Spotlight does NOT find iPhoto keywords

Hi,
maybe you guys can help me.
Spotlight does not find any of my iPhotos attached with keywords.
My System is: Mac OS 10.4.4 and iPhoto 6 (5 did not work either).
This is what I have tried so far:
- repaired permissions more then once
- rebuilt the spotlight database through the terminal
- marked my iPhoto folder as privacy in the spotlight preferences and unmarked it
- removed all keywords (1. try: marked all together; 2. try: marked all together and put them in a new empty list) , closed iPhoto, opened it and gave all an dummy keyword; removed the dummy keyword and assigned one-by-one for some iPhotos new keywords
- archived the iPhoto database and let it built up by iPhoto again
- ran the comboupdater of 10.4.4 again
The last try I am thinking on is a "archive&install" of Tiger but maybe you have another idea???
PS: Whats strange is that when I look at the processes while assigning keywords, the process 'mdimport' starts to work... but again, Spotlight does not find the iPhotos by keywords.

I also had this happen to me several times. Once when I first moved to OS X 10.4 and again when I had to reload my computer. Each time I had archived my iPhoto library to a second drive, installed the OS on a clean formated drive and then copied the iPhoto Library back into my home directory.
From that point, Spotlight would refuse to search for files via keywords. That is, until I updated the photo. By select each photo and changing somthing about the photo, wether editing the photo, changing its star rating to something else and back again, or even adding keywords to the photo, even putting a comment of a blank space in for each photo, doing anything to the photo that would update the xml file would cause that entry to get updated and in turn allow the photo to be searchable by keyword via Spotlight.
There are scripts available that can actually put the iPhoto keywords into the photo file iteself. The one I am using also needs to have GraphicConverter installed. This way I can search either through iPhoto or Adobe Bridge for the Photos that I want to use.
PPC G4 1.4GHz Mac OS X (10.4.2) 1GB RAM, 120GB HD x2, SuperDrive, 128MB ATI Graphics Card

Similar Messages

Spotlight does not find files with "_" (underscores), but only for certain file types

Hey Folks,
this is strange, maybe someone has an idea.
I already searched the internet for a while, nothing found so far.
I have a file "calc_mean.m" on my desktop.
When I type "calc" in spotlight, it shows the file.
But when I type "calc_" it suddenly does not show the file anymore. Nor does find the file, when I enter "calc_mean.m" in spotlight.
When I enter "calc mean.m" in spotlight, it finds it (using space instead of the underscore).
Now comes the real surprise:
When I rename the file to "calc_mean.txt", spotlight suddenly DOES find the file when entering "calc_mean.txt".
I recreated this "feature" with other files, copying and renaming ".txt" files to ".m" files, and if there's a underscore in the file, spotlight wont find it.
Playing around a bit more, it seems spotlight does find files with underscore when they are documents, at least it works for the following extensions:
.pdf
.doc
.txt
.xls
But these extensions for example do not work:
.mp3
.m
.k
.a
.ka
(and other random endings I tried).
I am pretty confused. Sure it's no big deal learning to search for files that include underscores in their name using space instead. But I'm still quite puzzled. Any idea?

All of those have meaning in various database search syntax (not sure if it matters).
_ usually means any character.
% usually means any run of characters.
- is often used to negate what comes next, i.e. "don't include results that have the following text."
I don't see any problem on my Mac, though.
I also don't have any problem finding file names with those accented characters using Spotlight. I would suggest reindexing Spotlight, but if cmd-f finds them, I'm not sure that would help.
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

Spotlight does not find files on Time Capsule disk

I have the 2TB time capsule configured with a DATA and FIL disks. The DATA is used for the Time Machine backups. The FIL disk is used as a NAS (Network Access Storage) disk. The FIL disk works as advertised except Spotlight. When I mount the FIL as a shared disk and go into Spotlight and seach for a file by the filename, nothing happens. I spent hours on this. I seached Google and found nothing. I also tried mounting the disk as a SMB. This works partially when I alter the search criteria to seach only "Shared". But it only works within the folder. It does not search the entire tree. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

By default, network drive is not indexed.
See here for the default list of folders that Spotlight will search:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301533
You can manually turn on spotlight on a specific volume by using Terminal and enter:
sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/X
(where "X" is the name of the network volume.)
If the index is corrupted, and you want to rebuild it, enter:
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/X

Spotlight does not find Spotlight Comments

i've made a script on our server that makes use use of the Spotlight Comments. But when I give some files these comments and I run the script it doesn't find the documents. Also when I type it manualy in the Spotlight bar it doesn't find the files. I've tried it on serveral other macs and there it does work.
Can anybody help me? Thanks!

