Spotlight Search Issues

Problem Summary: Client cannot get correct search results via Spotlight.
Equipment: Mac Mini Server (2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM) running Lion Server 10.7.3
Troubleshooting steps taken so far: Disabled, cleared the index, and re-enabled Spotlight. Reinstalled Lion Server. Tested Houdahspot. Checked for any log files pertaining to mdutil in Console. Issue still persists.
Logs: Logs are not recording anything related to mdworker or mdutil.
I've attached an image of what we're seeing when we try to Spotlight search. Search criteria is a red label and comments being blank. Here's the result:
Note that every time we go back and do the same search, different results are returned.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
-=Andrew

Use the forced restart method of pressing sleep and home button together only if you have no access to the phone. Or the best way to reset is to go to settings>general>reset.
It's like,'Why would i pull the plug of my PC when I can click on start and restart?'

Similar Messages

  • IOS 7 real spotlight search issue.

    I swap down to bring the spotlight search. However, it doesn't  search at all. There is no effect when I type in the search box or press search button. The spotlight items are configured in setting.
    IOS7 and iphone 4S

    First try Resetting your iPhone: Hold down the sleep and home buttons, wait for the Apple logo and let go of the buttons. If that does not work Restore your iPhone from your backup.

  • SMS Msg Spotlight Search Issue

    I like that iOS4 allows you to search through your SMS messages. But it does not seem to find old messages.
    For example, if I have a message from a friend, which is in one of the "Load Earlier Messages" screens, the search feature won't find it.
    This makes the search feature pretty useless. The only reason I might search for a message is because it's old and I want to find it.
    Am I missing something?

    I agree, though I mostly run into that issue in Mail, not Messages.
    Send feedback to Apple here:
    http://apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
    Only they can fix it.

  • How to Delete Messages in Spotlight Search History without Resetting or Syncing!!

    I know there are a lot of individuals dealing with this issue and if you are like me you spend hours searching "how to delete messages in spotlight search history" and it seems like every post either says to reset your phone or sync it! I'm sorry but I did not want to go through the hassle of resetting my phone but I did try to sync it which did nothing so I decided to just mess around with my settings and I believe to have found the answer to everyone's question!!
    This worked for me so I really hope this works for you! Just follow the steps below:
    1. Go to <settings><general><spotlight search><uncheck messages>
    2. Then turn your phone off and wait a minute! Turn your phone back on and off again 2 or 3 more times while waiting a minute in between turning it off!
    3. After you are done doing that go back to step 1 and <check messages>!
    4. Now go to your spotlight search and those messages should be deleted! If they are deleted I would recommend going back to step 1 and <uncheck messages> so you do not have the same problem with messages showing up again in the spotlight search!
    It works for Mail too! Just follow the same steps listed above but uncheck mail instead of messages or do both at the same time!!
    *Here is an extra tip which will remove deleted Mail Messages, just follow the steps below:
    1. Go to <settings><mail, contacts, calendars><your mail account> scroll down and click <advanced> Now click <remove> under the title Deleted Messages and you can choose to have your mail removed After One Day, After One Week, After One Month or Never.
    I hope this post was detailed enough and easy to understand!
    I really hope it works for you like it did for me!
    Good Luck!!!

    I tried this fix and it does not work.
    I have read that this is a problem for a long time - years. Me, personally, I do have emails and texts from the past that are private and were deleted, that I do not want my husband or daughter to read. Many people have this complaint and have had it a long time. Why does Apple not fix it?!?
    Another privacy issue is the iMessage default settings on new devices. We bought a new iPhone for my college-age daughter and received all of her text messages until we noticed it and told her. We did a temporary fix. Then I got a new iPhone and the same thing happened. I had to set up iCloud accts. for each of us so that we each have privacy that cannot be tampered with. We still share our original iTunes account. Why did that have to happen?!? 
    We have been Apple consumers (laptops, iPads, iPods, iPhones) for over ten years (? longer w/just desk top) w/ the same account. These breaches in privacy are upsetting!!  My point here is that these breaches are unacceptable!  The spotlight search issue appears to be unresolved.  FIX THIS APPLE! 

