Reboot Computer Services Inc - Spotlight Not Working on macOS

Spotlight Not Working on macOS

Spotlight Not Working

Have you ever encountered any of the following problems on macOS.

1. Spotlight doesn't show apps.

2. Spotlight search doesn't work.

3. You cannot get the expected results from Spotlight.

4. Finder search does not work.

Actually, all these problems can be solved by resetting the Spotlight Index. In this post, we'll walk you through how to reindex Spotlight in easy ways.

Method 1. Force Mac to Reindex Spotlight

1. Click the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Spotlight.

2. Switch to the Privacy tab and click the Plus button.

3. Select the folder or disk to reindex and add it to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or you can drag a folder or disk to the list.

4. Highlight the fold or disk you just added and click the Minus button to remove it from the list.

5. Quit System Preferences, and the Spotlight will start reindexing the contents of the folder or disk.

6. Click the Spotlight icon in the menu bar, enter a keyword to search, and you will find a progress bar indicating Spotlight is indexing.

Method 2. Reindex Spotlight with Terminal

Terminal can also help you rebuild the Spotlight index. All you need is a few commands.

1. Open Finder, then click Applications > Utilities > Terminal

2. In the Terminal, type and run the command: sudo -i.

3. Enter your administrator password and press Return.

4. Continue to run the commands: mdutil -Ea and mdutil -ai off.

5. Enter the command mdutil -ai on and press Return, and you will see a message saying that indexing is enabled.

6. When you search using Spotlight, it will show that it is indexing.

Conclusion

We hope your Spotlight search is working properly. If not, try restarting or updating your Mac.