Spotlight Content indexing Problem

Spotlight will not index content. It does index the names of files, but when I do a content search, it merely performs the names search. I tried the privacy/index command but that does not work. Anyone else having these problems. BTW, this started after installing Leopard. Thanks!

Similar Messages

How I solved my Spotlight+ Mail indexing problem

OK, so I thought I would post my solution to a stubborn indexing problem, for people who may have the same issue (and it does seem many people do).
Problem: Spotlight index was unreliable. In particular, Spotlight was terrible at indexing mail. It could not find the messages by content that it would find by searching the "from" field, nor could it find those reliably. Unusable.
What DID NOT work:
-- adding and removing any folder whatsoever in the Privacy preferences of Spotlight. The index would rebuild, but with the same problems.
-- doing this via terminal (e.g, using sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/MyHardDisk)
-- using Onyx
-- using Spotless
-- simply reinstalling the system
-- manually modifying the plist files inside the .spotlight folder to add and remove the folders that would not get indexed.
What DID work:
-- first, I reinstalled the system. That's not such a big deal. Upgrade up to 10.4.6
-- then, I authorized the root user (that's probably not necessary) (this, you do by using Netinfo manager)
-- Then, I deactivated the index (via terminal:
sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/MyHardDisk
-- now the tricky part. This concerns Mail, in particular.
I have a very complex mail folder (tens of thousands of messages). I noticed that inside each mail folder, I had two things that were not supposed to be there
1. a copy of each folder.mbox which was empty, but with the same name without the extension .mbox. This is probably something that was created while importing mail from Panther to Tiger, for what I can tell.
2. Most importantly, a file named ".index.ready". This also, apparently, was an old legacy coming from Panther. I suspect this was the main problem for the lack of indexing in Mail.
Ok, so... I deleted these folders and files. If you have a complex structure of subfolders, you can delete the files with an Unix command by first cd to your mail folder, and then use
find . -name \.index.r* -ok rm {} \;
which will ask you confirmation before deleting each file.
It was faster to remove the empty subfolders by hand, as they all had different names.
-- Ok, at this point, I erased entirely the .Spotlight-V100 directory which stays at the root of your computer. You can do it with a rmdir command from the terminal or, as I did, you can login as root (remember, we activated root), use a utility that allows you to see hidden files (e.g., Tinkertool), and move it manually to the trash folder.
Then I emptied the trash. For superstition, I restarted, and let the index be built again (that took about 5 hours in my computer, for an HD with about 60 gb occupied on it).
Now everything seems to work perfectly fine. I don't know whether this procedure can be shortened, but I do know that nothing else worked for me. I thought I would post it here as I spent sooo much time to solve this problem, and furthermore, I found that none of the suggested solutions would work.
OK, your responsibility to do it, if you want to do it. Hope nobody needs to!
Best to you all,
l.
Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lucabo! Using ideas from your post, I also (at least for now) solved my Mail indexing problem. One day (not even after an upgrade) Mail just quit finding messages by content, even when I had open a message with that content!
What I did:
-- In System Preferences, told Spotlight to index only Mail (I just use grep from a Terminal window for everything else!)
-- Ensured Mail app wasn't running
-- Backed up my Library/Mail folder to an external disk
-- Turned off indexing via Terminal (after sudo sh), with
mdutil -i off /Volumes/MyHardDisk
-- Deleted old files in my mailboxes (inside the whatever.mbox folders):
.index.ready
mbox
tableofcontents
content_index
It was clear that mbox, tableofcontents, and content_index were left over from a previous version of mail - they hadn't been accessed since I upgraded.
Note that I didn't delete the whatever.mbox folders (just the plain mbox file inside)!
-- Deleted (in Terminal) the .Spotlight-V100 in the root directory
-- Restarted my Mac. The indexing started itself. Since I had it set up to index only Mail, it took about 3-ish hours to finish (I have 100s of 1000s of emails in thousands of folders).
After the indexing finished, all the test searches that I tried worked. From now on I will always be suspicious if search doesn't find anything!
Also, I just checked - using the Spotlight field on the menu bar now works better too. When the Mail search problem showed up, I tried using the Spotlight field and the Spotlight window, but they would just flash up a few items, remove the list, over and over, sometimes with the beachball, then finally settle to an empty list. Now the Spotlight field seems to work.
I infer that the Spotlight index gets corrupted, and that the Spotlight code doesn't notice that it's reading junk from the index...
BTW, about the same time that search quit working, some emails in my Inboxes got highlighted with a dark brown background color. Have no idea why. They aren't marked as Junk (the junk messages have the text in the usual lighter brown). But, when I select a message with the dark brown highlight, mark it as junk, then mark it as not junk, the dark brown highlight goes away. On some occasions, just quitting Mail and restarting makes the dark brown highlights go away - but not always. Sigh... at least it's not a show stopper, even if it is ugly!
Thanks again, Lucabo, for your post!
Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Spotlight Indexing Problem

