How To Rebuild the Spotlight Index on Your Mac

[@meeluanistyn1644]

Fascinating. How you know all this stuff continues to amaze me.

[@ajimenez251]

After all the years of watching your videos, I am still learning from them. Thank you.

[@macmancapecod]

I really like how approachable and friendly you sound! I look forward to following your other videos.

[@greebo7857]

I have 5 external drives connected most of the time. That mdutil -Ea command is invaluable. Thanks Gary.

[@sean9892]

Thank you so much ! I could not search anything at ALL

[@johker459]

On my Macbook Air I could not search in a particular Finder map. (Spotlight in the upper right corner did work.) I tried several maps, but nothing worked, not even my Home map. Inspired by your example I added and deleted the whole Macintosh HD in the Spotlight-privacy window! Now it works perfectly! Thanks very much Gary.

[@chicoofficialmusic]

Great How To Video especially the most important part of the 2nd step. Where & How to see if the indexing was actually going on.Thank you !! 🙏

[@Anonymous-et2qt]

Worked like a charm! Thank you

[@NickArnette]

Gary, I can always count on you for useful, concise, and well-explained information about using my Mac! Thanks so much!

[@joeblack729]

Hey, Gary! My first ever Mac after years of life with pc was air m1. And one of the first problems was index break😅

[@HarroopLife]

It's good to know about the index thing that Spotlight uses. It's smart way

[@AliasKein]

Gary, i can asure you, you are by far better than most of the so called "apple support" team. thx for all your videos. #garyforpresident

[@loriesacarrillo]

Worked for me!! Thank you!!

[@Ian-Steele]

Thanks Gary. Is there something similar for iPad searching?

[@macmost]

I don't think there is any equivalent on iPadOS for forcing a reindex of spotlight, if that is what you mean.

[@Ian-Steele]

@@macmost OK thanks Gary.

[@martinmurray3386]

awesome thank you. I doubt the help desk staff at Apple even know about this.....

[@David-fk1fz]

Another Gem. Thank you Gary, the way you explain makes a lot more sense than any other go to method. Quick questions Does indexing efficiency have a preferred file format and will external drives index as well. I've noticed some External HDDs formatted ExFat are sometimes more unreliable with indexing, Coming to your channel is the sure way to learn something new and significant every day

[@macmost]

Drives should be formatted for Mac (APFS or HFS+) for use on your Mac. Only use ExFAT if you really need to use the drive on both a Mac and a Windows machine. Hopefully you shouldn't need that today with cloud, file sharing and AirDrop as better alternatives for transporting files.

[@headhog77]

Very good video. It is certainly not intuitive. I had to do this after getting a M2 Mac Mini in January. Your video is 11 days too late! I might have caused the problem. In another good video you said put documents in the Documents folder. I was skipping the Documents folder and putting everything straight into iCloud. This was causing problems with syncing between my iMac and MacBook. I should have listened to you. I now have all my documents in the Document folder.

[@will.gallegos]

Lol I just reindexed Spotlight as you were reindexing it just to do it lol... Didn't know that I had to wait... At least I only use Spotlight in school.

[@loisskiathitis8926]

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! I’m always learning something new. Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much, Gary, for this excellent video. This is really good to know about.

[@dstooke]

Great advice as ever. Brilliant!

[@wantisin9623]

i think rmb extend menu bind shell for rebuild index would be a good idea.

[@binayakkumardubey3773]

Very informative. Thanks for sharing 👏🏻👏🏻💐

[@Apenschi]

You are simply good!

[@practiquemos]

Muchas gracias 🙏

[@SumanVisu]

I click like even before watching the video. I’m surprised why this channel not hit million subscribers.

[@joecasullo7633]

Thanks Gary, great video. I've always wanted to index my network drive, do you know if spotlight will index network drives?

[@macmost]

Not sure. It probably depends on the type of network drive and other factors.

[@hoerungsengseyha7428]

Very good video.

[@davidrusca2]

It's extremely stupid that there's no button at config that says "re-index search". Thanks for showing us the way!

[@fabiolaangulo6255]

Finally!! thank you!

[@marcomark8]

It is amazing what you know about Apple products. I love your videos

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

Does rebuilding Spotlight as in the video do anything to Apple Mail (like rebuilding maiboxes and in the process deleting them)? If not following teh process described in the video, is performance of Spotlight when searching mail improve? Thanks.

[@macmost]

It really depends on your email service. Usually searching email is done by the service as you are only viewing the contents of your account's database.

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

@@macmost I am using Apple Mail and the provider is Comcast. However, since my mail is on my computer, Comcast doesn't do anything to it. It is only whatever Spotlight or any other Apple process does. Does Spotlight index rebuidling as in your video does anything to emails in this context?