  • Iphoto Library is locked AND spotlight search stops working

    This has been happening for several months.
    a restart of my Mac Pro temporarily fixies it for a few days but then it happens again
    I have read many threads on the iphoto locked library issue and I have tried all of the suggestions except for the download iphoto library manager.
    I don't want to do that uless I have to, and because of the issue with spotlight, I think that it won't be a permanents fix
    I don't know if the spotlight search issue is causing the iphoto lock or visa versa, or if there is another thing causeing both,
    but after experiencing this problem many times I know that both issues happen a the same time and must be linked in some way.
    restarting the mac pro (intel Xeon Dual Core os 10.7.5) solves the problem temporarily. both iphoto and spotligh search work fine after that until the next time.
    I don't know what triggers it. and it's really frustrating because I don't understand how the os works and I really need to be able to use the search function for work. I need to be able to search my emails and files and it just doesn't give results except for older files and emails when this happens. the more recent files and emails are either not indexed or not coming up for some reason
    my iphoto library is on a seperate drive from my operating system and it is formatted extended journaled and set to ignore permissions
    I have tried deleting the iphtotlockdata file but when I do that and try to start iphoto I get a weird message saying
    "the library "iphoto library" is open in iphoto. to open this library in iphoto you must quit iphoto."
    I've rebuilt the iphoto library before (after restarting) but eventually the problem happens again.
    not sure what else to try
    thanks in advance for your help

    aOne thing that I forgot to add is that I can never just restart or shutdown my computer
    It always gets stuck on the grey screen at shutdown and will stay there forever if you let it. I always have to hole the power button to force it off.
    Boot into Safe Mode, Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode. and then reboot normally.  That will run a number of repair routines and might fix the shut down issue.
    I second Terene's suggestion of using iPhoto Library Manager to rebuild the library. 
    Using iPhoto Library Manager  to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
    Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
    Click on the Add Library button,                         
    navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
    Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option             
    In the next  window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
    Click on the Create button.
    Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
    Note 2:  your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
    OT

  • Spotlight web search issues outside the US?

    Hi, I cannot perform any online searches using Spotlight under the Yosemite OS X. I live in the Czech Republic. Are there any geographical limitations of this feature? I tried all the suggestions posted here, nothing works. Thanks, Zed

    Hi ZedVal,
    I see that you are experiencing an issue with searching the web with Spotlight. Here is an article with some relevant information to this stated issue:
    OS X Yosemite: Search with Spotlight
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18828
    Specifically, this noted information in the article may be relevant to your question:
    Note:    If you turn off Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Searches, Spotlight searches only for items on your Mac.
    Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
    -Braden

  • Spotlight permission issue with multiple users - user A can search files from user B

    Hello everybody,
    i need your help with a bad and precarious spotlight issue.
    Mavericks is a clean install on my 2010 MacPro and Everything runs fine - but this issue is very annoying.
    User A is admin - user B a normal user.
    The Problem:
    If user B uses spotlight in his account, he also gets the search results from files of User A.
    This meens the files in the user folder from User A and also the files on his own extra hard-drive.
    For Example to get it clear to you:
    On the Desk of User A is a file called "birthday-presents.rtf".
    User B searches in his Spotlight "birthday" - now he gets as a result also this file from User A.
    He can not open it at all - but he can se it in the spotlight search results.
    This also affects the mails, calendars etc.....
    This is of course very bad to User A - because his file-names aren't secure anymore.
    But also User B has a problem - because his Spotlight results are much longer with a lot files he don't want to see because this files are not his ones.
    What can i do?
    I rebuilded the spotlight index, but this does not help.
    Permissions also seem to be OK - here is a screenshot (german, but i think you catch it).

    No there was no migration.
    Its a complete Clean install - i only copies Files, Mailboxes, etc. manually.
    Here is the result of your advise - is it OK?
    Last login: Tue Jan  7 01:28:47 on console
    home-MacPro:~ harry$ ls -le ~/
    total 0
    drwxr-xr-x   2 harry  staff    68  5 Nov 12:06 Applications
    drwx------+ 30 harry  staff  1020  7 Jan 02:07 Desktop
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+  8 harry  staff   272  5 Nov 19:42 Documents
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+  4 harry  staff   136  4 Dez 15:42 Downloads
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------@ 55 harry  staff  1870 28 Nov 22:34 Library
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+  6 harry  staff   204  7 Dez 01:20 Movies
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+  7 harry  staff   238  7 Jan 02:04 Music
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+  5 harry  staff   170  4 Nov 14:54 Pictures
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx-wx-wx+  8 harry  staff   272  7 Jan 00:25 Public
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    home-MacPro:~ harry$

  • Issue with Clear widget and spotlight search.

