Spotlight Stop Working

For some reason my Spotlight stopped working. When I key, apple space bar, the Spotlight icon highlights but the menu never appears. Same if I try clicking on Spotlight icon.
What could be the problem, and how do I go about getting Spotlight to function again.

I didn't see the post down below. I was told on another forum to change my resolution and that should fix the problem. I changed my resolution down and then back up and fixed the problem. Don't know why but it did.
Thanks

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Spotlight stopped working

Hi folks,
I have a G4 Tower with OS 10.4.3 and 2 harddisks and spotlight just stopped working.
Trying to include/exclude from the privacy folder didn't help and spotless (1.0.3) just doesn't work.
Unfortunately I'm not experienced in using the terminal, is there any simple solution ???
Ralph

What indicates that spotlight just stopped working? You don't have to be experienced to use the Terminal. Try this: go to /Applications/Utilties and double-click on the Terminal.app file. A Terminal window will pop up. Just type this in and hit the enter key:
sudo mdutil -s /
when Password: pops up, type in your admin password (you won't see anything, so take your time) and hit the enter key.
If Spotlight is enabled, you should see this returned:
Status: Indexing Enabled
If not, type this in and hit the enter key—this will erase the current database and restart the indexing:
sudo mdutil -E /
when it returns a message, quit the Terminal.app.
If it does return "Status: Indexing Enabled", then Spotlight should be working.
G4 450 MP Gigabit Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Spotlight stops working... (maybe amnesia)

This is really annoying problem that I have... Spotlight just stops working after the mac has been awake for while, it just doesn't search for anything. If I check the status in the terminal, it tells me that there's no spotlight index. After I restart the mac spotlight works again. I don't know how this can happen, I mean it seems like Spotlight has amnesia and forgets where it's database is.
First I thought that it's user related and therfore I reinstalled lion (clean install) but the problem remains...
Is someone else experiencing the same problem?
Is there any fix for this?

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. First, disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and monitor, if applicable, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including your login items.
Launch the Console application and check the system log again. Same messages? Does Spotlight work?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

10.6.8 Server: Spotlight stops working for clients after fresh installation and updates

Problem:
On 2013-02-22, I reinstalled my Xserve with fresh 10.6.3 and upgraded it to 10.6.8 OS X Server. Spotlight used to be working perfectly for clients to search over the network but now it is not working. Administrators doing local spotlight search on Xserve server side is searchable. Clients with less privileges searching files across the network to the server will receive null result. Administrators searching files across the network is still working.
I believe it has something to do with the update packages and some security improvement bugs introduced in late 2012 or early 2013.
All my clients Macs are in either 10.7.5 and 10.8.2.
Can anyone confirm this? All my staff members in the company cannot do the spotlight search to the server now!

Hi, maracujana,
the problem can be solved if you allow the permssion of parental folder of your share points to have at least Read Only permission for User and Group:
permission: 644
User: Read&Write
Group: Read Only
Others: Read Only (or No Access)
In my case, it is strange that PCs can still do the search to the Snow Leopard Server by SMB protocol while Mac using AFP cannot even when the parental folder had permission 600. This could be a secure issue in Snow Leopard's SMB1.0 protocol. Note that SMB in Snow Leopard is SMB1.0, which is less secure and hence deprecated after Snow Leopard. From Lion onwards, all OS X uses SMB2.0 and/or SMB X.
Oh, yes, there is one more thing:
you may find your scanner using SMB protocol stopped functioning properly if you use (Mountain) Lion client and (Mountain) Lion server. It boils down to Apple's silent change of SMB protocol from SMB1.0 to SMB2.0. Solution? Use FTP protocol for now. Don't blame Apple too much because Apple had to follow the rules of GPLv3. The SMB issue will go on as Microsoft introduces its own SMB 3.0 protocol in Windows 8 while Apple introduces its SMB verison dubbed SMB X.
Hope this helps.

Spotlight Stops Working

I'm finding spotlight to be quite useless. It seems to stop returning results for files I know are there. I will navigate to a specific folder and ask for a file that I can see in that folder. And it returns nothing…or other files, but not the ones that are right there.
This seems to happen quite frequently. I've done the "put my HD in private and then take it back out" to rebuild the index, but it seems I shouldn't have to do that more than one or twice a year.
Any advice on how to make spotlight actually just work?