[@macmost]

@@SusanFarkas-o6p Spotlight builds an index. It doesn't change the files or data.

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

This is an excellent tutorial and you are suggesting that finder actually uses the spotlight index for non searched finder displays. Is that correct? Why do I ask. For some reasons, displaying the pictures folder tree in finder is very slow on my external HD (Ventura, MAC Studio). Should I run spotlight index rebuild process on that folder tree ? or is there a different index or linked list (e.g. nodes, etc.) that finder is using. Thx -

[@macmost]

Yes, when you search in the Finder it uses Spotlight. But if you are just browsing the Finder, then that doesn't need Spotlight. Maybe your external drive is just slow? Or, maybe it is a non-Mac format so it takes longer?

[@Mega_Casual]

Hello Gary. I'm looking for a MacMost video on how to move the cursor around in terminal. Like deleting text to the right of where the cursor is also. Move to beginning of line, move to end of line. etc Do you have one?

[@SamuelMendes_fotografia]

Hi, Gary! 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!

[@macmost]

Maybe you don't have it formatted for Mac?

[@SamuelMendes_fotografia]

​@@macmost Yeah! I'm using it for six months or more. But I just have found the solution (and the last one I could try): update the Mac OSX Monterey from 12.7 to 12.7.2. It instantly worked. :D

[@ShibuGeorgeMac]

Thanks!

[@bradstudio]

Sonoma 14.1 really messed up Spotlight big time.

[@macmost]

How so? Seems to work the same for me.

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches

[@schmfr1950]

Wonderfully explained. Thanks. I wished all Apple support guys do know that too. I learnt it the hard way. Question : can you shed some light on why one can lose contacts out oft he apple contacts app please? I am loosing contacts and even after many desasterous calls to the Apple hotline I could not solve it. Having something like more than a thousand contacts I realize that I am losing about one to two contact’s per month (hard to tell exactly but sometimes I just miss contacts..

[@macmost]

That shouldn't happen. Are these contacts stored in iCloud, or some other system (Google, Yahoo, etc).

[@vtanzi]

I always wondered why using the App Alfred finds things so much faster than Spotlight

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

I am buying the latest iMac with Sonoma to replace one with Mojave. I plan to use Migration Assistant to transfer information from the old iMac to the new one. Will Spotlight index be rebuilt automatically during or after the transfer process? Will anything be done to Apple Mail in the process? Thanks.

[@macmost]

Spotlight will index your stuff after the transfer, yes. What question did you have about Mail? Usually today we all use cloud-based email (Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, etc) so it is just a matter of logging into your account(s).

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

@@macmost Thanks. I use Apple Mail and I have all my mails on my computer, by design. I was wondering what MA (or any after transfer process) might do my thousands of emails organized in folders and subfolders, what impact Spotlight index rebuild might have to my emails, as they are very important to me.

[@macmost]

@@SusanFarkas-o6p So you are using POP email? I think MA will just bring them over, but I can't be sure. I haven't used POP in 20 years. I don't know if Spotlight indexes them, or if that is done by the Mail app itself, but either way I don't see why it would be a problem. It is just creating an index to make searches faster. It doesn't change what you have.

[@NiceAussie]

Very good

[@GerardoMedinaMBA-MBE]

ℍ𝕚, 𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕣! Why recently I can not see a preview of files (like word, PDF, etc) once I selected them from Spotlight not from Finder? I remember it was possible.

[@macmost]

So using the Spotlight Menu (Command+Space)? In Ventura Quick Look has been integrated into the Spotlight Menu. So if you want to preview a file, then select it and press Spacebar just like you would in a Finder window.

[@simongrushka983]

coming from linux world, i have few questions: can a seperate directory/file be excluded from indexing? how can i configure so when i search for something like 'sad' something like 'śąd' will be indexed and show to me as a result? or umlauts? can it search for the file tags? can it search through the photos for the faces somehow? are the results of the indexing available in other apps?

[@macmost]

Yes, go to System Settings, Siri & Spotlight, then click the Privacy button all the way at the bottom. Not sure about accent marks. It may work. You'll have to experiment. Yes, you can search for tags. Photos searching is not in Spotlight but in the Photos app. Not sure what you mean by other apps.

[@redstarpro4999]

thank! 🙂

[@Anonymous-et2qt]

Is there anything I could do to automate saving all my Mac Mails including attachment as pdf files

[@macmost]

Not that I can think of. What's your goal? I save all my email but it is just in my email service and I search for it in Mail (or Spotlight I suppose).

