Spotlight and finder differences

Hi im a new user and would like to ask what the difference is between finder and spotlight .
This next question sounds very stupid but hear goes : about every 10 minutes I hear a dull audio sound like a low drum beat . Its the same sound that I hear when i click on send/recieve in Entourage ,this happens whether i have Entourage open or not and its very annoying . Im sure due to the fact that i'm a cpmplete novice(feels silly about this one)there is a simple explanation to this.
Thanks , Tom

Finder is the application that runs your Desktop and allows you to access everything else. Spotlight is a process that collects metadata on files/folders and what you use when searching.
Can't answer the spurious sound item, but it sounds like something's running and checking every 10 minutes. Open the Console app in /Applications/Utilities/, select the System.log file (click on logs icon in upper left-hand corner, and see if you can find something that activates around the times you hear the sounds.
If you're new to Macs, see these:
Basic Tutorials on using a Mac,
Mac 101: Mac Essentials,
Anatomy of a Mac,
MacFixIt Tutorials,
MacTips,
Switching from Windows to Mac OS X,and
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition.
Additionally, *Texas Mac Man* recommends:
Quick Assist.
Welcome to the Switch To A Mac Guides,
Take Control E-books, and
A guide for switching to a Mac.

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Spotlight and finder not working after Yosemite upgrade

Hi,
I just upgrade to 10.10.1 from 10.8 on a Mid 2012 Retina macbook pro, 2.7Ghz i7, 16GB RAM, 750GB SSD drive.
Since upgrading spotlight and finder have stopped working. When I first upgraded I noticed it worked very briefly and found some of my applications, but now nothing. The only thing it does is find the definition of the word I am searching for,
I have
gone in to sys pref > spotlight added and remove all folders and rebooted the machine
gone in to sys pref > spotlight > privacy tab and ensured no folders are in that pane
gone in to sys pref > spotlight > privacy tab and added "documents folder" closed sys prefs rebooted and then removed "documents" folder to try and trigger a re index
gone to terminal and typed "sudo mdutil -E /" which should erase and rebuild the index but i get the error back "Error: Index is already changing state. Please try again in a moment"
gone to terminal and typed "sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist" and then typed "sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist"
go to disk utility and verified my disk which comes back as showing no errors
logged in as another user but spotlight and finder still not working
Any other ideas my laptop is useless for work if I can't find anything,
Thanks

unfortunately I this is still not working, thanks for the link Eric i tried those options, but still the problem remains.
I can clear the cache and re index my mac, and while the system is re indexing spotlight works and I can find material during the reindex. This is obviously limited to the files that have been indexed at the point of using spotlight.
Once indexing has finished if I go to spotlight and try to search for anything, there are no results only the dictionary appears.
At the moment I have to delete the index cache every morning to trigger a re index so I can work, this is terrible and the worst upgrade experience I have had with any OS mac or windows

Spotlight and Finder is selective in what it Finds

Spotlight and Finder does not find some files and folders. As an example - I run firefox, but Spotlight/Finder will not located any files with the name "Mozilla" And of course there are several files/folders that have mozilla in the file/folder name.
Is this normal in SL?
Comment: Spotlight in SL seems quite different from Tiger. I liked it better in Tiger. But I would still expect it to Find stuff!

In a Finder search, set the search to include system files:
1. Produce a Search window by typing Command-F while in the Finder.
2. Pull down the menu that defaults to "Kind" and choose Other.
3. In the sheet that appears, type System in the Search field.
4. Select the "System Files" entry that appears.
5. If you want to be able to easily include system files in future searches, click the "In Menu" checkbox. System Files will now appear in the pop-up.
6. Click OK.
All the mozilla files and folder should now appear.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Spotlight and finder cannot find files as of a certain date. What can be the problem and how to solve?

Spotlight and search field in Outlook on MacBoon cannot find files as of a certain date. What can be the problem and how to solve?

Reinstall on both.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
     Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
                 if possible because it isthree times faster than wireless.
Restore your iPhone to reinstall iOS. Be sure to do this while connected to your computer and iTunes.
     Tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings.