    Why does the widget from Clear not work? All it does is show quotes from people. Why does it not show my list? (I assume that that is what it is supposed to do). 
    Also, every time I go into settings>general>Spotlight search, and try to turn on Spotlight Suggestions and Bing Web Results, they turn them selves off as soon as I leav that screen. How can I get them to stay on?

    Hi,
    For metadata, which metadata are you not seeing? Are they custom properties within the PDF, and have you checked if you have crawled properties matching these?
    I know there's issue with last modified on PDF's (http://sharepointfieldnotes.blogspot.no/2013/05/understanding-and-getting-sharepoint.html) 
    Thanks,
    Mikael Svenson
    Search Enthusiast - SharePoint MVP/MCT/MCPD - If you find an answer useful, please up-vote it.
    http://techmikael.blogspot.com/
    Author of Working with FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

  • Mail+Spotlight Search Not Working in Lion

    I've been dealing with this problem for over a month and have not been able to fix it.  Search works fine in Lion on several computers, but on my laptop it still won't do a complete search.  It will only pull up emails from people in my contacts list..... no subject key word searches or people outside my contacts searches..... very frustrating! The searches also don't work in Spotlight, so I can't use spotlight as a backup.
    I've tried rebuilding my mailbox.... deleting and recreating the account.... tossing out the Envelope Index folders in the Mail library... Deleting and re installing my search window, etc...... I see lot's of other people with the same issue. It's frustrating when your running your business on your computer and have to deal with a flaw in a new OS..... it was working fine in Leopard..... whats up APPLE?  Please help! 
    Other Info:
    Macbook Pro 2008 Version with 2.5 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
    Running 10.7.4

    Glenn,
    Regarding adding and deleting the System Drive from the Spotlight Privacy Tab...... I'm following your sequence, but when I come back to Spotlight Search in the menu bar it just works the same.... no mention of indexing. What's interesting is that "Mail" dosn't appear anywhere in search results when a keyword search is performed via spotlight.
    Regarding the "enevelope Index Files" ..... I followed the instructions and quit and re-opened mail as instructed.  When I re-opened Mail I selected "continue" and the program began to index the contents of mail for about 30 minutes.  I thought that would would fix the issue, but it's still not working. 
    I've tried to compare the account setup from my IMAC which works fine to see if I have something setup wrong in the account, but everything looks the same. 
    I guess I can try to re-index again?  Don't know what else to do? 
    Thanks,
    Bill

  • Password protecting mail app and permanent deletion of emails so they don't appear in spotlight search

    I realise that there is a temporary way to prevent this happening by unticking the 'mail' option in the spotlight search settings menu, but how do you permanently delete the emails? I assumed that when I hit delete then emptied the trash box, the mails were gone for good. But finding that they remain stored in some hidden place and can be easily accessed is very annoying! In fact, finding that other users can quickly change the settings back and have free access to my email is rather disturbing anyway, especially as there is no way to password protect my email account once i activate the mail app. the apple mail app is linked to my yahoo account, but within yahoo mail there seems to be no problem in regards to deleted mail being stored somewhere else, only within the apple app system.
    So i guess id like to know, is there some way to password protect my account or do I just need to keep deleting my account before lending the ipad to someone else and then reinstating it? And is there any way to properly delete emails for good?
    I would be happy just to go without the mail app and log in directly through yahoo in Safari, except that I find the notification alert when I receive a new mail very handy!!

    [edit] I dragged the email I sent through the MBP Mail app (under MAILBOXES > Sent > Yahoo!) to the highlighted Sent folder (YAHOO! > Sent), and now it shows up on all Yahoo Sent folders (iPad app, web browser, phone app). Not entirely solved the issue but will use web browser to sent future emails to keep everything in sync.

  • Possible to disable iPhone Spotlight Search page?

    I understand a lot of people use the Spotlight search feature on their iPhones to launch apps, find documents, songs and whatever.
    Personally I have no need for it as I only use a very few basic apps, no documents and 2 playlists.
    What I would like to do is disable that 'page' completely as I accidentally swipe to it every week or so and then have to swipe back to find what I was looking for. Just trying to make things a bit less annoying. A quick internet search of this issue found a fair number of people in the same situation.
    Note: I've already set double-tapping the Home button brings up my few favourite phone numbers. I'm guessing someone will read the topic title, glance at the post and reply with "duh, just change the double-tap home button settings lol".

