Find/spotlight doesn't generate results

I've been having trouble with my finder, which was one of the best features before the OS upgrade.
If I search for the image 6222295, finder will find it. However, if I search for 222295, the image isn't found. I can remove digits from the end of the name (ie 22229), and it will find all in that series. This is true for the file appendix.pdf (but not ppendix.pdf) as well.
Why is the first letter/digit so critical?
Why doesn't finder work the way it used to, and how can I make it so that my searches are reliable again?

I was simply using the search bar next to the magnifying glass (upper right corner) after typing command-F (find). Kind was set to "any".
Using name begins with works, but that doesn't help--that search is only useful if I know exactly what the name starts with. Using name ends with doesn't work either, unless I supply it with the file extension--ie "ppendix.pdf" will return a result, but "ppendix" won't.
Again, the problem persists if I use contents--say for example I want to find a word document or pdf that contains the word "macintosh". The only criteria I'm using are contents contain "macintosh". 23 files are found. Same for "macintos", but if I search for "acintosh", nothing is found. This totally defeats the purpose of find.
Has no one else had a problem of this kind?

Similar Messages

Yosemite Spotlight doesn't give results in the internet?

I already check the web results in spotlight preferences but still it won't search the net. Im from australia.

Might be corrupted Spotlight preferences.
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist
Click Go then move the com.apple.Spotlight.plist file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac then try a Spotlight search.
If that doesn't help, reindex Spotlight > Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

Spotlight doesn't return results from shared drives

I work in an all Mac graphics shop and we all (four of us) share a variety of volumes connected to a G4 running Tiger 10.4.11 (regular, not server version). Two of us have Leopard and two have Tiger (two Mac Pros running 10.5.6, two MacBook Pros running 10.4.11).
The G4 is partitioned into an 80gb drive, a 500gb drive, and also has an external 500gb LaCie drive. We access all drives on this computer by automatically connecting to the shared "network" when we boot up each day. Hornware's Sharepoints is installed on the G4 "server".
Recently, the two of us running Leopard on our MacPros lost the ability to search the shared volumes. I have had intermittent permissions problems since I started in October and I have attempted to troubleshoot this using the Sharepoints application (which, admittedly, I'm not familiar with, and I'm a noob to networking).
I have tried adding and then deleting the drives from the privacy pane in Spotlight preferences (both on my MacPro and on the G4 server Mac). I've repaired permissions with Disk Utility. I've used DiskWarrior 3 to rebuild the directories on all but the external drive (will do that tomorrow). I also ran TechTools 4 but it took so long running the tests that I gave up and canceled (didn't work), force-quit and restarted.
The second part of my question is would it be worth it to upgrade to Leopard on our server Mac and do away with Sharepoints altogether? I've read some horror stories about Leopard's buggy filesharing but I'm really hamstrung not being able to search my shared volumes.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Start with a search in these forums for search server, search servers, search network, etc. The first step. You'll find numerous items to peruse.
Once that's fixed, see these for the Spotlight issues, if they're not related to the server one: http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html and my mod to Finder's Find at http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6725932 for what you can change so you can find stuff excluded by the default structure.

Search in Mail doesn't show results after Migrating

If I search for a word or an adr. in Mail nothing show up. Unless I've just read the mail. Like that newly read email is the only one being searched in ..?
This happened after moving my user account to a new MacPro with Migration Assistant.
(first a clean install of 10.7 on a new disk in bay 1 on the "new" MacPro and updating to 10.7.5 - Starting up from the new disk with my "old" HD in bay 2 on the new machine and using Migration Assistant to move all my data over to the new disk in bay 1)
Same Mac OSX version, but MacPro version from 1.1 to 3.1
Also Spotlight doesn't show results.
Is there a way to make a new "search cache" or whatever that overview file is called ...
Suddenly now, when not getting any search results, I see how much I use search in Mail and Spotlight ... !
Thanks

Try posting this in the 10.7 Mail forum. You'll get more help there.
DALE

Under Yosemite Spotlight doesn´t find my files

Under Yosemite Spotlight doesn´t find my files on the computer and connected hard drives. What can I do?