I've been scouring the internet looking in forum after forum for the answer to this problem for several hours now. I've tried all the usual fixes (which I will detail below) and none of them seem to be working.
I recently installed Leopard from Tiger on my MacBook. Since then I've been having a problem with Spotlight hanging while it's indexing. It gets about 80% of the way through before it starts hanging. I have no external hard drives connected (and therefore have not begun using Time Machine).
I Repaired Disk Permissions and booted up from the install disc and Repaired Disk.
I opened Terminal and entered +sudo mdutil -E /+ which restarted Spotlight indexing, but the problem arose again.
I added my entire hard drive to the Privacy list within Spotlight options. Spotlight stopped indexing (as would be expected). When I removed my hard drive from the Privacy list, the problem arose again.
Now, I have told Spotlight not to index any of the categories within Spotlight preferences. I will add each category in, one-by-one. This is currently taking place, and I will add posts as progress persists.
Can anyone help? I would really appreciate any kind of assistance in this matter.

I've been seeing the exact same problem and have posted queries with no solution. Currently my status is that I have switched off Spotlight indexing with an app called Spotless and am using EasyFind as my search tool. This is far from satisfactory though, as Spotlight is embedded inside many Apple apps as the search tool (Mail, for instance) and EasyFind doesn't replicate the function of searching inside apps. Since I rely on searching my mail more often than anything else on my drives, I'm not happy.
Spotlight has failed on both my my MacBook Pro and also my dual quad MacPro, despite my having done complete clean installs on both these machines. I've tried a process of elimination to attempt to find the file/files that are the culprit for the indexing hangs but it is a tedious and indefinite process, principally because it's impossible to know exactly when Spotlight gets hung up (I basically just have to listen for my fans to spin up watch the Activity Monitor for mds taking over the CPU). The console logs are almost no help in trying to find out what's going on, as they seem only to register the problem after I have quit Console and relaunched it (ie, they are not seeing the process hang as it happens).
One thing that may help you (although it didn't help me) is that Spotless allows you to delete old indexes created under earlier systems, that, as I understand it, may hang around through the install of 10.5 and interfere with new indexing.

Problem finding docs using content index in DB with different charactersets

Sorry for duplicating thread from [url http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=653067&tstart=0]this thread in Oracle Text forum, but it seems quite slow compared to this one, so probably someone has some suggestion.
Problem explanation:
DB version 10.2.0.1 SE on windows
database characterset AL32UTF8
I am creating following context index:
create index myindex on g(Content)
indextype is ctxsys.context
parameters('filter ctxsys.auto_filter
section group ctxsys.null_SECTION_GROUP');With following query:
SELECT distinct filename FROM g f
WHERE contains(F.Content, 'latiinju') >0;I can find latin symbols in ansi, utf-8 encoded text documents and msword and msexcel documents.
With following query:
SELECT distinct filename FROM g f
WHERE contains(F.Content, 'latviešu') >0;I can find latvian symbols in utf-8 encoded text documents and msword and msexcel documents, which basically is OK.
However there is another unfortunately already production database
10.2.0.3.0 SE on windows
with characterset BLT8CP921
and with index as defined above queries find absolutely nothing for both latin and latvian texts.
As soon as I've added another column "cset" in the table and filled it up with AL32UTF8 I can find latin characters for the same cases as in db above.
Index in this case is as follows:
create index myindex on g(Content)
indextype is ctxsys.context
parameters('filter ctxsys.auto_filter
section group ctxsys.null_SECTION_GROUP
charset column cset');However the problem is that for latvian characters it can find only UTF-8 encoded text files, but not doc and xls files and that's absolutely not OK.
I've tried also another charactersets in cset columns, but without any success.
So the question is - is there any possibility somehow to create the content index that it is possible to find also latvian specific symbols in doc and xls files in DB with characterset BLT8CP921?
Of course the ultimate solution would be to recreate db with AL32UTF8 characterset but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
TIA
Gints Plivna

I have applied performance tuning steps, like JAVA_POOL_SIZE, SGA_MAX_SIZE, increase table spaces size and change some other DB parameters. After applied, problematic index has been created without error and application is running fine without any error. Many thanks for your prompt suggestion, by which I could narrow down my problem. So, as my problem has been resolved, so please close this thread.
Regards,
Farhan Mazhar