Leopold:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Are you sure the external HD has been indexed by Spotlight? If you're not sure you can use Spotlightindexer to force Spotlight to index that volume. You can find the app thru VersionTracker.com.

Spotlight do not find pictures in iphoto 11

I have notised that Spotlight does not find the pictures in iphoto 11. I'm running Lion 10.7.2. Solutions?

Well, perhaps Spotlight doesn't understand the iPhoto database with the tags and stuff (which it did in older versions). But it does understand the file package. It's just a package of files and folders after all.
If I create a new iPhoto library and import a couple of pictures, then in the Finder show the new iPhoto library package content and search for "jpg" and click on "new iPhoto Library" it returns a lot of hits, since it's indeed full of jpg files. The problem is that if I do the exact same thing with the old iPhoto library package - it returns zero hits.
Does it have to do with the iPhoto library moving from one disk to another, migrating? I don't know the answer, but it's really irritating. And I'm hoping someone knows the magic trick out there to fix it once and for all.

Spotlight does not work with Thunderbird? mdimporter installed but no work

Hello,
additional to my Apple-Mail i still use Thunderbird for my old PC-Accounts and the old mails.
Thunderbird runs quite well, but the Mac-OS Spotlight does not find anything within the Mails stored in Thunderbird.
The mdimporter from Mozilla is installed,
I made reboots, re-Index, Double-Clicks, added the thunderbird-Folder to the private and removed again and everything else i could find anywhere.
Nothing works.
Anybody here who might give me a useful hint?
Kind regards
Falk

ok this is some extra piece of software which seems to create a separate index for Thunderbird emails outside of the database files which can then be searched by spotlight. I don't use it so can't comment on this directly. one obvious thing is that you'd have to include system files in your search before you see any results from the thunderbird folder because all this stuff lives inside your user Library. to include system files in a search start finder search using command+f, click on "kind" scroll and click on "other". in the resulting popup select 'system files' and change the settings to include them in the search.

How can I find what apple ID I used to register my iMac when I first booted up? I am being told that by using this ID I will be able to go on to the App store and down load iPhoto at no cost. Is this true? My iMac does not have iPhoto resident on it now

How can I find what apple ID I used to register my iMac when I first booted up? I am being told that by using this ID I will be able to go on to the App store and down load iPhoto at no cost. Is this true? My iMac does not have iPhoto resident on it now and I only purchased my new iMac in December 2012
Thanks....

Launch Keychain Access and click on Login in the left hand pane and then on Passwords. Next do search for Apple in the search field at the top and click on Apple ID Authenicication in the list that comes up. That will give you the ID no. and password.
OT

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.

Spotlight does not open a finder window when i choose Show all in finder menu?

I have a significant number of files in my Macbook Air. A lot of them are research papers and medical literature.
About a month ago I updated the operating system from snow Leopard to mountain Lion and I had no reasons to complain except a smaller battery time.
Since then I installed every OS update.
After the last update, a few days ago, Spotlight does not open a finder window when i choose Show all in finder menu.
Spotlight continues to work properly if I write a name or expression in spotlight in a finder window but not in the upper left corner at the menu bar
As this been described yet?
Thank you in advance
Miguel Tavares

I had the same problem yesterday after performing a clean install of Mountain Lion (10.8.2) on my MacBook Pro.
I resolved the problem by booting from the Mountain Lion Recovery Partition and then running Disk Utilty (Repair) for the primary disk on which Mountain Lion is installed. It identified (and repaired) many permissions issues...
When I rebooted following the repair, Spotlight worked again properly -- including the "Show All in Finder" function.