[@Anonymous-et2qt]

The goal is to save all my individual emails with attachment as a pdf file. I can do this manually (print to pdf & append attachments for each single mail) but it will take forever. If there is a method to automate this process since I need to save emails from 2019 till date. Just want all my emails as pdf files including its attachment. Will Automator help or any third party app.? Kindly advice. Query is not related to spotlight search. Thanks in advance.@@macmost

[@MySpam-v1t]

And how do I know if the new spotlight index is successfully created? How can I check or see this for multiple external hdds?

[@macmost]

If it no longer says it is indexing, then it should be done. Try a file search.

[@MySpam-v1t]

thanks for your quick reply! I saw with your terminal code that one specific harddrive is disabled. How can I enable 1 specific external drive? @@macmost

[@macmost]

@@MySpam-v1t Not sure what you mean. To disable a drive or a folder, go to System Settings, General, Time Machine, Options (button) and then exclude what you want from your backups, or remove anything you added them to re-enable.

[@MySpam-v1t]

Hi Gary. Sorry for this confusion. I am not a native english speaker. I will try it in another way :)! (My issue. has nothing do to "I guess" with timemachine) When I type in the terminal "mdutil -sa" from 6:09 then terminal lists me all drives and if they are enabled or disabled for searching / indexing. Now I have one drive it says "/Volumes/ExternalHDD: Indexing and searching disabled. By all the others its enabled. How can I enable now this 1 specific drive so its searchable / indexable? Thanks@@macmost

[@MySpam-v1t]

When I type sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/ExternalHDD it still tells me that the drive "Indexing and searching disabled"

[@JavisoGaming]

The app Onyx has the ability to rebuild the index.

[@kshgarg147]

Idid everything you said in this video. Spotlight is searching in a specific folder. I can see the files are there, but its not returning search results. I an running fully updated sonoma on an m3 pro macbook pro.

[@macmost]

Then your next stop is Apple Support.

[@bobcleaver]

Gary, this is an incredible review - I am considering using spotlight searches to find files and abandon ?? traditional folder structure ?? I saw a KZbin video stating that folder systems are antiquated (from a human brain processing model) and that using tags and allowing multiple tag searches is a better solution for finding files and info on your Mac - creating smart folders (yes, I see the irony) allows you to build a system of smart searches in lieu of traditional 'stupid' folders - I look forward to comments from you and this terrific group of viewers -

[@macmost]

Yes, I like this idea. It is how I do all my email and photos. With files I have a hybrid system (some general folders, but relying on search more and more).

[@bobcleaver]

@@macmost I have been trying to implement a good search system for tags and have reviewed your excellent older search video, but I am not getting the results I want (so I am not thinking like a search engine 😉)

[@sundaynightdrunk]

The problem I see again and again with tags is that it's not really intuitive to add a tag *every* time-it's very easy to forget on a busy day. Then that file is excluded on your next search for it, and you end up digging in folders anyway. I love the idea, but that always seems to be its weakness.

[@brentmalin8053]

I did command space to open spotlight then I hit option space and it started to index. but I did it by accident and thats why I watched this video to learn what indexing was.

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

Your video has a "cautionary moment" and it states that one should rum the process you describe for rebuilding the Spotlight index only if one has serious issues. Any specific reasons for this concern? Thanks.

[@macmost]

It takes time and resources. Don't slow your Mac down and perhaps make searching not work well until it is done if you don't really need to.

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

@@macmost Thanks

[@fklinny]

I get an unknown system error when I try to add Macintosh HD to the privacy list in spotlight settings, what can I do?

[@macmost]

Maybe try a restart and see if that help.

[@lindsaylowhan8975]

Command Space doesn't open a search Window (on my Mac), but rather some weird colored ball??

[@macmost]

Sounds like something is wrong. Restart and try again.

[@lindsaylowhan8975]

@@macmost It was Siri! It was set in Preferences by default? to turn on with Cmd + [space]. I just turned it off, and that fixed it - Thanks!

[@DBaizan]

Even after re-indexing a drive and waiting until the indexing process is finished, a search for files that I know exist on that drive don't appear in a Finder search of the drive's topmost folder. But if I search a subfolder on that drive, the files I search for appear in the search results. I don't get what the problem might be.

[@JoshuaG85]

I have the new Mac Studio. 2 tb. For some reason, my Applications say they are 1.04 tb. Documents 110.87 gig. IcLOUD 949.58 GIG. iOS files 205.53. It makes no sense. The applications have never been that high. I have adobe and office. I have no clue what is going on.

[@macmost]

Probably some of those apps are storing a lot of media, cache, data, etc.