Spotlight and Find not working

Hi everyone
Apologies if I'm covering old ground here.
I don't use either Spotlight or Find very often, but discovered recently that neither now works. From other posts, I think this may have started when I installed the 4.11 software update. There are no new software updates available (ie I have already got the most recent Security Update, which seems to have helped in some other similar cases).
Spotlight just doesn't find anything. Finder's cog-symbol-thing spins for as long as I let it, with no result.
I have tried trashing the spotlight.plist file, and quitting the SystemUIServer process from within Activity Monitor. I have also rebuilt the disc using Disk Warrior. None of this helped.
I tried dragging the hard disc to the Privacy pane of Spotlight to force it to re-index, but nothing can be dragged to the Privacy pane.
All suggestions gratefully received.
Thanks, Peter

Thanks to everyone for their comments. There seem to be quite a few other threads detailing a variety of problems with Spotlight, but as yet I haven't found anything that helps.
Brief confusing addition: I just installed the recent iTunes update 7.6.1, and afterwards ran fsck just to see if everything was ok/no worse. When I rebooted, the little Spotlight icon at the top right had a pulsing white dot in the "magnifying lens". When I clicked on it, I got a drop down menu telling me that Spotlight was busy indexing, including a time bar that was apparently estimating how long this would take. Then it stopped, and all is exactly as it was previously, ie not working.
It could have been worse, I suppose - others seem to have got stuck in "permanently indexing" mode. I wish Apple would address this problem, but I'm not holding my breath - so any further ideas would be very welcome.
Thanks, Peter

So now spotlight and finder in coloum view crash/not working

So now my spotlight never searches for everything (I tried restarting, then logging off and logging back again, reindexing, delted plist) nothing works
and finder in colum veiw crashes

unfortunately I this is still not working, thanks for the link Eric i tried those options, but still the problem remains.
I can clear the cache and re index my mac, and while the system is re indexing spotlight works and I can find material during the reindex. This is obviously limited to the files that have been indexed at the point of using spotlight.
Once indexing has finished if I go to spotlight and try to search for anything, there are no results only the dictionary appears.
At the moment I have to delete the index cache every morning to trigger a re index so I can work, this is terrible and the worst upgrade experience I have had with any OS mac or windows

Spotlight and Finder search

Hi,
What is the difference between the Spotlight search and the Finder Search ? anybody?
Or its spotlight in the finder?
yours sincerely
jagjit

The way I like to define the Spotlight Search function is that it is usually the EASIEST way to find whatever you're looking for on your computer.

Spotlight and Find does not work in 10.4.7 and Macbook Pro

I have this strange problem of the Find and the Spotlight not working properly. Whenever I pass on a word to search it doesnot give me the full list. e.g In desktop I have file UserValidator.java and in the Find window I give options: Name Contains "Validator". The list that it is showing is not having the .java file.
I am getting crazy what is happening. Has anybody faced with this problem.
Thanks,
Tanmoy

Perhaps it's an Invisible item?
In Find, select Other
It opens a 'search attribute' window, in that scroll to and select 'Visibility' (4th from bottom)
Check 'Add to Favorites' then OK
Then select 'Visibility' and on the right button 'Visible or Invisible'
Search for your file

New iMac 24 inch, 2.93 GH problems with spotlight and finder

Has anyone had problems with Spotlight flickering in the upper right corner of the screen with each keystroke and the Finder crashing and relaunching when trying to open certain folders copied from an older computer running 10.4.11 or trying to open home folders on G5 and G4 computers over a local network? I have now received two replacements for my original machine from Amazon.com and all three machines have the same problem. This has been going on for nearly three weeks. I have never had problems like this with Apple products before - and have used them since 1985. Is there a design defect in the new 2.93 GH 24 inch iMac? I have been in touch with Apple Support but no one has resolved the problem and none of the product specialists are using this particular model of new computer. Very frustrating!

HI Edwin,
Check the iMac hard disk for errors. Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
Carolyn

Spotlight and Finder related problems

Lately Spotlight hasn't been too keen on finding things in my drive, most notably applications. Once or twice, I experienced problems with Finder while this was occurring, so I relaunched Finder and everything began working properly. But lately I haven't been able to do anything to fix this. Just minutes ago I had to hold down my MacBook's power button because applications on my Dock weren't opening or closing when I told them to and finally it wouldn't restart when prompted either.
A quick search found that a few people might have been having similar problems, but I'd just like to know if any knowledge of this has been unearthed.
Could it be that my drive needs to be defragmented? Or maybe it's because of the recent, large updates?

