Spotlight Search/Contact Search

Appears that Apple is misleading what the spotlight and contact search function can do on the 3.0 software update. First, spotlight will not search the content of emails.... just the header/title. Secondly, neither spotlight nor contact search will search all the fields in a contact. Just raised this issue through a one-on-one session at a local apple store, and all the employees in the store were surprised as they too thought the 3.0 update would do this. It's abt setting expectations and delivering. At the 12:10 mark on the Apple online video, there is discussion abt the search function, and it leads one to believe that all the fields in contacts are searched. Very disappointed as I've 3,000+ contacts and will not remember all the names/company names. Are there any applications that will search all fields in a contact... including the note field? This is my first iPhone. Thanks.

I have sent messages to Apple Feedback requesting true Spotlight search in Contacts. I have been very frustrated that the iPhone still cannot perform a search that equals what my first Palm PDA could provide. MobileMe does not provide a workaround because the search feature in MobileMe does not look in the Notes field.
Today I discovered an iPhone App that searches the "Notes" and other fields in Contacts! Contact Tool from Alessandro Levi Montalcini. While not perfect, because it is a little slow, but it does work. A well spent $1.99 for a feature that Apple should be providing.

Similar Messages

Spotlight Search / Contacts Search (partially solved)

I had been looking literally for years for a full search tool, similar to what worked on Palm PDA; Spotlight was nice but way too limited : no search on Contacts adresses, none on optional fields such as Notes, Profession, etc...
Thanks to this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2051531?threadID=2051531, I finally discovered "Contact Tool" which does all I want, except only for Contacts. Too bad it is almost impossible to find on the App Store due to its too generic name...
That would be great if iOS5 brought a major Spotlight improvement, especially for what is not covered by Contact Tool (like emails content).

Forgot to mention that 2 other search applications were also named in the same thread : Fast Contacts and Contact Find.
Did not test them thou since Contact Tool perfectly solved my problem .

Spotlight stops searching contacts

Hi, this one is a 'baffler' - new state of puzzlement.
After upgrading to Mountain Lion spotlight would occasionally stop searching my contacts, the artist previously known as Address Book. The Spotlight preference box for Contacts is ticked, and the Privacy tab does not have anything listed. Occasionally it would start searching Contact again after a re boot, but this is a mac and shouldn't need that. Now even that doesn't work, I can't get spotlight to search contacts at all. I have also added my HD to privacy, then removed it off forcing it to re index everything, which takes a while. It would work after that then stop after a few days.
I am normally not alone if ever I have a problem and find helpful solutions in forums etc. But alas, I seem to be on my lonesome on this cold dark night.
Any help appreciated, thanks.

I am on OS 10.8.2, All Latest Updates, MacBook Pro 17', SSD all maxed out.
I don't remember having this issue prior to OS 10.8.2, to which I Upgraded from 10.7.4.
I did not try Deleting any Files or Folder to fix this yet!
I did recently Signed Out and back Into iCloud while on call with AppleCare.
This issue of - Spotlight Stops Searching Contacts - comes and goes!
This issue existed before and after my Sign Out and Into iCloud!!!
Below is the Log of my Latest Research:
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Re-indexed Spotlight on my MacBook Pro by Dragging my Macintosh HD in and out of Privacy Tab in Spotlight!
54 minutes remaining at halfway point. Looks like it could be a two hour project!
That took 1hr 9min on my SSD!!!
Problem still exists
Time Machine Backup ran during Re-Indexing, but I decided to let it do its thing!
Unchecked Contacts in Spotlight
Restarted
Checked Contacts in Spotlight
Problem still exists - even if it worked for the l1nu5r post on Apple Discussions below
Saturday, November 17, 2012
After 2 SuperDuper Clone Backups + Time Machine Backup - All Contacts can be Searched in Spotlight!!!! The Issue Fixed itself - All Contacts could be Searched in Spotlight, but... That "success" lasted only for a day:)!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
After my SuperDuper Clone Backup, Contacts could not be found, even after UnMounted External HDs, turned them off and Restarted, and Shut Down my Mac twice!
I Edit a Contact and that Contact showed up in Spotlight, but only that Contact
I did a Safe Boot - Nothing in Spotlight was available except Web and Wikipedia
I Shut Down for 2 min and Restarted. Spotlight did some more Indexing for about 1 minute!
That Edited Contact showed up in Spotlight, but only that Contact
My Best Guess:
This issue appears to be related to iCloud!
I hope Apple is reading this and all our posts!
Apple is welcome to call me...
I will be calling AppleCare soon!
I hope All Our Dots Will Connect, so that this Issue is fixed!!!
Stay tuned!

