Spotlight or addressbook results

i'm interested in doing one or both of these:
pass the contents from clipboard (possible via applescript or an automator action downloaded from apple.com) to either:
spotlight search or an addressbook search with a resulting spotlight search window or display of the contact in the addressbook (if found).
seems like that should be straight forward but its not working. the spotlight search will only bring up results within the actual automator worklflow window... not in a separate spotlight search window.
trying to use the find addressbook item does not seem to yield results.
am i missing something very obvious here?

Look in System Preferences > Spotlight > privacy tab > See if the drive is listed in the exclusion list. If so highlight and press the "-" icon below the list to allow indexing. It will start immediately after you remove it from this list.
Regards,
Captfred

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Search & spotlight return no results

As the subject states, both search and spotlight return no results. Both appear to search (windmill keeps turning) but they never return any results. Help!

OK, we need to analyze this one a bit..
Check and make sure the system rewrote the deleted .plist preference file for Spotlight in your user Library.
If so, then we need to check some things in the terminal...
Open the Terminal (located in Utilities subfolder of Applications)
then type this:
ls -l
then in Finder, open your users folder, account subfolder, and then drag the Library folder into the Terminal and drop it.. it should complete the command with the path to your user Library folder and should look similar to this:
MacName:~ Username$ ls -l /Users/Username/Library/
Once that's done, just press enter.. it will list out in long form all the subfolders.. I am interested in the line for folder Preferences. It should look like this:
drwx------ # username username # Date Time Preferences
Make sure that the line starts with drwx.. if the second third and fourth digit don't have the r w and x in that order, then we have a problem with permissions that will have to be fixed using chmod if Disk Utility can't fix it.
Without the r, the system can't Read the contents of the directory. Without the w, it can't update any files in the directory (all your prefs). Without the x, it can't execute anything from that directory (no biggy?).. Anyone else want to jump in here and add anything to this?
To learn how to use chmod, like any shell command, type man commandname like so:
man chmod
to exit the manual just type Q and enter.. To exit terminal type exit and enter then quit from the menu.

Spotlight Show All Results At The Bottom!

In Spotlight, Show All Results used to be at the top. After typing in the query in the Spotlight field, I used to tap on the Up arrow and get right to Show All Results. Quite fast with the keyboard, without even touching the mouse.
Now I have to go to the bottom of the list, either with the mouse or with the down key. S-l-o-w-l-y. Irritating to say the least.
Is there a way to change this and bring Show All Results to the top? Or at least a shortcut to go right to the bottom? Oh that would be nice, just keeping in mind the poor power users… :-)

The result appears at the center unless there are multiple results on the screen and in this case Firefox doesn't scroll to center the next result.
*Bug 171237 - Find in Page: highlighted result should be at the middle of the page (vertically centered) instead of last line/bottom of page
<i>Please do not comment in bug reports: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html</i>

I can't prevent Spotlight from returning results from emails and Safari

Try as I might, I can't prevent Spotlight from returning results from emails and from Safari web browser history.
I've toggled the two relevant boxes in the Spotlight system preferences, and rebuilt the index, but it still returns results from categories that I have deselected (like emails and webpages).
The system preferences say "Only selected categories will appear in Spotlight search results". If only it were true!

I think this could be a reason, your settings regarding indexing of mail messages didn't stick.
I'm having other problems with security update 2008-005.
It'd be interesting to know if OnyX is able to fix your problem again. Hopefully its doings survive the next update.

Spotlight returns wrong results

After installing Yosemite on my MacBook Pro, I tried to use Spotlight on some simple searches, with startling results. For example, I looked for Spotlight help...and a Word for Mac file opened. I recognize that Spotlight scours my Mac for material, but I do not understand why it would open a file that has nothing to do with the search terms.
Can anyone hazard a guess about what may be happening?

Did it and it worked to add _spotlight to the ACLs but Spotlight still return blank results on AFP clients...
Do you know what should be the permissions on the .spotlight-V100 folder?
Spotlight works on the servers so the index is fine. It's the AFP clients that can't read it properly or don't get all the data from it.

Spotlight gives no results, privacy tab gives me a list error, What The F?

Just did the most recent Apple updates, (excluding 10.5.2 because I'm using Pro Tools HD which doesn't support it yet) and spotlight just plan stopped working. Finder Search produces no results. Privacy tab doesn't work or allow me to drag drives in without producing a unknown 'list error'.
I used Cocktail and Mainmenu to delete all my cache files and manually reindex spotlight, repaired permissions, relaunched finder, trashed the spotlight V100 hidden plist and still NO help, nada.
Then I noticed Time Machine was ON. I don't believe I turned it ON, is it set to ON by default? I turned it off and Spotlight now works fine after reindexing my 6 drives.
What the frick is up with spotlight on Leopard? I saw so many people having problems I thought I should add to the group and let it be known many many people are hurting with search functions on Leopard.
So do I need to choose between Time Machine and Spotlight? They dont like eachother!

Help. I have tried deleting the hidden Spotlight folder per above suggestions, and now it acts as though Spotlight won't even function.
I have tried to fix THAT problem with the following (http://osxdaily.com/2007/03/22/how-to-completely-disable-spotlight/) and cannot get any of these to work. To be fair, I can't try the Terminal suggestion, as Terminal refuses to allow me to enter my admin password. Weird.
Anyway, two brand new machines, one a fresh-out-of-the-box install and Spotlight broken on both. Besides a reinstall, any ideas how to reinstate my (hidden) Spotlight folders and fix the 'Privacy List Error' I get every time I try to drag a volume to the Spotlight>Privacy tab.
Frustrating having a new machine that won't allow a basic Finder search.

