"Where from:" Information don't work for any file type

Question

As i know Safari and iChat stores the download url from a file - downloaded over the internet - in a meta tag called 'kmditemwherefroms'. You can see this information in the finder information dialog.
But not on my system. I'm running 10.4.8 on power mac G5.
To invesigate the problem, i used the 'mdls' comand in the terminal on a fresh downloaded file: the above meta entry don't appear.
Any ideas to activate this feature?
Dual 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   23'' Cinema HD Display

Answer 1

Hi Mike
As a follow up to your good work, perhaps this may help to clear some of sstoll's issues.
If you watch your raw query as you download a file you will observe that the file will appear in the found list.
However, some will disappear from the list when they are finished downloading.
For example,
1) if you go to VersionTracker and download 'Google Reader', it lists as GoogleReader.zip.download until you click continue at which time it immediately disappears from the list.,
2) If you do the same thing downloading 'DownloadComment' - it remains in the list
3) If you right click a pdf in your browser to send a copy of the file down, it appears in the list. However,
4) PDF's which are set to open automatically in Adobe Acrobat will appear in the list but lose their WhereFroms the second they open in Adobe Acrobat.
These are not bugs. It is the way that the files authors' have compiled their downloadable files to either store the necessary metadata permanently or temporarily, or both depending on how the download is initiated.
Why would one want to only temporarily store or not include the WhereFrom metadata? Perhaps for security or privacy.
Now it is possible that the storing of the metadata may be affected by how the Privacy pane preferences are set for Spotlight at the time of the download. Certainly if the download is set to be saved in a folder that is in the Privacy pane it won't be in the index. Taking it in and out should restore the order but that depends on how the author may have set the metadata to be stored in the first place.
Unfortunately, updating applications, installing third-party search apps and diving into some of the, particularly Terminal, suggestions posted in these forums haphazardly can have a profound detrimental effect on how Spotlight is to function or the permissions in general.
As a general rule, we now run Disk Utility and verify/repair the permissions immediately that we install or upgrade an application. That and trying not to upset the Apple-cart by messing around with the system seems to keep our machines running as they should be.
Again, thank you Mike.
Good luck sstoll.