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.

Having an issue with Searching Contacts -IOS8 iPhone 5S - MS Exchange

When I search for a certain Contact by name EX: John Smith, I would get Jon Smith about 10 names down and others appear before him at the top of the list. When I click on the other contacts you can see his name in the contact notes which I guess is why the others show up. EX: Jon Smith Referral in contact notes of Jane Doe.
I only want the contact search to show the the specific person I am searching for. I do not want other names to show up along with the search. Is it possible to have the contact search ONLY look at the First/Last Name and no other info?
Hope that makes sense to someone out there..... Cant find an answer ANYWHERE.
Thanks so much!

Thats exactly what I want it to do. Say for example I search Smith I will get about 25 people, and Smith is somewhere linked to it in an email thread, contact details, or something like that, no relevance in the First Last or Email. I do not understand how the contact search is even coming up with this many results. I can confirm this is only using the contact search and not Spotlight or anything like that. I seem to be the only person in the universe which is having this problem, I deleted my MS exchange account and re-added it, factory reset the phone. No clue where to go from here. Lol my only work around that I have found for now is if I just say the First name and last name to Siri she will come up with the contact details I need for that specific person. Driving me crazy!
PS - Thank you for trying, much appreciated that you gave it a shot to see if you could make it happen for you!

Where is the Contacts Search feature?

I have over 4,000 contacts in my list. I need to be able to search for contacts based on information in other fields besides first and last name. Where can I find the Contacts Search/Spotlight input field or equivalent?

** BUMP **
I notice that all the reviews are highlighting how easy it is to SCROLL (browse) the contacts list in the Phone Book, I have yet to figure out how to SEARCH the contacts list. It seems like you can do this when you're entering a Text Message recipient (or, for that matter, addressing an email message), so clearly the ability to perform a "lookup" action is there, but either it's not implemented in the Phone application, or I'm just blind.
So, to illustrate: Right now, I've sorted my Phone contacts by last name. Suppose I want to call "Michael" but I don't know his last name. In Mac OS X (along with the really good smartphones), I would typically be able to enter his first name and have all the Micahels in my contacts list show up. Not only that, I'd also get search results for anyone who worked for a company called "Michael", or even someone who had "Michael" in their notes field (perhaps I'm looking for "Michael's Secretary"?)
I hope Apple is paying attention, because something as simple as a contact search REALLY ought to be part of their inevitable 1.1 release!!

Spotlight and mail searches not working, but...

I contacted Apple Support by phone and they had me go through all of the procedures to re-index the meta data and so on on my iMac and still my Spotlight and Mail searches are not working properly. (I cannot find certain files even though I know they exist...more often than not!) Supposedly, when I "forced" a re-index operation by going to Spotlight Preferences and changing Privacy settings for the entire hard disk and then changing them back, the Spotlight icon on the top right of the menubar was supposed to indicate that re-indexing was taking place, but that never happened. It seems that I possibly have a corrupt metadata file which just won't re-index, or some kind of permission changed which doesn't allow re-indexing to happen, or SOMETHING like that.
Is there a singular hidden "index" or metadata file on the Mac under Lion where this information is stored, can I get at it so I can trash it, and if I do, will the computer automatically rebuild a new index file (if such a singular file even exists)?
I asked this question at a semi-local Apple Store Genius Bar as well, and they were scratching their heads. I have not yet brought the machine in to the store --- if I can avoid that lengthy step, I'd much prefer to fix this here in my office. (The machine works fine otherwise, and I need it here all the time, it's just that searching doesn't work)
I have also tried a re-install over the existing OS (leaving all my apps and documents in place), but have not tried a complete erase-and-install installation. I have a complete Time Machine backup of the entire drive, but the question remains...if I use Apple Migration Assistant to bring the apps and documents back in from Time Machine after doing a "clean" install on a wiped-clean hard drive, won't Time Machine also restore the old metadata that I suspect is corrupt? If so, how would I go about restoring all of my apps and documents without the use of the Migration Assistant or the Time Machine backup file (which may contain a corrupt index file)? If I do a hard drive clone with one of the available utilities dedicated to that purpose, how do I restore JUST the things I need (including serial numbers, etc) without risk of bringing over "bad" index files?
By the way, this machine was running Snow Leopard for well over a year before I upgraded to Lion, with no searching problems whatsoever.
Thanks for any help that anyone might be able to provide. I know I ask a lot of questions, but I don't want to go through the lengthy cloning of my hard drive and then doing a "clean" install and then be saddled with the same problem again.