    There is no way to disable the search page unless you jailbreak. Even then, I'm not familiar with an app that does what you are looking for. Sorry...

  • Spotlight search top hits problems in iphone 5 ios 6

    I upgraded from Iphone 4s ios 5.1.1 to Iphone 5 ios 6.02 yesterday.  (Att to verizon, but not relevant to this post)
    On first glance at spotlight search on new iphone 5, I thought for sure the index for my spotlight search was totally corrupt.  If I start typing 'Hol' for holly, after h or o she should come up as a top hit...instead my top hit is Chris Luxxxx (nothing to do with H or O)...I keep typing...top hit area totally disappears and Holly xxxx shows in middle of very long list of what would appear to be totally unrelated contacts.  I have to get to Holly Bo before the list is down to 4 names...and 3 of those aren't related to her (on the surface....)....and top hits still doesn't pop up??  I still had my 4s next to me...and the results were night and day different...and the iphone 5 were so totally irrelevant compared to the 4s for what I was trying to do (just look up a contact...the thing i use spotlight search for most!?!?)
    NOTE:
    1) At this point, I had already  disabled all categories but 'contacts for my spotlight search to minimize the hundreds matches I was getting in all kinds of categories that looked irrelevant......and to focus on what was going on with my contacts. 
    2) My contacts are synched with MS Exchange config connected to google apps account
    3) I have about 1500 contacts and 1700 other contacts (email addresses only), and TONS of notes in contact 'comments' fields   (foreshadowing here....'comments' fields....)
    After about 60 minutes of thinking the index for my records was corrupt...and reboots and resets and internet searches..I tried thinking differently....and I started looking at the 'comments' fields in my contacts...and whoooaaaa....arghhhhh...
    It appears spotlight is now indexing 'comments' section of contacts now as well many other fields in the contact records that I don't believe were previously indexed.........and apple is NOT not prioritizing the results by any fields (like giving first name, last name, business name top hit result priority)....and I know for a fact it did not use index notes..because i needed that function so I downloaded an app to do that....I found the fact that it did not index 'comments' section annoying, but tolerable...now they they are indexing it, but with poor implementation and no prioritization, spotlight has become a great tool for locating **** near anything on my phone...but a really crappy short cut to get to the contacts I wanted to get to....a better implementation of prioritization of 'top hits' would go a long ways...
    Back to my searches again....when I searched 'Ho'.........Chris Luxxxis showed up first as a 'top hit'....made no sense at all....but this is what I pieced together.....e he was the most recent phone call I made, and 'ho' is in the 'comments' section of his contact info 6 times........in the words home, home inspector, house masters, house password.....arghhhhh.....I did a lot more searches...and made some phone calls, and when I ran same search again....Chris Luxxxx was not longer an immediate top hit!?!?  ****...I don't need a short cut to recent calls in my top hits spotlight search!?!? It's not the magic genie!!!!  And when applied like that..it just makes a huge bowl of spaghetti!!
    I thought...okay...well, overall it's a better tool for finding EVERYTHING on my phone, just crappier for shortcutting to contacts to make calls and send emails....(i never used the contacts section of my phone on 4s for 3 years...just used spotlight, and it was awesome, easy and fast and got me to my contacts better than any other search system on any device i'd ever had).......So I thought.....ok so maybe I'll just have to used my contacts area more now to get to my contacts........and guess what...it appears the same darn alogrythim for search results there!!!
    Apple has obliterated the concept of top hits in spotlight search..and made finding the common items in the phone like contacts a heck of a lot more typing....I only have 1 Holly in my contacts....and I have to type 'Holly Bow' before she is the sole contact shown...and I have to get to 'Holly B' before the list is down to 15 results....oh....but if I recall this issue and start with her last name...only need to get three letters in to find her...unfortunately, but its individuall relevent...ie another contacts last name is a bomb for searching, but first is quick....
    Apple use to think for their users...they assumed what was most important given a spot in an application...and overall, made some decent decisions for the non technically oriented....(personally, I didn't like it...been a pc guy for 20 years..and a programmer...drove me nuts, but had a place for their customer base and nice if what you did with your computer was inline with the applications apple designed their machines to be great at....)...and I loved my iphone 4s compared to too many config options and poor implementation on windows phones ...and i'm still an iphone fan...for it's simplicity and lack of total cusomization actually (i get my creative juices flowing doing things other than customizing smart phones)........but in this case, too much info can be as bad or worse than not enough if you don't include some controls to start limiting relevance somehow....
    I'm 90 minutes into this...guess now that I seem to have concluded what's up...I can start working with it or around it...but it's a big departure for where spotlight was...and while it offers more...for me, it's offering a lot less for my hourly and daily needs.
    If my assumptions about these changes are wrong or anyones figured out how to get top hits useful again, please advise.
    thx