In a Finder search, set the search to include system files:
1. Produce a Search window by typing Command-F while in the Finder.
2. Pull down the menu that defaults to "Kind" and choose Other.
3. In the sheet that appears, type System in the Search field.
4. Select the "System Files" entry that appears.
5. If you want to be able to easily include system files in future searches, click the "In Menu" checkbox. System Files will now appear in the pop-up.
6. Click OK.
All the mozilla files and folder should now appear.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Spotlight and Find don´t find new files on specific volume

I have 2 internal s-ata drives raided on my MacPro, and I can´t search what seems to be newer files on this specific volume anymore. If I create a folder or file on this specific volume, neither Spotlight nor cmd + F will find them.
The only idea I have here is that the search functions don´t work when the drive has more than 500 gigs or so of data on it. Older files show up, but not newer ones, so that´s sort of my half hearted theory.
Anyone?

Hello,
Please notice the other thread.
By doing this: copy HD to the list and removing it, won't fix the problem. After the restart of your OS spotlight won't work any more. So by removing my mobil phone from the bluetooth list fixed the problem.
Even after the restart spotlight is running as usual.
MfG
Gilles

Spotlight and Find search criteria is missing

When I try to do a "find" from the finder or "show search criteria" when using spotlight most of the search criteria is missing. Nothing is listed under "other". A minimal amount of options are available is I choose "date" or "kind".
Where is the list of search criteria stored and how can I get it back into the find feature?

Most like a component of the Spotlight.app which resides in /System/FInder/CoreServices/. Where? I don't know. Maybe the simplest thing to do is retrieve it from your Time Machine backup or bootable backup/clone. Barring that, download Pacifist and extract it from your install disk and replace the faulty one. Once, you've done that and solved the problem, reinstall the latest COMBO update.

Spotlight and Find Search Issue

I am trying to search for files and folders on my windows server via Spotlight, top right corner Search Box of windows, using the "Command F" but I get no results. When I was running under Snow Leopard searching for files and folder was excellent.
Is it an operating system compatibility like an AFP problem or what?
Regards

Most like a component of the Spotlight.app which resides in /System/FInder/CoreServices/. Where? I don't know. Maybe the simplest thing to do is retrieve it from your Time Machine backup or bootable backup/clone. Barring that, download Pacifist and extract it from your install disk and replace the faulty one. Once, you've done that and solved the problem, reinstall the latest COMBO update.

Spotlight and Finder searches don't work anymore...

Hi !
For 2 weeks or maybe more, the search function haven't work anymore, via Spotlight or the Finder...
Spotlight doesn't even seem to try, whereas the Finder keeps saying it is searching... but it never finds anything even if I ask for a file that directly is in the folder where it is searching...
Does anyone have any idea ?
Thank you very much !

Hi Dennis Marsden!
Thank you for helping me.
It doesn't work...
I mean that when I try to drag a folder or the entire disk to the privacy tab, the privacy tab remaines empty...
When I use the "+" button to browse the Finder and choose a folder, the privacy tab remaines empty too...
I've got another problem too. Maybe both are tied, that's why I'll explain it :
Sometimes, I am not able to rename a folder or a file... When I try to delete the name, it just doesn't work... And sometimes, it works properly...
For example, yesterday, I created a new folder automatically called "New folder", and I couldn't change the name !
But today, it has worked properly. But the problem happens so often, that today really is an exception...
Thank you very much !
Paaach'

File type in Spotlight and Finder search

I have several lectures that are all Keynote presentations (both 08 and 09) and wanted to make a smart folder to have them all in one place. However, doing that, I realized that my Keynote files are not listed as "Presentations" but rather as "Documents", along with my Pages documents and many other files, including images and music files. Actually, almost every file type is listed in the Documents category. Is there a way to manage these File Types? Searching by extensions does not seem to do the trick.
Very confused.

Thanks, that's much better. However I only find 21 files with this setting, but I know that there are at least 50 in my Home directory. Any idea why? Is there like a time limit as it seems that its mostly older files that are ignored.

Spotlight and finder differences

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