Hi Linc,
I was able to get some text to appear by choosing "All Messages" from the Error Log list. Here's what I got when i filtered "mdworker" (I have indicated where I removed repetitions):
3/14/12 9:24:10.617 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
failed to parse embedded CMap.
3/14/12 9:24:10.617 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
syntax error, unexpected DICTSTART.
[about a dozen instances of the above two lines were removed]
3/14/12 9:24:10.622 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
*** process 2211 exceeded 500 log message per second limit - remaining messages this second discarded ***
3/14/12 9:24:26.203 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
Range {0x0000, 0xFFFF} is not 1-dimensional; handling as a special case.
[Five instances of the above line were removed]
3/14/12 9:24:55.603 PM
mdworker
Unexpected EOF, returning last token as fallback
3/20/12 3:54:30.197 PM
mdworker32
kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
3/20/12 3:54:30.735 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
Range {0x0000, 0xFFFF} is not 1-dimensional; handling as a special case.
3/20/12 3:54:30.736 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
Range {0x0000, 0xFFFF} is not 1-dimensional; handling as a special case.
3/20/12 3:54:30.736 PM
com.apple.mdworker.isolation.0
Range {0x0000, 0xFFFF} is not 1-dimensional; handling as a special case.
And here is what I got when I filtered using "mds" (since these are all at different times, I didn't remove duplicates):
3/14/12 9:35:35.672 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/14/12 10:45:54.051 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/14/12 11:45:55.907 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 12:45:53.271 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 1:45:52.702 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 2:45:52.837 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 3:45:52.046 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 4:45:51.586 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 5:45:51.996 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 6:45:52.049 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 7:45:51.647 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 8:46:05.149 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 1:27:56.526 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 2:25:20.942 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 3:26:14.623 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 4:26:06.091 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 5:26:29.923 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 9:48:38.902 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/15/12 10:15:02.995 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/16/12 7:55:44.632 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/16/12 8:07:28.002 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/16/12 4:28:06.236 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/16/12 4:31:05.891 PM
mds
(Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/CAROLLE' (fd=15) left open on device 234881032
3/19/12 5:19:52.696 PM
mds
(Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0
3/19/12 5:19:52.704 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Root store set to FSOnly with matching create! (loaded:1)
3/19/12 5:19:59.291 PM
mds
(Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputerIndexed"
3/19/12 5:20:31.340 PM
imagent
[Warning] Creating empty account: Default for service: IMDService (SubNet)
3/19/12 6:29:40.573 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/19/12 9:15:43.527 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/19/12 9:17:32.723 PM
mds
(Error) LSOF: File '/Volumes/CHUBER' (fd=22) left open on device 234881032
3/19/12 9:39:28.149 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/19/12 10:43:40.855 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 7:22:42.424 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 9:46:04.479 AM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 3:54:42.852 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 4:23:54.016 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 5:23:56.550 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
3/20/12 9:18:16.565 PM
mds
(Error) Volume: Could not find requested backup type:2 for volume
I hope some of this information is useful in solving my problem. Thanks in advance for your help!