Try re-indexing Spotlight.
Spotlight – Re-index
See if you can find the file using this program
EasyFind – Spotlight Replacement

Spotlight doesn't find html files

I'm a web developer. I have thousands of ".html" files, such as "india.html"
Spotlight won't find them.
It does find "india.cfm" files so I'll assume the problem is the html extension.
If I Show All in Finder it does them ... in a Find window section called "Developer" ... which doesn't appear in Spotlight, or is a choice in Spotlight Preferences.
This used to work. I'm now using 10.9.5. I don't know at which update it stopped working ... I don't perform this often but when I do it's critical.
I've repaired permissions and reindexed the drive (twice, by adding and removing the drive from Spotlight index preferences).
Thanks.

A test...
Made a plain text file, saved to desktop, apple.html. Spotlight doesn't find it. Duplicated it. Change the name to apple.txt. Spotlight immediately finds it.
Spotlight is having a problem with html.
Checked the Spotlight RichText.mdimporter and it has:
<array>
<dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
<string>MDImporter</string>
<key>LSItemContentTypes</key>
<array>
<string>public.rtf</string>
<string>public.html</string>
<string>public.xml</string>
<string>public.plain-text</string>
<string>com.apple.traditional-mac-plain-text</string>
<string>com.apple.rtfd</string>
<string>com.apple.webarchive</string>
<string>org.oasis-open.opendocument.text</string>
<string>org.openxmlformats.wordprocessingml.document</string>
</array>
</dict>
</array>
... so that's in there...

Spotlight doesn't find all files.

Hi guys,
i just installed Snow leopard on my old iMac that was running tiger before. With tiger i never had troubles like this and the same files im looking for now were always found. However spotlight doesn't seem to find them now. They are located in HD/library/.... anything in there cant be found and i didnt enable privacy for it.
After i moved one application out of there and dragged it on the desktop it was instantly found. Doesn't seem like a big deal since i know where the app is and i have it in the dock anyways, the problem just is that i am looking for other files that im not sure anymore if they are on the computer and if spotlight just doesnt find them it would take me a lot of time searching for them manually.
My question is, besides if you have a solution to fix this, if its due to snow leopard. Does it not look in the library anymore?
Thanks in advance folks,
P.S. i already re-indexed.

Spotlight does not search system folders by default. See,
Get Spotlight to search system files (and more)
Enter the search term in the Finder window's search field.
Click the [+] button in the search bar to add a search option.
In the first drop down menu choose Other.
Choose “System Files” from the list that pops up (and check the box to place in drop down menu to avoid this step later,) click on the OK button.
Now back in the Finder choose Include from the second drop down menu.

Find/search doesn't work in Finder - help!?

I go into finder and I type in a file name to search my computer for. No matter what volume or folder I select, nothing pops up in the search window - no files, no folders, nothing. Finder just sits there. The find command doesn't seem to work. Can anyone help me fix this? I really need to find files on my computer and don't have time to sift through every folder one by one. Thanks!!!

Hi, Todd —
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I'll assume that you're talking about using Spotlight via the Finder »» Find (⌘-F) command. If I'm wrong about this, please post back to clarify the specifics.
If nothing at all can be found, it's possible that you have inadvertently included your HD (or a significant Volume, your Documents folder, etc.) in the Privacy tab of Spotlight's preferences — which keeps it from being indexed. If the "metadata" associated with a file or folder aren't included in the indexing, they can't be searched and included in results.
To check this, look first in System Preferences »» Spotlight »» Results — are any of the boxes checked? Only those that are will be searched. Are they in the order you'd like to see results reported? Next, look in System Preferences »» Spotlight »» Privacy. Does anything appear in this window? Anything that does will not be indexed, and thus won't be included in a search. If it is the Volume (or folders, etc.) that you want to be searched, select its name and click on to remove it.
Spotlight will then begin to index whatever had been set as "private" — which essentially means "don't search." Note that this may take some time. The Spotlight icon at the far right side of your menu bar will show a tiny "pulsing" dot while indexing is ongoing.
You may want to go to Finder »» Help »» Mac Help, type in "Spotlight find," and hit return. Several useful articles on this subject will appear that will help to explain this. Here is a list of corresponding Apple "Help" articles online.
Does this help?
Please post back to share your progress, and discuss other possibilities, as appropriate...
Regards,
Dean

Find Finder Items doesn't work?

