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

Similar Messages

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 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.

Dock and finder bar problem

A game I play used to run in full screen mode as of last night. But when i got home tonight the game will not go into full screen. The dock and finder bar are still in view. Anyone know how to fix this?

Sounds like it's trying to perform a "safe boot" and failing. I'd try to boot from the install disk and repair disk from disk utility. If the DVD boots then memory is probably OK. If not, then try removing the memory.
Regards,
Captfred

PDF and Preview related problems

Hi:
A user in our office (MacBook Pro, v10.5.6) is having difficulty viewing and creating PDF files. To wit:
--Opening a PDF file results in a morass of symbols throughout.
--Opening a PDF file may show exclamation points substituted for tab characters.
Some other files appear to be just fine using Preview, and occasionally the latter of the two above will open and appear to be just fine and dandy. The files appear to be just fine on another Mac.
The two files appear correctly when viewed with Adobe Reader 9.0.
Also:
--Creating a PDF file may result in exclamation points substituted for tab characters.
I tried a full system software archive and install...no luck.
I tried deleting the Adobe Reader and Preview preferences files...no luck.
I dragged and dropped a copy of Preview (v4.1) from my computer to hers...no luck.
I created a Second User, and the previously mangled PDF files open and appear to be just fine. I can also create PDF files that are true to their source document (no exclamation points for tab characters). I did only limited testing of this; however I did use the files above and created a new PDF file using the original source document. No problems.
I don't believe this is a missing font problem.
So that makes me think there's something wrong in the user's home directory with Preview and the PDF creation process. Some preference file or something.
Before I go ahead and move my data over to a new home directory...
1. Has anyone seen this before?
2. Has anyone fixed this before?
3. How do I know which files to move to the new home directory and which (corrupted ones) to leave behind..if that indeed is the fix?
4. How do I know that the creation problem doesn't extend beyond this user, and that I wasn't just lucky when Second User's PDF-created file was fine?
TIA,
mm

You need to resolve the conflict/corruption in the original account. This can be a laborious process, but is guaranteed to resolve the problem. While logged into the newly created account (if it's an admin account; otherwise create a new one), backup the bad account's folder (to another volume, partition, or disk), delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. Run Preview and, If the problem's solved (which it should be), open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it, keeping track of what you're moving to the new account so you can remove them if you encounter problems in the next step. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Good luck.

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

Mail app keeps crashing (and other related problems)

A few days ago, my Mail app began crashing on seemingly unrelated events, so I assume my data got corrupted. I won't explain all the scenarios because it's a complete mess. To keep it simple, I have only 2 accounts and they are both on Gmail, so no backups are needed. I'd like to try doing a complete wipe of all data that the Mail app uses and that should fix it.
What files/folders does Mail use? So far, I've found:
~/Library/Mail
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail
I've also seen someone mention ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist, but I don't have this file.
After deleting the above and creating my mail accounts, the crashes are back. The only possibilities I can think of are:
1. I haven't deleted EVERYTHING owned by Mail yet. <-- What other files/folders belong to the Mail app?
2. Mail is depending on something else on my system that is broken.
3. Mail app itself somehow became corrupted.
4. Something being synced from my Gmail is not properly being handled, resulting in a crash.
When this started happening (if it helps):
1 day after installing the OS X update 10.8.3 as well as MacBook Pro Retina SMC Update v1.1, my MBP froze as soon as I loaded League of Legends. This was followed by a reboot as I couldn't Cmd+Tab out of the game. I wasn't aware of the Force Close App shortcut at the time, so I used the power button. That was the only time this happened, and it has worked fine a few times after the updates were applied and also worked after the reboot following the freeze. Since that time, I have encountered another issue where just about all of my apps crashed simultaneously -- no 3D-accelerated apps were even running this time.
Since then, I've updated VirtualBox from 4.2.8 to 4.2.10 (seemed like something that could cause this weirdness as I always have a VM running) and have not had any problems except Mail crashing all the time.
This question is primarily about fully resetting the Mail app to clean settings/data, but any thoughts on what may have happened are also welcome

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. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
Still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the process. The report name starts with the name of the crashed process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

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

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 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'

Spotlight and Finder related problems

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for