Hi everyone.
I have the same experience with Spotlight: it's absoluely useless. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The document/folder I want is there, but Spotlight doesn't see it.
I've never renamed my home folder, or added anything to Spotlight's 'Private' list. It's equally dysfunctional following a fresh install of 10.4.6, or an update to 10.4.9.
Perhaps someone can recommend a good utility or shareware app? All I want is a 'search-by-filename' function that works.
Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Finder and Spotlight 'stop' working

I have read a number of posts regarding these two applications not working at all, but need some help on the two applications ceasing to function after 3 - 5 searches.
Everytime I reboot they both work for a few times.
It is the same on another user account.
I have verfified permissions and disk.
I have sudo mdsk E:
I have deleted the plist for both.
I have run Yasu...
And still I get the same issue, they both work for a few searches then Spotlight just returns nothing and Finder has to be force quit.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Hello,
I've suddenly begun to experience spinning beach-balls in the Finder when trying to open files. Having just yesterday upgraded from a PowerPC iMac to an Intel iMac where I never experienced these issues, I was deflated to say the least.
In the Console I see errors of the kind...
254: Can't checkin with server named com.apple.metadata.mdserver, error 0x10000004
...and sometimes references to "mds" not being found/running.
It was all grinding my system to a halt. I tried many of the same things that you read on this forum to no avail.
My solution was to download an application called "Disable Tiger Features" (you can find it on MacUpdate.)
I ran this, elected to disable Spotlight completely, rebooted and voila! I have my Finder back again. Of course, anything that relies on SpotLight to any degree (Finder...Mail...others?) will no doubt be impacted, but at least I can use my machine again now.
Tony.

Drag & Drop in finder and spotlight stopped working after 10.5.7 update

Fresh brand new iMac here, clean install 10.5.6, everything fine, copied user data back, all fine, applied 10.5.7 update, bang, admin and user can no longer drag & drop.
I did a permission fix which finds a LOT wrong, that worked, once, next restart gave me the same problem. Running permission fix did not resolve it this time.
Seeing the machine needs to be urgently used I'm re-installing but would LOVE to see a fix as I have 3 other machines with exactly the same problem.

Try a restart.
Try trashing your com.apple.finder pref located in HD/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences, then restart.
Apply the stand alone combo update 10.5.6 Combo Update This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
-mj

My Spotlight Stopped Working

Hello,
I am curious if anyone has heard of Spotlight failing to find common files? For example, I purchased an AAC from the iTunes store 3 weeks ago. I was looking for the file recently and did a Spotlight for the name. Nothing came up. I rooted through my Finder and grabbed it. Tonight, I was looking for a Photoshop file I created. Spotlight failed again. I had to go through and manually find it. Is there something I should do to improve its performance??

Hi kobold
There are quite a lot of posts here that Spotlight fails to find common or obvious files. I've so far not had any problem knock on wood.
Try rebuilding Spotlight's index. Go to Sys Prefs-Spotlight-Privacy. Drag your harddrive(s) into the window. Wait a little but, then drag it/them out. Spotlight will begin to re-index (the magnifying glass in the menu bar will begin to animate).
/p

Spotlight Not Working Since 10.4.11

Hello there.
Spotlight stopped working since I installed the last update
for tiger, it loads a little and either does nothing or says nothing found.
thanks for your help

I'll try to help with a translation.
Go to the systemsettings (the 4th menu item under the apple), there you choose the spotlight settings. You can choose 2 menu items: Search results and Privacy. Please go to Privacy and add all harddisks from where spotlight didn't find anything there by drag & drop.
Quit the system settings and start it again. Please go again to privacy and now you remove the harddiscs which you added just a minute ago. Spotlight recreates its index. It will take a while and your system will work slowly, but in my case it worked after this little trick.
Please don't hesistate to ask again if you don't understand all from this description.

Spotlight just stopped working.