I can't seem to get a basic thing to work...
Find Finder Items (Where "camerafiles" & Whose Name Contains "camera1")
View Results
Always results in ()
Have tried contains, begins with, ends with....nothing works.
The folder contains about 300 files that all start with "camera1-xxx-xxx-xxx"
Any ideas or is it just broken?
Dual Processor 1.4 Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Depends on what?
I don't understand why "where" the folder is located should make any difference. But here's the path:
Macintosh HD:Applications:4DWebSTAR:WebServer:Users:heckman:camerafiles
Spotlight doesn't let you limit your search to a specified folder. I mean, why search the whole hard drive when you know the files you want are inside a specific folder?
I tried a Cmd-F find for the files, they don't come up. I tried a Spotlight find, they don't come up. I open up the "Macintosh HD" drive from another computer on the network, do a Cmd-F find on that machine, they show up.
So I guess the issue is: why can't I find them on the local machine they are actually on? The files are definitely there.

Spotlight not showing up results

Hi. I seem to have the problem that many people have had, namely that Spotlight doesn't show up all results.
However, I tried the advice from all the other threads (adding/removing your main harddrive in SysPref so it reindexes) and it didn't work.
Anyone know why this would be? I did restore my machine from Time Machine...hope that didn't destroy spotlight forever...
I was having the same problem with Mail, but then I fixed it by manually copying every single mail message and "moving" it into the folder. I obviously can't do that with my harddrive though.
Any help would be appreciated.

Well, I've never had a problem with Spotlight before, it was spotless on my old machine.
I tried deleting the metadata with mdutil -rm, but it just made my computer cranky.
Too bad. I just liked being able to know that I wrote a high school paper on Voltaire, searching "Voltaire", and finding everything on my computer where that was mentioned.
This is very, very disappointing. I guess I'll take a look at Easyfind.

Spotlight doesn't work on iPhone 4 IOS5

spotlight doesn't work!!! It doesn't find contact using MAIL field or NOTES field or any other, expect NAME of contact!!!
Any sugestion???
iPhone 4 with IOS 5.0

No, changing the settings doesn't affect the problem. When it's working —for that one search you get after rebooting—it honors the settings and searches only checked items ... so I don't believe it's a settings issue.
But after that single search (if you get that) it simply shuts down and stops working. No results of any kind from any area.
Nada. Zilch. Zippo.
I do have many apps and used the search as a way to quickly jump to an app instead of swiping through numerous screens. This is killing me. Hoping the fix is released soon; having searched the web on the issue, I see that it affects a great many users of ios5.

In OS Yosemite the search function in Mail, Finder, Spotlight- does not work

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB
OS Yosemite,
Finder versión 10.10.1
Mail Versión 8.1 (1993)
In OS Yosemite the search function in Mail, Finder, Spotlight… does not work. Messages or documents with the search criteria are there and one could find them manually, but the search function fails to find them. Following advice from Apple Support (728965377):
1. I applied an Apple protocol for adware removal (Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac); I had none, because I had formally utilized a similar protocol that I had found in Internet, actually an app that implemented automatically Apple's adware removal protocol.
2. I rebuild the post boxes in Mail (Mail (Yosemite): Reconstruir buzones); It took a while but it functioned properly
3. I re-install the System (OS X Yosemite: Reinstalar OS X); It took about 4 hours but there was no problem whatsoever with the installation.
Afterwards I searched for messages in Mail, and documents in Finder and Spotlight, without any difficulty. The search function in all of them was working properly. But the next time that I needed to search messages or documents, an hour later or so, the problem reappear and a couple of new issues occurred:
1. in app RagTime 6.5.2 (Build 1821), www.ragtime.de, the menu bar disappears (it is invisible), when one performs certain operations, e. g., calculating a value with a formula, whether it is in a spreadsheet or some other component (text, drawing, etc.). After touching with the cursor the menu bar is visible again.
2. after reading an e-mail in Mail or copying an address, this is seeing as a floating object in the finder and over every application. There is no logical way to get rid of the floating object and neither copying or deleting or cutting it. It is not a big issue but nonetheless bothersome.
3. In Mail, messages with Flag or in VIP contacts cannot be seen in the appropriate folders, only in the Incoming mail folder, together with other messages. It seems to me, this issue is part of same search function problem.
4. The preview function within Mail does not show the attached documents to a message, whether it is in the IN, OUT or Draft boxes.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try again to re-index Spotlight. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Menu bar date and time is flashing and spotlight doesn't work

