How to Fix Spotlight Search Issues on MacOS Sequoia
A fair number of Mac users have discovered that Spotlight Search is not working well in MacOS Sequoia, either missing files, apps, and sometimes not working at all to find any local file. For some users the issues with Spotlight happens right after they update to MacOS Seqouia, and for others it may happen later seemingly at random. The most obvious examples of Spotlight issues with MacOS Seqouia relate to Spotlight having an inability to find files and data that you search for on the Mac, often even with exact match names, but what can make the search failure issue particularly strange is that some files and search data does return properly.
If you’re experiencing issues with Spotlight search, where Spotlight search appears to be broken or not working properly, after updating to MacOS Seqouia in particular (though the troubleshooting tips here will apply to any macOS version), then read along to fix the Spotlight search problem.
How to Fix Spotlight Issues in MacOS Sequoia
You will want to backup your Mac with Time Machine or your backup method of choice before proceeding.
1: Wait, did you just install Sequoia?
If you just installed MacOS Sequoia within the last day or few, give your Mac time to complete the indexing process of your data. The easiest way to enable this is to keep your Mac powered on and plugged in overnight (sometimes for a few nights if you have tons and tons of data on your Mac and external drives connected as well), so that your Mac can perform necessary maintenance.
This is particularly relevant if you just installed a major system software update like Sequoia, because if you just finished the upgrade a few hours ago, it’s likely the background indexing tasks for Spotlight and other system maintenance has not even finished yet. Give it time, be patient.
2: Install any available MacOS updates
The first thing to do is install any available MacOS system software updates. This is straightforward and standard practice for any troubleshooting, so head over to Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update, and install any available system software updates.
System software updates for MacOS often include bug fixes which could address any search issues, but also anytime you install a software update on a Mac, there are maintenance tasks that occur in the background that may resolve the Spotlight issue as well.
After you have installed any updates, leave the Mac powered on overnight for a day or few, so that any background tasks can finish.
3: Rebuild the Spotlight Index on MacOS Sequoia
After you have installed any available system software updates on the Mac, and let the Mac sit for a while to complete it’s indexing tasks, if you are still experiencing search issues and problems with Spotlight search your next task is manually rebuild the Spotlight index.
- Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities/ (you can use Spotlight to open Terminal as well, if Spotlight is working enough to be able to do that)
- At the command line enter the following command exactly, with precise characters and capitalization:
- Now that Spotlight search has been disabled, it’s time to turn it back on again which will force the index to rebuild:
- Let the Spotlight index rebuilding process complete, this can take many hours depending on how much data you have on the Mac, so just let it run in the background
- When Spotlight has finished rebuilding its index, now run the following command to confirm indexing is enabled on the volumes your data is on that you wish to search:
- Check to make sure your primary drive (/) shows “Indexing enabled” and that any other volume you wish to search or index is also showing “Indexing Enabled”
sudo mdutil -Eia off
sudo mdutil -Eia on
mdutil -as
For some detailed info on the mdutil flags used here:
-i is used to toggle indexing on and off
-E is used to erase and rebuild the index
-a is used to apply the command to all volumes
This process, which you may have surmised is basically just toggling Spotlight off and then back on again (a simple and amazingly effective troubleshooting technique for virtually every piece of electronics, computers, and software in general). This will force the Spotlight index to rebuild, and when that is finished you should be able to search and find your files, apps, and data again.
We have covered tips for fixing Spotlight going back 17+ years (!) that involve toggling Spotlight off and on to rebuild the index, and amusingly enough it still works. This particular string of commands is slightly different from the standard -E flag, and comes from Apple Support via Apple Discussions, where a fair number of users have experienced issues with Spotlight problems after updating their Mac to Sequoia.
Spotlight has undergone many changes over the years, and it’s still a fantastic search engine for local data and content within files. Some of the troubleshooting tricks for fixing a misbehaving Spotlight are basically the same as they have always been for MacOS even on much earlier versions, so longtime Mac users may find the index rebuilding process to be familiar, though the old trick for using the GUI to force a rebuild of the search index often seems less effective.
Have you had any problems with Spotlight after updating to MacOS Sequoia or another recent Mac software update? Did the index rebuilding trick work for you? Let us know your experiences in the comments.
This really has nothing to do with Sequoia. Monterey is riddles with Spotlight problems. All you have to do is simply not shut down your Mac at the end of the day, just select “Apple Menu > Lock Screen”. Or, alternatively, if “System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options > Show fast user switching menu” is enabled, just select it in the menu bar and select “Login Window…”.
You can have apps running in the background. At this point you haven’t officially logged out of your user account but the login screen is showing.
Now close the lid and wait a few hours (5-7) and login again. Repeat this for 1-3 days at the end of each day before you go to sleep. Spotlight will stop working.
You can keep rebuilding the index as many times as you want but if you repeat the above steps, Spotlight will stop working in 1-3 days again. Something is just fundamentally wrong with Spotlight.
tried the command as published, got reply:
“Error: unexpected indexing state (a)
…
NOTE: Run as owner for network homes, otherwise run as root.”
what now?
Same here. Went to “System Settings” -> Spotlight -> Search Privacy. Added my hard drive to the list of excluded locations. Clicked Done, exited System Settings, waited a few minutes. Then went back in and removed the drive from the excluded locations.
It is now rebuilding the index (I see mds & mdworkers in Activity Monitor). Not sure how much of the exit & wait was necessary–just wanted to make sure it was really off and index deleted before trying to re-start.
Hi,
Article’s writter made a mistake. Option -i is used to turn on or off the indexing, commands “on” or “off don’t apply to option -a, so the correct commands are:
sudo mdutil -Eai off
sudo mdutil -Eai on
Changing the order of options “a” and “i”.
This worked for me…
Best regards
Aurelio
My issue with Spotlight has been that it no longer searched my external drive once I updated to an Apple Silicon Mac.
Turns out that privileges were restricted to “Read Only” on the external drive. So I added my user name & granted it Read Write privileges, also checking on the “Apply to enclosed items” thing under the karat.
So, fingers crossed that it was as easy as this, because not having Spotlight search my external drive was an enormous & irritating blind spot.
Okay, well I made a start with what I did in the previous comment. Spotlight was NOT indexing & my external drive still did not have indexing etc., enabled. I found 2 Apple Community Notes with instructions from Dave Vivian. I tried those & deleted a file in my ext drive’s root file, checked the plist file had the correct code stuff -which surprisingly it did. THEN applied the code in Terminal to see any changes in the indexing for my drives. Ejected the drive, remounted it, and La! indexing had begun, the updated privileges held.
I was finally able to have a fruitful search for all my drawing & illustration files after 3 cold, dark, long years.
Yay! Have to keep pinching myself.
:0)