Spotlight wont show results from the Library folder

Items in the Library folder inside my user folder don't show up as results when I search in Spotlight. Is there a reason Spotlight wont search that folder, and can I change it?

Yes, Apple added the home Library folder to the "system files" list--at least now although both are excluded by default, you can choose to include if you want in any particular search.
Open a search window with Command-F and setup your search. After the first criterion--the default is Kind--you'll see a plus button. Click it to add a new criterion, then click the drop down list and instead of what's there select "Other" and scroll down the list to "System files" and select it. If you want to be able to access this option without recourse to the Other list, put a check in the box for showing in the menu. The default value is "don't include" which is goofy in the extreme since you wouldn't have selected this option unless you wanted them included, as they are ALREADY excluded. Anyway, change the value to Include.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Spotlight shows the result of old files doesn't shows words definition

Hi all,
I am sick of my spotlight searchings, firstly it doesn't shows the latest file result as if i create a new document file it doesn't shows its existence and the matter inside that file plus one more than previously i used my spotlight for words definition which came from dictionary now it also doesn't shows that thing as well, from different forums i have search that for re indexing put the hd drive into spotlight preference privacy and than delete that, what i did i drag the hd drive into privacy setting quit spotlight preference and system preference and than open again spotlight preference and in the privacy tab it's nothing there the drive which i just added a few minutes back it was not there so how would i delete it again for re-indexing. i am running mac os x 10.6.6. Pleas help Me thanks =)

Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

Spotlight not generating results

I have an issue where the spotlight search does not pull results, or sometimes filters out correct results the more narrow my search. For example, if I look for my friend "paul", and type "pa", paul will begin to show up, but when I complete it further "paul", I suddenly do not have any of my friends name paul listed.

I think some of the Spotlight problems were fixed in the last OS8 update.
George

One Drive on Mac Mini Server not indexing - no spotlight or finder results

I have two drives on my Mac mini server. No RAID, etc. They are factory config 500G each.
The "main" drive has all the applications, desktop, etc on it and indexes fine, I can search or spotlight with no problem.
Anything on the other disk works fine, but is not searchable. Is there a setting that I have turned off search on that other drive? Is there a way to force a re-index, etc.

Look in System Preferences > Spotlight > privacy tab > See if the drive is listed in the exclusion list. If so highlight and press the "-" icon below the list to allow indexing. It will start immediately after you remove it from this list.
Regards,
Captfred

Spotlight not showing results of system Apps in Spanish

Hi,
I'm using a Intel Core2Duo imac with 10.4.8 and 1 GB of RAM. I've been able to use the spotlight searchs for aplications from the beginings, but since 2 weeks ago I can't find any application of Apple Mac OS X which are in Spanish (for instance: "Preview" is "Vista previa", "Disk Utility" is "Utilidad de Discos").
If I want to find and launch "Vista previa" I have to write "Preview".
This is a problem I haven't before and I don't know how to solve. I've already re-indexed the entire volume. What else can I do?
Thanks a lot in advance

Hi kanupriya,
Thanks for the reply.
I have added the Grouping for tax.
Even now also im unable to get the Incometax in the payslip for march.
Please advice.
Regards,
V Sai.

Spotlight mp3 search results - showing song title only

Hi,
Since upgrading to 10.9 spotlight only shows the tag of the songs instead of the filename. this is really annoying.
Is there any way to fix this?
Thanks,
Udi

Try erasing Spotlight's index and then reindex the drive. Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and copy and paste this into Terminal.
sudo mdutil -E /
Spotlight – Re-index

Spotlight not including results it obviously should

My spot light is not including document/files that are in plain view. How do I get it to reindex or fix itself?

they are in my documents folder. I search a word like BOARD which is in the title of at least 10 documents and spotlight returns nothing when i see them right there in my documents folder.
all spotlight search preferences are checked that can possibly be checked.
i would like to force a reindex as a first step but don't know how to do that.

Spotlight only showing results of 1 partition

I skipped lion and went from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. I am using a 1tb External HD. If I type "screen shot" into spotlight, it only shows the files on 1 of the partitions (there are 4 partitions on the drive) The one thing I noticed is that if I open a file from one of the other partitions, after doing so, that file will now also show up in spotlight. So to sum it up, spotlight only shows files from 1 partition, and files from the other partitions I've opened since I updated to Mountain Lion
Any Ideas?

Re-index SpotLight
go into disk utility, select your OS X hard drive, click "repair disk permission". wait until it's done.
after that, go into terminal and type copy & paste:
sudo mdutil -E /
after that, terminal will prompt you for your password. type it in (no letters will actually appear but just type your password and press enter).
your spotlight index should then be recreated.

Spotlight'ing music results in PREVIEW_ITUNES_LIBRARY

Hello.
When I search for music in spotlight, my hits is to be found in the path "PREVIEWITUNESLIBRARY". It isn't until I open "Show all", that I can find the right path (Fx. larsmoellenberg/Music/Itunes/Itunesmusic/"Artist"/"Album"/"Title"). Why?
Kind regards Lars Moellenberg

I hadn't noticed that before, but that is indeed what shows in the yellow "tooltips" box. If you want to go to the folder enclosing the item, just hold down the Command key and click on the item, a Finder window will open with your selected song high-lighted. I have no idea what in the world PREVIEWITUNESLIBRARY is supposed to signify, nor why that is there instead of the path.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Spotlight or addressbook results

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