Help! My menu bar date and time in top right corner suddenly started flashing and Spotlight doesn't seem to work. It would normally appear just below the date and time. Is this a known issue? 10.4.7 on a 1 GHz G4 (eMac).
Any ideas - I tried restarting with no difference.

Create a new account, name it "test" and see how your Finder and Spotlight work in that User acct? (That will tell if your problem is systemwide or limited to your User acct.) This account is just for test, do nothing further with it.
Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" make it an admin account.
Let us know and we'll troubleshoot this further.
-mj
[email protected]

IPhone 3G ver 3.1 - spotlight doesn't work with accessory connected anymore

Hello,
I've been using iPhone 3G for quite a long time now and everything was fine until a recent update to OS ver. 3.1... I've noticed, that spotlight doesn't work now as it worked before... The thing is that I'm using iPhone as a phone and a source of music in my car. I connect it to Pioneer car audio system via USB. Before 3.1 update I was able to search for a song in spotlight and when I tapped it - it just played via car speakers. Now it doesn't do anything. I keep tapping, but nothing happens. The only way to play a song - disconnect iPhone from Pioneer, find song in spotlight, tap on a song to launch it and connect iPhone to Pioneer while the song is playing.
Well, I have a workaround, but it requires both of my hands... But it's kind of unsafe to do so while driving... Could someone confirm spotlight working while connected to any accessory?.. Maybe I'm the only one having this issue and iPhone restore would help?.. I just don't want to restore without any reason...
Thanks in advance for your answer.

Hi to the forum. This is my first post - ever!
It's taken me 25 years of Apple equipment purchase and enthusiastic advocation to get to this point.
And what has got me here? 'The GPS on my iPhone 3G has doesn't work'. If you Google this statement you get 12 million hits. It seems to me that's probably 12 million people who have a problem with an Apple product they've purchased.
I've read a lot of the solutions that other users have come up with - dozens of different ones. I've updated the iPhone software as soon as I can, I've been patient, I've given Apple chance to sort it out. I've even gone back to printing out Google maps onto paper (remember 'paper') and taken those out with me in the car to find my way around town.
However - the southern hemisphere summer is coming and I want to use the (totally brilliant) Navionics chart/GPS App on the boat. No chance. According to the iPhone we're in Africa not New Zealand.
So what to do? I can't find any 'official' info from Apple. I've no idea how the politics of these situations work - and I don't care! 12 million hits can't be wrong. Apple needs to tell it's users what is happening (even if they're still working on it), and when we can expect a fix.
Come on Apple, keep us in the loop - we love your products - and we want to keep advocating for you!
PS - this is the best place I could find to have ths little discusion - if anyone has a more direct line to God (err I mean Apple) please let me know!

Spotlight doesn't search Stickies

I've just realised today that Spotlight can't find entries in Stickies. I have all boxes ticked in Spotlight so you'd think that Stickies being an Apple app, that it would also search in Stickies. I keep my software up-to-date, so it's not that.
I have snother notes application called PadsX - and Spotlight doesn't search that either.
Any suggestions anyone on how to make Spotlight more efficient?

Hi Irena,
A few ways to do it...
http://guides.macrumors.com/Addingfiletypes_toSpotlight
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060729190236629&mode=print
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2005052015041510
SpiralBound is a note App that has a Search function bui;t in...
http://www.rivulus-sw.com/Rivulus/SpiralBound.html

Find/spotlight doesn't generate results

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