DAG Big Problem with Content Indexes / Failed on both Servers

Hello,
i have 20 DBs in a DAG. And for 5 days both! content indexes failed.
I tried to recreate it on the passive server stopping the services and deleting the folders but it does not work. I will try the contentsubmitters group this evening (because this is very cpu consuming).
If that doesn't work what else can i do ?
Best regards
Stephan

Hi ,
Please use the below mentioned blog to have a healthy context index state for your active databases .
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchangesearch/archive/2013/10/28/rebuild-an-index-on-exchange-2013-for-specific-databases.aspx
Then do the following for the passive copies.
Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -identity "name of the DB" -CatalogOnly
Note : Before updating please suspend the passive database copy and then resume the copy once the update gets completed.
Regards
S.Nithyanandham
Thanks S.Nithyanandham

Spotlight constantly indexing in a never ending loop

I've upgraded my older Aluminium iMac Early 2008 model from Tiger to Snow Leopard to Lion and then Mountain Lion.
Since Mountain Lion, I've been having indexing problems. The mds process just doesn't want to stop. I have tried all the solutions.
Turn off mds from launchtl and then delete the /.Spotlight.V100/ folder, relaunch via launchctl again, then stopping indexing using, mdutil deleting via mdutil. Reboot, then also trying the recommended Machintosh HD drag into privacy and out again. I've done them all. I've added bootcamp to my privacy and also sugarsync drive and also my incomplete torrent folder.
I've re-indexed my drive, it's just no longer funny anymore. The problem is that the indexing process is running away. I check it via fs_usage for mds, and I can see the files it's opening and writing. This is not mdworker which matched my manual activity, e.g. if I make a numbers worksheet background, then of course it saves the file automatically and I can see in mdworker that it quickly indexes that file and stops.
The culprit is mds. It just continually indexes certain folders and files, which are just normal files and folders which I work on, e.g. my business documents, mail download mailboxes, iphoto library, etc. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to what it's doing. The files and folders run so fast over the terminal screen when I use fs_usage, that I know it's mds, because I can tell the activitiy matches the lines written to the terminal screen.
The problem is that this mds and HDD activity is NOT accompanied by any message in the little blue spotlight window, that is is currently indexing the drive. although it sounds exactly like it IS indexing the drive. Surely it doesn't have to reindex portions of the drive again and again. Shouldn't there come a point when it completely stops?
Normally, I have a silent computer after some indexing completes, but mostly it lasts only a day and then it starts chugging again.
Apart from re-installing, which I really don't want to do. What else is there I can try.

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
syslog -k Sender mdworker -o -k Sender mds | grep -v boxd | tail
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

Spotlight trouble indexing mail in Lion

Having a terrible time with Spotlight perpetually indexing mail.
system log shows
Jul 11 17:01:26 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: [Assigning new unique identifiers to all messages]
Jul 11 17:01:26: --- last message repeated 249 times ---
and of course All messages shows every one of those.
also plenty of messages like
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unterminated mailbox: [email protected].
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unexpected characters at end of address: :;>
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unterminated mailbox: [email protected].
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unexpected characters at end of address: :;>
Jul 11 17:03:04 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Missing parameter value: NAME
Jul 11 17:03:04 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Missing parameter value: FILENAME
-- those seem to be ridiculous errors for Spotlight -- if it can't figure out how to parse some of the info, it should ignore that info.
This continues until the disk cache gets totally overloaded, and the machine slows down.
Only help is to reboot.
I have tried turning off spotlight indexing to delete the spotlight cache (and used Cocktail to delete the Spotlight index)
That was no help.
Also rebuilt all of the mailboxes within the Mail program.
Then turned indexing off and back on.
Still no help.
Just tried deleting a couple of old mailbox entries in ~/Library/Mail
There was an old Unix mailbox there from an early version of OS X, and another one that I could not identify, and should have been deleted long ago.
I know I can turn off the indexing for mail, but that is one area where I would like to keep it.
I haven't tried a reboot since the latest deletes, but seeing the same messages flowing in the logs does not give me much hope.
It may be possible that 1 or 2 bad emails are causing all the trouble, but I am at a loss to find them.
Have 18 different accounts that are active ( I do web work so have webmaster, and other accounts on a number of servers).
Those are a mix of IMAP and POP.
INBOX total is usually kept around 100 emails - almost never goes above 200 unless I am away for an extended time.
Most mail ends up in folders ON MY MAC.
Largest of those has about 1500 messages.
Do not have extra folders on the servers with any of the IMAP accounts.
It is about time I archive some of the older messages, and that may help, but it will take me a while to get to that, and then flush the messages.
Problem occurred after update to Lion.
Did not seem to have the problem with Snow Leopard
Anyone have any other ideas?