Cisco Jabber for Windows 10.5 search Contact with two lastnames

Hey Guys,
I have a little problem with the contact search feature of the cisco jabber for windows (Version 10.5.37889)
In my environment I have some Users (secretary phones and users too) which have two lastnames.
Exampleuser1: Firstname: Thomas Lastname: Meier Cisco ....
If a user is searching for Exampleuser1 by lastname (Cisco) the correct contact won't be listed
If a user is searching for Exampleuser1 by firstname (Thomas) the correct contact will be listed
If a user is searching for Exampleuser1 by lastname (Meier) the correct contact will be listed
is there a workaround or something else for resolving my problem?
thanks for reading my question :)

Workaround: "Cisco Meier, Thomas"
Have you looked at enabling wild card searches in jabber-config.xml?

Passing result list from Contact search to Target group

Hi,
I have to pass the result list of Contact serch(BP_CONT_SEARCH) to Target group creation component(SEGED_TG). Can you give me the steps that I need to follow.
Note: Here the contact structure is different in each component.
Thanks.

Yes Srikanth, you need to bind context of result list to SEGED_TG using component controller binding. Let me know if you have questions.
But the question is did you make a navigation from the contact search result to target group creation or is it a standard functionality ?
As per my knowledge we can navigate from Profile set creation creation screen or from Trade Promotions.

My hard drive icon is gone from desk top and does not show up in spotlight or finder searches!

Hi there
recently my hard drive icon has disappeared from my Macbook Pro (10.7.4) desk top and does not show up in spotlight or finder searches! I have tried several fixes posted online for earlier operating systems with no luck.
Also, when I connect my external hard drive the icon does not appear on the desl top nor in the finder either, making looking for documents impossible.
Help!!!
Thanks in advance!
Marni

In "finder" click "finder" then "preferences" and navigate to the "general" tab.
Select which items you would like to have show on your desktop.

NOKIA E51 - Is it possible to search contacts in a...

I have a new Nokia E51, very great device, but I have to manage 2243 contacts (!). The (new) actual searching contacts way is just crazy for me: if I try to write the word john... the phone shows me hundreds of contacts with that part of word.
I'd like to know if there is a way to set the phone so to search contacts using names in the usual alphabetical order: just writing the first letter, than the second ,the third, and so on?
Somebody on this forum suggested to use Text-Quick (http://mind-flip.com/textquick/index.html) but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work in that way, but just keeping memory of more searched contacts.
It is really really annoying the way it searches.
Help please!
Somebody else on this forum said It is a bit counter intuitive at first, but once you get used to it the wider search is actually much better than the first name search (particularly if your memory for names isn't too great) but what you can do if you have thousands of contacts?
There will be soon an alternative option in the contacts settings for next E51 firmware?
Thank you

20-Feb-2008 03:15 PM
hantms wrote:
You wanna know the weirdest thing...
In my E51 it DOESN'T search for any string even in the middle.. it only searches alphabetically on the first name or the last name. But not something in the middle.
HOWEVER, other applications that show the contact list, such as Fring, *DO* search on any in-between string.
So apparently the phone can do both.. I don't see it as a setting though.
As a personal preference I think I would prefer being able to search for any in-between string.. I mean to me it just seems like a natural transition from the old days when contact names were in SIM memory and you only had like 8 characters to enter someone so you ended up with loads of "John K", "JLee" and other cryptic but short names.
These days I would recommend that if your contact is called "John Samolowicz" to actually spell that out in the appropriate fields. Then you find someone instantly by searching for something more unique than his first name...
AND/OR use the 'Groups' feature: If you put people in groups then simply moving to the tab to the right from the contacts list would give you a much reduced list of people in a particular group; Don't tell me that you actually CALL 2000 people on a regular basis..
To search middle string, use the SEARCH from OFFICE Folder. You can find on the Contact part of search result.
E50->6120C->E51->E52->Lumia 620 -> Lumia 830

Exchange 2010 webmail - contact search returns an error when single letter is used

