Δ All posts
Easy Fix For OS X Spotlight / Finder Problems
1 December 2007
My roomate was having a problem with files not showing up in spotlight or finder. Files would show up once they had been opened but lots of old files would simply not appear—even if you opened a folder and searched it for a file you were staring at. I checked spotlight preferences and there was nothing wrong.
People at this forum suggested rebuilding the index.
This page suggests rebuilding it with the following command:
sudo mdutil -E /
But that didn't work. That page also suggests downloading OnyX, a general utility and maintenance program and clearing the Font Cache and other repaire procedures. That didn't work either.
At this point I didn't know what else to suggest besides reinstalling OS X. But then I just realized you can turn indexing off:
sudo mdutil -i off
Viola. This will slow down searching, but at least its not using a funky, broken index.
Comments
1 errol vieth says...
Hello
I would like to turn off indexing, because nothing has worked for my computer either. Spotlight cannot find things!
However, I would like to know how to turn it back on if necessary. What is the command for turning it on?
best wishes
ejv
Posted at 4:49 a.m. on December 14, 2007
2 Yeago says...
Hey buddy,
The indexing can easily be turned back on by simply typing:
<blockquote class="code">sudo mdutil -i on</blockquote>
Posted at 2:27 p.m. on December 14, 2007
3 alexamundo says...
Hi, My spotlight hasn't worked (just searches forever and finds nothing) for a long long time. I've tried most of the online solutions referred to above to no avail. I haven't tried any of the ones requiring a sudo entry because I don't have the admin password for my computer!! And no, it looks like finding the admin password is impossible. (Basically, the company that helped me set up my computer maintain it has no passwords, even for keychains..?) Anyway, I would like to know if there is a way to turn off indexing without having to enter a password? Pretty unlikely I guess. But I'm staying hopeful, so... anyone?? Thanks so much.
Posted at 5:14 a.m. on March 11, 2008
4 Andreas says...
Hi alexamundo,
for sudo you don't need the admin password - you need to type your own password when prompted. Hope that helps!
Posted at 6:11 p.m. on June 5, 2008