I thought I had posted a follow up to this posting, but I guess not.
Soooo, here it is.
The problem was not with Apple Mail.app as it seemed, but actually with Mailsmith.app.
I use it for a number of mail accounts that I want to handle separately from my other mail accounts.
Within that application there is a Spotlight helper/worker
-- /Applications/Mailsmith.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/MailsmithImporter.mdimporter/ --
That is what was causing the problem for me.
Some users remove that section from the application, or do as I did -
Set the folders for Mailsmith mail for privacy in Spotlight.
Note: also set any backups of the Mailsmith mail for privacy also.
I filed a bug report with Mailsmith, but it is still open.
There appear to be a lot of issues with their Spotlight helper through the various versions of OS and Mailsmith.
see their discussion groups -
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/mailsmith-talk/spotlight$ 20indexing
The problem may be with certain emails, attachments, or addresses, don't know.
I am happy excluding that mail from Spotlight, and now my logs don't overflow and crash, the machine goes into deep sleep, and runs much cooler.

Searching/Indexing Problems

I'm on 10.5.8 and I have an external RAID that houses about 30GB of sound effects, a lot of which are in folders, but are in one large folder labeled, "Sound Effects". Problem is that for some reason when I want to search for a certain effect in a finder window using the search bar, it won't locate anything in the sound effects folder even though I know there are many in there by the name I'm searching for (i.e. car horn, etc...) Even when I choose the search location for the top directory (Sound Effects) as opposed to "Computer", etc. I have the same folder copied on a portable drive and I have no problems accessing from the search bar on that drive from a different computer.
What's happening? This RAID has been hooked up for a couple years. Is it not indexing the folder contents or something? I can't figure it out.
Thanks,
Eddie

I called Apple and higher level tech was able to solve my problem by telling me how to have Spotlight re-index the drive.
Test your search in Spotlight and see if it works (mine didn't) and if Spotlight fails also that may be your problem.

My home page is google and it works but when I open a new tab it displays an error message :Firefox can't find the file at chrome://quick_start/content/index.ht

I've made sure a dozen times that my home page is set correctly, and when I hit the home button next to the search bar it works and takes me right to google BUT whenever i open a new tab i get the error that my page cannot load and the web url that it keeps trying to remember is in the error message:
Firefox can't find the file at chrome://quick_start/content/index.html.
of course the last dot is not the url anymore but the end of the sentence for the error message, but i don't ever use chrome ever on my laptop only my cell so what is going on????? help fix god please!!!!!!

Do you have the FastStart extension?
Start Firefox in <u>[[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]]</u> to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.
*Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

CHM buttons are not localized in a French project (shows English Contents, Index, Search, Print, Hide buttons)

I opened an old WinHelp project into my new RoboHelp 7. When
I generate the CHM, even with the Project Settings in RoboHelp set
to French and running in a French Windows operating system (MS
Windows XP Pro 2002 SP 2), the CHM output is still in English. The
buttons display in English (Contents, Index, Search, Print, Hide
buttons). The title bar of the CHM also says "HTML
Help" even though the project title in the Project
Settings is "Aide en ligne...".
My Windows Regional Settings through the Control Panel -
Regional Options tab is set French (France). On the Languages tab I
under Text Services and Input Languages, Details button, I selected
French (France) French. On the Advanced tab I selected French. Then
I rebooted.
On the language bar on my Task pane, I selected FR. The CHM
still displays in English.
Please help! I have to produce 4 CHMS in languages other than
English today.
Thanks!