[@JoshuaG85]

Maybe. Did this video show how to clean that. haha I can't remember. I was doing other things while listening.@@macmost

[@macmost]

@@JoshuaG85 This video is about rebuilding your spotlight index. I do have a video about figuring out what is taking up space. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zl7bpYJ8rp2LnLc

[@JoshuaG85]

It is weird. I started making youtube videos. It's fun. Give me a purpose. haha But, I tried the index thing. My Mac. was acting weird after. Desktop, which is is the cloud was gone. But now, it says I have 1.37 tb free. However, it is not showing iCloud. It does say iCloud drive is on. I am confused. haha @@macmost

[@Eueueieueui]

I tried to rebuild my Spotlight Index but I don't see any progress bar. What is happening?

[@macmost]

It may have happened already. See if search works for you now. Or, just give it an hour and see.

[@jasongooden917]

I can’t find anything right now so I gonna do it

[@gtrujillo6967]

what is giving me an error and wont let me add the drive? can you help me? Thanks in advance!

[@macmost]

You'll need to contact Apple Support for help with that.

[@skib1234]

I did this, but spotlight did not re-index anything.

[@JenniferCanali]

I cannot even count the number of times I called Apple tech-support and/or went into the store because my MacBook Pro could not search files. None of the "geniuses" ever mentioned or did this process. They all basically said it was an unsolvable problem caused by unknown reasons. Every Apple employee who offers tech-support should be required to watch every video on this channel!!!!!

[@anthojones520]

ive already done this and doesnt work for my external drive... now what??

[@macmost]

Define "doesn't work." What is it you are trying to do by reindexing your external drive? And what format is the drive (Spotlight indexing is for Mac-formatted drives).

[@karolp1978]

how to remove podcasts content from spotlight but leave documents? there is no podcast category

[@macmost]

If there is no category for it, you can't do it.

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

I can no longer use search for Apple Mail (OS is Mojave on iMac). Apple's support website advises rebuilding mailboxes with teh following comment: "When you rebuild mailboxes for IMAP or Exchange accounts, messages and attachments stored on your Mac are discarded, and then downloaded again from the mail server to your Mac. Your mailbox appears empty until the download is complete.". My incoming mail is POP3, not IMAP, so all my emails are on my computer, not on the server. Obviously I do not want them discarded. I could not find anywhere similar information about potentially rebuilding mailboxes when POP3 is used. Does anyone with a similar configuration for mail know how to rebuild and/or re-index mailboxes without deleting them or how to "fix" Spotlight indexing without email being discarded? Thanks.

[@macmost]

Sorry, I haven't used POP email in a long long time. It just doesn't work well with modern tech when people access email on multiple devices. Sorry I can't be of more help with this.

[@SusanFarkas-o6p]

@@macmost I appreciate the answer and the very useful videos. I really do not want synchronized emails on all my devices, doesn't work for me, so I am sticking to POP as old fashioned that might be.

[@jessicamou]

Mac index is just stupid. My old broken pc (you can’t even open a webpage smoothly on it) can find files on my PSSD T7 under a minute or two (or five TBH), my M1 Mac can’t 😂😂😂 it’s not about faster or slower, it just won’t work for the most of the times. Sometimes it works, like it should be, but that only happened like 50 times or so in last three years. Seriously M1 is 1000 times faster than that old little PC, how long can it be for Mac to search it without indexing? I prefer slower than broken. This is just insane.

[@macmost]

That's not normal. If rebuilding the spotlight index doesn't work you should get it looked at.

[@jessicamou]

@@macmost I mean it works for files on my local hard drive, but not really for external storages. Based on the info I gathered, it seems to be a common problem for Macs in years…I’ll keep looking for solutions (I have to 😂). Thanks for responding!!

[@macmost]

@@jessicamou An external drive? You didn't mention that. Then it probably depends on the format of that drive. Perhaps you have it formatted for something other than macOS? If so, then it may not be able to do such a good job at searches as it can't save the Spotlight indexing information. It has been years since I have used a non-Mac formatted drive with a Mac so I'm at a loss to help you more with that.

[@augustya7543]

How does one come to this conclusion that the spotlight is corrupt and not working ? And he needs to reset the Spotlight ?

[@macmost]

When it isn't working. Like if it never returns results, or takes minutes to find anything, or files that are clearly there aren't found and you are sure you haven't blocked those files.

[@fabrislemos]

This video could be half its lenght

[@thetapper61]

Do all users benefit while spotlight indexes in main user?

[@drizzlymood]

If spotlight doesn't pop up, try disconnecting your external monitor and now press ⌘ + Space. Drag the search box to where you want and plug in the external monitor again.