Spotlgiht search just stopped working.
I recently upgraded to 10.8.5
Any suggestions?
Here is spotlight in system preferences:

Rebuild/re-index spotlight.
HTH

Spotlight has stopped working on my brand new iMac

I've had my new 17" Intel iMac for one day...and Spotlight has all of a sudden stopped working.
It happened when I connected the G4 iMac to the new one but before I even accessed the G4. I tried to search for "Migration" using Spotlight and it didn't work. The 2 Macs were not even communicating yet so the old one could not have corrupted the new one.
Any ideas on how I can get SL to work again? I've done some searches but don't really understand what the solutions are. There are no files at all on my iMac as it is brand new. All I have done is use Safari and iTunes.
Help!

The thing to remember about Spotlight on a new Mac is that it needs some time to itself to contemplate working for you, its new master, and to index your entire new HDD.
The Mac OS from the factory is a quick burn and Spotlight hasn't indexed anything. Plus it needs time to index new files that you begin installing. Until it indexes everything it won't work too well.

Spotlight Has Stopped Working, WHY!!!!!!

Hi There,
New to this mac business converted after 10 years of being a PC man but music industry required me to spend money on Logic, anyway i was casually using my macbook and the spotlight thing stopped working, its nothing big but really annoying when trying to find programs without going through the file system, Its handy and everything, help would be greeted with much love!
-Tom
MacBook, White, 2GHZ Core Duo, 1GB Ram, 60GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi,
I did a bit of digging and found a way of fixing it, using the "Activity Monitor" end the process "SystemUISever" It has a little think about it and then everything is better,
Panic Over...

Spotlight has stopped working properly. Even when a known file is entered (with full file name) in search, it fails to find it. Any ideas?

Spotlight has stopped working properly. Even when a known file is entered (with full file name) in search, it fails to find it. It finds some things, but is not to be depended upon. Any ideas?

Try reindexing spotlight: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support
If you still have problems, open Console app, select All Messages, then search for mds in the search field. Then search for mdworker. See if there are any messages indicating it is having problems with certain files.
You can also delete the index altogether and cause it to reindex with a command in Terminal. I have always assumed the method above will do the same, but I'm not certain. You must run this command while logged into an admin account. Copy the whole line and paste it into Terminal.
sudo mdutil -E /
sudo temporarily elevates your privileges and will ask for your password. When you type it in, there won't be any response in the Terminal. Just type it and hit return.

Spotlight Search stopped working on my 4s

Spotlight Search stopped working on my iPhone 4s. Apple replaced my 4s 2 days ago and now spotlight search has stopped working on the 2nd 4s. The Apple techs are stumped, any ideas?

Friends,
finally I found someone having the same problems
I have an iPhone 4S 32 GB (germany, T-Mobile).
I have all my mails and contacts via my work MS Exchange Server.
My first iPhone 4S stopped searching after a while - it only shows 1 out of 10 search attempts.
I walked to the Apple Store and they gave me a new one.
Also the second one stopped doing any search 1 or two days later.
So, disactiveted the search in my mails, my contact etc..
...but it doesn´t bring ANYTHING on the screen while typing.
Today, I´ve been to the Apple Store again and the guy just sent me home - they can´t do anything
Guys, this *****. I managed to use the iPhone at work instead of my Blackberry and now all other colleagues are buying iPhones, but if this is not going to work I´ll have a big problem.
Any ideas here? What can I do?
Thanks folks.

Search option stopped working - spotlight as well

I use the search option of Mail on a daily basis to find old emails or topics. I have also used Spotlight to search old emails. Recently my Mail program stopped searching old emails and only finds recent emails with keywords that I know used to find many more emails. Anyone else experiencing this? Maybe it is Mac OS X 10.4.10?? It was right around then that it stopped working. Any plans to fix this??

Okay, this seemed to work for me. We have Tom Harrington through te newsgroup, comp.sys.mac.system to thank.
1. Go to "System preferences" (under the apple icon menu)
2. Select "Spotlight"
3. Choose the "Privacy" folder
4. Click the Add and then add your Hard drive
5. Close System preferences.
6. re-open "system preferences" get back the same way to where you added your Hard Drive under privacy.
7. Remove your Hard Drive.
8. Close system preferences.
Now if you go to use Spotlight (not in email but for your compuetr generally - Control and Space Bar) , you'll see that the the system is rebuilding and it will take some number of hours to do so. When finished, at least on my MacBook Pro, the search in Mail was functioning fine again.
Pain in the butt, not very intuitive but it seems to work.

Spotlight Stop Working

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