Mac Spotlight Fix. Can't Find Applications, Files, Folders

How to fix indexing issues with Mac Spotlight. Reindex rebuild spotlight. You need this if your spotlight search does not find applications, files, and folders.
Commands used in this video:
sudo mdutil -sav
sudo mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data
Extra command if you need it.
sudo mdutil -a -i on

[@fourex59]

Man, I have been having this problem for two years!!! This fixed it; I love my computer again. Now why the hell doesn't Apple know of this solution? I have called them every couple of months asking for a fix. They never know anything. Of course they will say that they have never heard of this problem, whereas the problem is listed many times in their help pages!! Thank you so much Cisco Sal! Bravo!!!

[@CiscoSal]

Haha thanks!! Glad it helped.

[@RickyJha]

I am a network guy but new to mac terminals - you won't belive how much time I wasted dragging the folder in privacy and out of privacy as suggested by Google University and other mac nerds.. I wish we had more crisp and clear directions like this for a gentleman like u.. god bless budd !! you did some nice job there for humanity and insanity ;)

[@tonyjoy]

Been annoyed with this problem for weeks. Thanks!

[@discorrdat]

I appreciate someone on KZbin who knows what he is talking about. Thx for the fix.

[@TechMixr]

MONTHS AND MONTHS TRYING TO FIX THIS! You're a genius!! 🙏🏾

[@TechMixr]

So I ran this command and it worked, but I noticed something when I ran sudi mdutil -sav Under all the volumes i have, I see "Index is read-only." Now to be clear,. running sudo mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data fixed the issue where one of my folders specifically wasn't searchable. But when I add new files to it, those new files aren't searchable until I run mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data again on it. I'm guessing because when I run -sav - I see all the indexes are showing up as read-only. So my questions are: - Will disabling the indexes being read-only fix this behavior? (I'm assuming yes) - And if the first question's answer is yes, how do I do this? 😂🤦🏾‍♂️ Appreciate this video A LOT - because I was losing my mind lol.

[@aaronlaszlo]

I have been trying to fix this for over a year... Tried every available solution I found, and this one finally worked. Thank you my guy!

[@gvineet53]

Thanks Sal.. I am in the same boat as many others where Mac OS Spotlight Search couldn't find anything besides pre-installed apps and even so called Apple Geniuses couldn't help. Followed the instructions and now works like a charm!

[@huntercoxpersonal]

This just solved the issue I've been troubleshooting with my Alfred install for MONTHS! Thank you sir!

[@Nomenclatureish]

You Sir are a genius! Been searching for weeks but no one went deeply enough. Thanks for taking the time!

[@CiscoSal]

No problem! Thank you so much for watching!

[@tobiasko5430]

Days of struggling and those 2 commands fixed it, thanks man!

[@WheresNaldo]

Thank you so much! You fixed years of aggravation. I finally took out the imac and decided to give it one more go before resetting the whole thing. I managed to retrieve all my files.

[@hannoriehmann5479]

The last command did it for me. Thanks a lot! I've been searching for weeks for a solution.

[@DavidAAcostaS]

I've been dealing with this problem for days and finally found your video. Thanks!!! It worked... and it didn't. Google Drive was still out. But I'll deal with that later.

[@yoonkim7110]

Man, thanks SO MUCH you saved me from going crazy after wasting 3 hours researching and getting useless stuff

[@aiyopasta]

you have fixed an issue even a phone call with apple support could not fix. thank you :)

[@olcayw]

Thank you dude, i will gonna try and by the way another option is to add Harddrive to spotlight's privacy section and removing again. so u make it stop indexing and start again by blocking

[@OguzhanYesilyurt]

This video better than Apple Support!

[@combatfilms]

U are a lifesaver! I spent so much time trying to figure this out.

[@sebbywilson]

omg you are a lifesaver, thanks so much

[@calereeder5214]

Dude, you rock. This fixed my issue. THANK YOU!

[@BTV-yl5qb]

Thank you so much! It solved my issue.

[@DarrenLittlejohnDharma]

thanks buddy, that was great. I've been trying to fix the slow mac issue w each upgrade, thought mdutil was causing it, so turned it off. then I couldn't find any apps. I still don't know why my kernel soars to 500% though.

[@arbiyanto17]

same here. since the spotlight turned off, I never had any kernel issues. but it's more painful cannot use spotlight features. stupidly, I don't know how to turn it on again until this video comes.

[@heatherhaim7352]

Honestly, you're doing God's work and I thank you!! We're not worthy!!

[@Suk_777]

Thank You for this it really worked!

[@simonbeer7301]

You BLOODY genius! thank you so much for finding this! Already working again!

[@yashkothavade1668]

thank you so much man appreciate a lot..

[@SagarGol]

WORKED!!!!!

[@schbrenner]

WORK on Sonoma. THANK YOU!

[@XIIIMedia]

Bro.. you saved me from pulling my beard hair out 🤣 I was going NUTS cause I didn't have a quick workflow. THANK YOU

[@daraseam2696]

You're a lifesaver sir!!!

[@joycezhu2772]

Recently I plugged in a mulfunctional apple keyboard into my imac, the keys on the keyboard type in multiple letters. Since then, my finder started having problems. It can't search for anything. I did a lot of research, and rebuild the finder index from system preferences and through terminal. I also tried your methods. Now the "indexing is enabled" in the terminal. But the finder still can't search normally. Is there any other way to fix this? Thanks.