Searching in Mail AND Spotlight does not reveal BCC recipients

Dear Folks:
Searching in Mail does not reveal BCC recipients. I found a post pointing this out from 2006. There were no replies and you cannot reply if you try, it been "archived."
Does that mean Mail simply does not search BCC's?
What's really weird is Spotlight won't find them either.
Am I doing something wrong or is there a gap in the app?
Thanks!

Yeah and even worse, Spotlight does not store Cc mail adresses, too.
when you do an mdls on an emlx file there is only a recipients kmditem. the cc and bcc email adresses are not stored/indexes by spotlight. and can't be searched for!

Please help! Safari does not start due to a plugin failure. How can I remove librooksbas.dylib. Without being able to open safari. Finder does not find the file.

Please help.
iSafari does not start up due to an error caused by plug in librooksbas.dylib.
How can I remove this plugin without opening safari. Finder does not find the file, nor any other plugin.
Eric

For future reference, Safari Plugins are kept in Macintosh HD> Library> Internet Plugins.
To unhide the Library folder, open up Terminal (just type"Terminal" into spotlight) and type:
chflags nohidden ~/Library

Can I migrate from mavericks to mavericks server. Have tried using a hard drive but the but the sever does not find the migration backup when it's searches. Any help out there?

Can I migrate from mavericks to mavericks server. Have tried using a hard drive but the but the sever does not find the migration backup when it's searches. Any help out there?

Is the HDD in the 2009 15" MBP dead? (The original source of your data) If not, you might want ot take it out and put it in an enclosure.
You might try spotlight on know files to see if that gives you any clues where your data is located.
You might down load from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper (free) and open it. It should show you all of the files you have on your MBP and enable to locate them.
Ciao.

Finder does not "find" specific file on my seagate external

I am new to Mac. (1 week). I have a seagate 1.5 TB external drive I used with my windows system. The drive just contains music, photos and PDF files. My new Mac recognizes the drive but when I go to search for a particular file using finder, it does not find it. I have to look through everything to find the file. Being a Mac newbie, it's likely something I'm missing.

You may need to add the external drive to Spotlight for indexing http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

Spotlight does not search by contact in Messages

Can anyone please help me or at least explain to me why this is happening to my Messages app
1. This image shows my Messages Inbox. Note that I have messages from Mike De Castro, Sandy Layug and Chris Santos.
2. Problem is when I search using Spotlight within Messages. In most cases, Spotlight does not behave correctly. I am able to type in the word i want to search but it doesn't seem to search the Contacts -- only the content.
(a) tried searching for "Sandy", it didn't give any search results;
(b) tried searching "Mike", it gave me a message from Mike De Castro (contact search) and a message from Khai (content search);
(c) tried searching "Chris", it only gave me messages that contains the word "chris" in the message but no contact named "Chris".
This has been a pain in the *** since I search messages by Contact and not by content. This works fine before.
I hope you could help me find a solution to this. Tried the search on my wife's 4s (5.0.1) and it works properly.
I am using a 4s on IOS 6.0.1.
On Spotlight Search under General Settings, Contacts has a check mark.
This happens in Messages only. Searching by contact in Mail works fine.

I had this same problem. Called apple and no fix. I completely reset my phone (erased everything) and set it up as a new phone again. Works perfect now. Go to Settings- General - Reset - Erase all content and settings.

AIO remote does not find my printer

I changed Internet providers a few months ago. I have not been able to print from my iPhone or iPad since then. AIO remote does not find my printer at all.

Hi,
Both AirPrint and the HP AIO Remote app relies on Multicasting, a such have to be supported and enabled by your router.
Some routers support a such by default, some require settings changes and some do not support Multicasting which required for a such.
Please clarify your router brand and model to better understand any possible steps to try.
Regards,
Shlomi
Say thanks by clicking the Kudos thumb up in the post.
If my post resolve your problem please mark it as an Accepted Solution

Spotlight does NOT find iPhoto keywords

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for