    Try at total shut down of Safari, double click on the home button then find the Safari app, hold you finger on the app for a few secs then tap the red minus sign to close the app. Re-launch Safari then give it a try. 

  • 10.5.5 Client Getting No Results with Spotlight Search

    Hi -
    My company is slow to change. We are just now getting some Leopard workstations in our enterprise. The thing my users noticed right away was that under 10.5.5, they are unable to get any results from Spotlight searches on our Tiger Xserves over AFP. The Tiger workstation users can get search results from share points but not Leopard ones.
    The Xserves all have 10.4.9 Server installed. The XServes and workstations are all bound to AD with SSO turned on. I limited the servers 10.4.9 Server because with 10.4.11 Server I get AD issues. 10.4.9 is stable for us.
    I am forced to use Leopard as the new MacPros demand it
    My question - What should I do so the Leopard workstations (10.5.5) can get real Spotlight results from my share points?
    I have looked at the other Apple Support Boards and I don't get understand what they are talking about.
    Thanks in advance.

    I am an IT manager in a similar situation. However, I have shelled out the thousands to upgrade everything to the latest OS with my xserve running 10.5.5, and users running 10.5.5 or 10.5.6. Spotlight is totally useless. I have talked to tech "supportless" several times - no help. I have installed and reinstalled 10.5 on the server, reformatted drives, copied and deleted hundreds of gigs of data, done all kinds of terminal commands that were supposed to fix it, but it still just doesn't work. I wish Apple would stop coming out with new stuff for a while and fix this basic computer function. For now I use "Better Search". Better Search is Freeware from http://www.fornextsoft.com. Its ok - at least it finds stuff, but it is still not 100% accurate sometimes.

  • Hundreds of Identical Files & Folders Show In All Spotlight Searches

    Hundreds of Identical Files & Folders Show In All Spotlight Searches
    Hi,
    I had this issue posted in September and didn't get back to it 'till today so I found it archived. I don't think I got any answers the first time around. When a post is archived, are replies archived also?
    Here's the problem:
    Spotlight works for me the way it’s designed to work. It finds what I’m looking for if the item is in the computer.
    But what are showing up in most of my searches, are long columns of files, all with the same names, sometimes as many as forty or fifty identical items. These files have the same dates and sizes. Some are located in different folders, including Trash, but most are complete duplicates
    I do occasionally save as the same document in different places, or make a duplicate/copy to put in more than one location. But I have never created more than a few duplicates. In Spolight, there are hundreds
    Any suggestions?
    Rafael
    ibook g4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

    I rebooted the machine. Now all the files show up in Finder. But when I repeat the exporting procedure I get the same problems again. Files are not showing up in Finder as they are supposed to.

  • How do I move the spotlight search window out of the freaking way in Yosemite??????????

    The spotlight search window is Yosemite is obtrusive. How can I get the old spotlight behavior back in Yosemite? Spotlight windows used to be on the side and out of the way. Now spotlight is completely worthless, if it is going block what I am working on. I don't need a luanchpad app. OS X is a multitask environment and spotlight kills the ability to multitask. My desktop and laptop computers are not tablets, so why is spotlight limiting their abilities.

    There are lots of useful things you can do with spotlight. My most common uses are: (a) an app launcher, and (b) a quick calculator, (c) a search tool. Each of you probably have others.
    When I'm using it as an app launcher, the pop-up window in the middle of the screen is not an issue. I type a few keys and it's gone. For example, "CMD-Spacebar S A Return" launches safari.
    When I'm using it as a calculator the pop-up window is often annoying because it obscures the data I want to do calculations on. I have to remember all the numbers I want to type in. Could I just use the calculator app? Of course, but this wasn't an issue previously.
    When I'm using it as a search tool the pop-up window is usually not a problem but sometimes obscures information I want to see
    Bottom line based on my use cases is that I prefer the pop-up out of the way in the corner.

Maybe you are looking for