Exchange 2010 SP2 environment. In Webmail when a user creates a new message, pressing on the To: button to add recipients, if they search the GAL, a single letter search (A for example) returns all names starting with A.
If they try to perform the same search for their contacts they get: No results found in IE or the error below in Firefox and Chrome. If I search contacts with two letters "Ab" for example then no error occurs and I get results. So search doesn't work
the same way for contacs vs GAL. Is this normal for webmail 2010?
An unexpected error occurred and your request couldn't be handled.
Request
Url: https://webmail.contoso.com:443/owa/ev.owa?oeh=1&ns=CP&ev=LoadFresh&pfmk=M35:1407960692770;M2:1407960692796;M23:1407960694745
User host address: 10.1.3.9
User: User Name
EX Address: /o=xxxxxxx/ou=First Administrative Group/cn=Recipients/cn=username
SMTP Address: [email protected]
OWA version: 14.2.247.5
Mailbox server: MBX1.contoso.com
Exception
Exception type: System.NullReferenceException
Exception message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Call stack
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Premium.Controls.VirtualListView2.GetDidLastSearchFail()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Premium.Controls.VirtualListView2.LoadData(Int32 startRange, Int32 rowCount)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Premium.Controls.AddressBookVirtualListView.LoadData(Int32 startRange, Int32 rowCount)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Premium.VirtualListViewEventHandler2.InternalLoadFresh(Boolean renderHeaders)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Premium.ContactVirtualListViewEventHandler.LoadFresh()

I doesn't happen on mine, but I'm now on SP3. It might help if you upgrade - even if you don't want to go to SP3 yet, your OWA version appears not to be at rollup 2 level. I only mention this because if it is a problem specific to version 14.2.247.5 (which
could easily be the case, because MS change the OWA scripts with surprising frequency) , it's going to be hard finding people who can reproduce the problem.
But to answer the question in the last sentence, searching the GAL and searching Contacts is, in a technical sense, very different. The GAL search is done with an LDAP query against Active Directory, whereas Contacts are usually going to be mailbox items,
plus a few AD contact items.
OWA For SmartPhone

E71 how to search contact by phone number

Hi All,
any idea for E71 how to search contact by phone number? sometimes it will be useful if i can just type in the phone number and it show me the contact name
Thanks

There is no way to do that directly from Home Screen, however you can always get in the "Search: Internet and My Content" application, choose contacts and start to type phone number. You will get what you want.
Enjoy!
Ricardo
Nokia E71-3 - Wireless Warrior

Spotlight doesn't search imdb or bing, why?

It was mentioned that spotlight would also search the web. Well, in my case it doesn't. I have all sources checked in System settings for spotlight.
But when I search for i.e. Mel Gibson I only recieve results from my harddrive and dictionary.
Yes, I am on WiFi and connected to Internet. Running Yosemite on my MBA. I live in Sweden, but that shouldn't matter.
Anyone else had this problem and found a sollution?

Same problem but only on one share out of three.
I just setup a OS X Server (10.5.2), standard (easy) configuration. Clients are 10.5.2 as well. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
But spotlight searches are ONLY working on one out of the three shares! I tried deleting the Spotligt database (via Cocktail) and rebuilding but it didn't help.
The something strange happened! One folder on one of the non-indexed shares was indexed but nothing else. Almost as if Spotlight had done a little bit of work and then crashed. But the md-processes are still running. Strange...
I've tried looking for Spotlight log messages but haven't had any luck...
Amazing that such a central piece of OS X Server can be so hard to diagnose. After searching the forums I understand that I'm not the only one with problems.
Apple - how about user-friendly tool to verify and peek at Spotlight databases?

Spotlight Doesn't Search Servers anymore?

Spotlight used to search servers attached to my computer such as backup drives I'd mount here at work but lately no matter what you search for on the drive it can't find. It comes back empty handed. What is the story here? is it a bug or something else i'm not aware of?
Any help would be great

Same problem but only on one share out of three.
I just setup a OS X Server (10.5.2), standard (easy) configuration. Clients are 10.5.2 as well. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
But spotlight searches are ONLY working on one out of the three shares! I tried deleting the Spotligt database (via Cocktail) and rebuilding but it didn't help.
The something strange happened! One folder on one of the non-indexed shares was indexed but nothing else. Almost as if Spotlight had done a little bit of work and then crashed. But the md-processes are still running. Strange...
I've tried looking for Spotlight log messages but haven't had any luck...
Amazing that such a central piece of OS X Server can be so hard to diagnose. After searching the forums I understand that I'm not the only one with problems.
Apple - how about user-friendly tool to verify and peek at Spotlight databases?

Spotlight Search/Contact Search

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