices, where clicking on one of the items found displays a Finder window with the item. I have probably been using this feature since I converted to Apple in 2009....
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mdutil using a lot of CPU after upgrading to Ventura 13.4.1
I have a new, fairly clean MacBook Air that was running calmly before upgrading to 13.4.1. Just after doing so, my md* processes starting using a lot of cpu. A fresh boot with nothing running but ...
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How to limit mdfind search depth
I'm trying to run this query on my ~ folder mdfind -onlyin . 'kMDItemDateAdded < $time.today' but I want to limit the search depth to ~. Is it possible?
I know this is best achieved with find but ...
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mdfind after x time today? [duplicate]
I've read up this man page and this spotlight metadata attributes documentation but still cannot hit the nail with the query to show files added after 23:30 hours.
Heck, I can't even list files added ...
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MacOS Ventura 13.4 Siri & spotlight has options "Listen to Hey Siri" and "Allow Siri when locked" totally missing from Siri & Spotlight
I've been facing issues in System Settings >Siri & Spotlight to show "Listen to Siri and Allow Siri when Locked" on MacOS Ventura 13.4 on MacBook Pro Mid 2012 running with open core ...
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How can I determine the folder containing a file found in a Spotlight search in Ventura?
It used to be that, when I did a search in Spotlight, I could determine the folder containing the file by holding the Command key while the mouse was over the name of the file or the file was selected....
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Spotlight index not available to Alfred or Raycast
M1 Pro MacBook Pro running MacOS Ventura 13.4
Neither Alfred nor Raycast's file search extension show any results when I search for files that I know exist (indeed, they show no files at all). The ...
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Entire folders cannot be searched
I have reinstalled my entire system from a Time Machine backup and I am still having problems with the folder structure / permissions in MacOS Ventura 13.3.1(a).
One of the bugs is when I use the ...
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Spotlight keeps crashing on Mac Sierra 10.13.3
This morning I installed a driver for a microphone and soon after Spotlight has been crashing on and off.
I have un-installed the driver, rebooted it multiple times but the problems persists.
Problem ...
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Finder and Spotlight freeze constantly
Issue
When trying to use Finder, the window will freeze and become unresponsive. Trying to relaunch or force quit fails. The only thing that fixes it is a full restart of the computer.
When trying to ...
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Add keywords to an app file
Some built-in Mac apps have keywords attached to them, to allow for easier searching in Spotlight:
How would I add these keywords to a third-party app? For example, adding the keyword "Chat"...
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Is there anything that can be done to limit MDS but still get some basic spotlight functionality?
Spotlight, at least for launching applications has become part of my muscle memory, but MDS just will not play nice, not matter what I try. I've tried rebuilding the index. I've tried just about every ...
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Difference between `mdutil -i off` and `mdutil -d`
From the man page:
-i (on|off) Turn indexing on or off.
-d Disable Spotlight activity for volume (re-enable using -i on).
If I execute mdutil -i off -vvv on a volume:
/System/...
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Search file content in iCloud Drive
Is there a way to search file content in iCloud Drive? For example, in Google Drive or OneDrive, when you search, you'll get results not just by name but also any PDF or Word/Docs file where the ...
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Spotlight lags for a second when first opened and typed in
After spotlight lags, it will be running correctly (without lag when typing) for 10 minutes or more, but after a time, it will lag again.
I've tried reset index, but it not work for me.
Based:
Chip M1 ...
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Why (and how) does the /Applications folder on Ventura show files from /System/Applications too?
Opening the /Applications folder from Finder I can see it contains the ootb Apple app TextEdit.app.
Yet running ls -alh /Applications from a terminal does not list the TextEdit.app.
Dragging TextEdit....
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odd spotlight search behavior for dropbox folder in cloudstorage directory on macos
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 ...
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App appears in Spotlight search, but not as default choice
I tend to launch most apps using Spotlight. I can usually type just a couple of letters, and the app appears as the default choice - I can just hit enter to launch. For example, in the screenshot I ...
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Safari and only Safari missing from Spotlight / Finder search
As per the title, on macOS Ventura, Spotlight works flawlessly ... except that Safari, nestled in Applications as always, is missing. "saf ..." "safari" "safari.app" — ...
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Creating Automator Quick Action to Extract (and Move) Media Files From Subfolders to New Folder (in Parent Directory)
I have an audio recording device that puts all files from any given capture into its own folder. (This includes all channels of the recording plus a metadata document.)
Typically, I navigate to the ...
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How to include .git folders or files from .git folders in spotlight index?
There is a very old question about excluding .git folders form Spotlight index.
Apparently macOS today by default excludes content of .git folders, since on macOS Ventura, files residing in .git ...
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The file in iCloud Drive are not found in a Finder search
All my files in iCloud Drive are not searchable in Finder. I did the following:
Remove/Add volumes to Spotlight to re-index.
Run sudo mdutil -E / and sudo mdutil -i on / in terminal to do the re-...
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How do I make spotlight activate applications based on path instead of Bundle Identifier?
I use multiple copies of the same app on my system. New copies are added and removed on a daily basis. I change the name of the app so they have unique names, which is convenient when using Spotlight, ...
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