[@user-wr8yp5ev3w]

YESSSSS! THANK YOU !!!!

[@calvinsmart6155]

Absolutely brilliant, thank you, helped plenty!

[@dirtbagmoto]

Nice dude, nothing else worked so thank you 🙏

[@SamuelMendes_fotografia]

Hi, Cisco! Thanks for this handy information! My "Sandisk Extreme SSD" is still showing up as "Indexing and searching disabled" on Monterey. No matter what I try in Terminal, or Spotlight privacy, or deleting Spotlight files inside it. Do you have a clue for that tough issue? Thanks a lot!

[@aratnam]

Worked for me, brilliant stuff. Thank you!

[@sparshchaudhary1715]

Genius !

[@thEstRonG3r]

I was on SAFE MODE, that's why it wasn't working well. Once i switched it worked perfect.

[@RoseBose69]

Super thank you, it worked a charm.

[@kalihipalama1762]

Mahalo nui loa - Thank you very much!!!

[@mateusvolponi]

Thank you sir. That solved my problem

[@SantiFox]

This did not work for me as all drives had Indexing enabled, I feel like the core issue of spotlight not even showing up is what I hope to find a solution for.

[@patrickhines4853]

Hello there. I could use some help. I have an SD card that i have store many of my work files on. One day I decided to put that same SD card in my MAC computer. IDK what happened but when I put the SD card in back in my PC, there is a .Spotlight-v100 file that leads to another file named Store-v2 which leads to nothing. Meanwhile, I dont see any of my files. My computer shows that my drive is near capacity (which is accurate with my work files) but I dont see them to access them. Can you help me? Thank you in advance. Aslo, all my files were created and stored on PC originally.

[@victorzhang7014]

Saved me from hall, Thanks!

[@add_code]

You are a genius!!!

[@iNomis1]

Just fixed it! -sav to see what it was doing and then turning on for /System/Volumes/Data

[@DeepakSharmaa2006]

Thank You So Much, Straight To The Point!!

[@ericcoopersomatics]

This is great! Thank you! a superior tutorial.

[@djwyiUg]

Thank you so much

[@netflight61]

Thank you! Very straightforward ******

[@CiscoSal]

Thanks for the comment!

[@rhondawyskiel3500]

sorry I am a novice, what do I type into the terminal as a command?

[@iTzFrayYT]

Thanks brother, saved a life :D

[@bumidhandra]

It worked!! Thank you so so much man.

[@BaoTran-yj6qh]

yo, work like a charm

[@jalissasantiago8218]

the last tip worked thank you !

[@liolopezofficial]

You're the best

[@candilite]

but is is only me here wonderring why this is happening? What made this "disabled" which was enobled by default?

[@pixomar]

Thanks so much man! Great tip!

[@kovalveli]

great video , fixed it for me m thank you

[@standepain]

Bingo! Thank you.

[@jeremiegalan007]

worked! thanks so much for this!

[@DOliver]

It did not work for me.

[@JohnJohnson-yu7hv]

How can this NOT be plastered all over the Internet??? MONTHS I've been trying to figure this out! Never, in all the solutions on the web, do they mention that data volume!

[@CiscoSal]

It was not easy to figure it out. I also spent months on it. Thats why I decided to post it. Figure more people would have this issue. Glad it helped you too!

[@JohnJohnson-yu7hv]

@@CiscoSal Kudos!

[@Rileytp]

That worked. Thanks.

[@CiscoSal]

Great!!!

[@sandrinepochonrobert7168]

Thank you ! Saved me !

[@HueBFuture]

Thx

[@MurrayWayper]

omg thankyou so much!

[@crystalwrightlive]

Its so rude not to say how to get to terminal. Really? Now I need another video to locate terminal.

[@CiscoSal]

Sorry! Just go to the magnifying glass top right. In there just enter the word terminal.

[@bethanthorsby35]

Thank you :)

[@rob.granger]

Nice!!

[@alanondo1067]

Thanks

[@ChowmutLe]

siiiiighhhh, my indexing was enabled when I checked but spotlight still won't show up

[@federicopugnaloni1434]

you save my life ;-)

[@CiscoSal]

Lol

[@isaacv4433]

MAGIC!!!

[@chanaiiH]

💯💯💯💯

[@omprashar]

thnx

[@raymanmufasa]

Mine says enabled ...

[@Mrcatalyst1]

thanks so muchhhhh

[@tereteregaming2043]

life saver

[@sangotan3222]

save the day!!!, 1 more like ::D

[@appymango5995]

This saved my day. Thanks for the amazing video ! @Cisco Sal

[@CiscoSal]

Great! Happy it worked for you!

[@xealit]

`sudo mdutil -i on /System/Volumes/Data` prints "disabled" for me each time I call it

[@naveedahmed6680]

Thanks! The "Extra Command: sudo mdutil -a -i on" worked!

[@77dris]

Samsies!

[@77dris]

YES! It was that 2nd command (sudo mdutil -a -i on) that fixed it for me!

[@ONAIRRECORDS]

What is the full code that works? MacOS Ventura M2

[@soniachong5787]

Did not worked for me but Mac2iPhone provided the solution with - sudo mdutil -E /