GinaL, would you be able to give us an update? Did the CHM
files look ok on a PC with a true French OS installed?
To avoid having to rewrite everything, I've written the
following info/instructions for my team -- though I'm not yet sure
they're 100% correct:
After I reported this issue to Adobe, they worked on the
problem for several days. They even sent me a new
HtmSingleSourceHtmlHelp.dll file that was supposed to solve the
problem. But it didn't work correctly. No matter what contortions
we put ourselves through, we couldn't get both of these items
correct in the CHM file at the same time, namely:
Index compiled in correct alphabetical order accdg to the
language of the help project.
Correctly translated help title showing in the caption,
regardless of the user's Windows regional settings. (For example,
we wanted "FORMS-Hilfe zu FORMS 5-3" to appear as the caption of
the German version of FORMS help, even if our regional settings
were set to English.)
I think we'd all agree that the index has to be in
alphabetical order. So from what I've seen, this is what we have to
do when compiling a non-English version of help using RH7:
1. Set up the project with the foreign name.
2. Set the language in the project settings. And in the
Project Settings dialog, click Advanced and check out the LNG File
tab to make sure it's using a translated version.
3. Ensure that the Window Caption setting is correct in each
window included in the project. (On RoboHelp's Project tab, open
the Windows folder, double-click each window in turn, and check the
settings.)
4. Set the Language setting in the HHP file to Language=[hex
value for that language]. I found a bunch of them listed on this
web page. Someone else might be able to find a better source:
https://svn.origo.ethz.ch/scoop/es_scoop_60/library/i18n/locale/nls/i18n_nls_lcid_tools.e
5. Change your Windows regional settings to the same language
as the help project. (Reboot if prompted.)
6. Recommended, for safety's sake: Delete the CPD file.
7. Open the project and compile using RH7.
8. Check the index's sort order -- is it in alphabetical
order according to the language of the project?
9. Check the help caption -- make sure it's not "HTML Help".
Note: Any customized buttons in your CHM should appear
correctly translated, but other buttons (Contents, Index, Search)
still appear in English -- at least they do on my PC, even though I
did step 2 above. We need to check whether those buttons appear
correctly when the PC is actually running a true foreign version of
Windows, and not just with temporarily adjusted Windows settings.
OR -- is anyone else able to get these to appear translated in the
CHM file?
Does anyone have anything to add? Other solutions? Easier
procedures? Better results to report?
Thank you
Eileen

IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION

For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
- Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
- The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
- Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
- From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
- Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
- Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
Quit iPhoto
Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
- Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
- After some time, a message should come up saying:
* Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
- When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
Open iPhoto
- Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
- Click the Keywords tab
- Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
- Close out of iPhoto preferences
- From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
- Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
- Select the Keywords tab
- CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
- UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
- Quit iPhoto
Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
Thanks.
Graham

IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION *edit

For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
- Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
- The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
- Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
- From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
- Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
- Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
Quit iPhoto
Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
- Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
- After some time, a message should come up saying:
* Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
- When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
Open iPhoto
- Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
- Click the Keywords tab
- Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
- Close out of iPhoto preferences
- From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
- Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
- Select the Keywords tab
- CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
- UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
- Quit iPhoto
Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
Thanks.
Graham

Spotlight is indexing but what? And why does it want access to the web?

I can see Spotlight is indexing, it spends several hours a day doing this, every day.
Where can i find more details like previous OS X versions? Which drive, how much time left etc.
Console was no help, any suggestions welcome.
Also, with "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches" disabled in the Spotlight Search Results references, why is the process "Spotlight Web Content" still trying to access the web several times a day? I am not using Spotlight when this happens nor am i trying to preview any files that have web content in them. Most commonly it tries to connect to static.amazon.com on the http port.

In System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, if you have "Bookmarks and History" checked, then the "Spotlight Web Content" background process will crawl any web page that you recently visited to index its keywords. Uncheck that to turn it off.

My new tab opens with chrome://quick_start/content/index.html on the adress bar. how do i get rid of it

after installing camstudio i'm stuck with this. although my Firefox isn't disturbed i wanna rid it asap.help!

Note that such a chrome URL shows a problem with an installed extension (Firefox uses the chrome protocol to access built-in files and files used by extensions).
In this case a quick_start related extension is involved (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions).
*chrome://quick_start/content/index.html

Spotlight not Indexing (or showing any results)

Spotlight isn't working at all for me in Leopard. I had just done a format and clean install of Leopard, all apps and fully updated OS and apps patches. It's been 2 days now so I'd expect Spotlight would have indexed everything. However Spotlight returns no results for anything typed in the search box. Nothing.
Could the following be related? When I open Spotlight preferences>privacy and try to add ANY of my drives to the prevent list, it returns this error for all drives: "Privacy List Error. the item couldn't be added or removed because of an unknown error."

I fixed it and want to post what worked for anyone else with this problem. Spotlight would not return ANY result after the clean Leopard install. I cleaned out ALL the caches with the program Cocktail Leopard edition. That did the trick. Instantly Spotlight began indexing my drives. While I've used Cocktail for years I also found a program called "MainMenu" which has an actual button for "Re-index Spotlight". I didn't need it because Cocktail worked. But should cocktail not work for you I would try MainMenu next.

Spotlight Content indexing Problem

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