Why is Spotlight so useless?

Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Messages
251
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
London, UK
I've been having problems with Spotlight.

It often fails to find documents that i know exist, i type in a part of the filename and it finds every other file but that one. I have to manually go and find it then open it, only then will spotlight be able to find it again.

Any suggestions to why this keeps happening? It's not like it goes wrong and needs to re-index the whole drive, it just needs a reminder of where the odd documents are.

Its getting kinda annoying, especially when you become reliant on it.
 
Joined
Apr 18, 2006
Messages
443
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac 2.16 ghz. 1 gb ram. 250 GB HDD. Screamer! 2gb ipod nano. 17 in powerbook G4 1.67/1 Gb/120gb
I <3 spotlight! I have never had that problem. Maybe you should take it to an apple store.
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
Add your entire harddrive to the 'private' section under spotlight system preferences and then remove it again.

This will force spotlight to reindex your entire harddrive and should fix any bugs.
 
Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Messages
4,576
Reaction score
378
Points
83
Location
St. Somewhere
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
Have you imported the bulk of your files from Windows or Linux? Apparently Spotlight needs the resource fork of the file - the file's metadata. Imported files don't have this. I had the same problem when I switched. I find that Spotlight is getting more and more useful as time goes on, and more and more of my files are becoming Mac native.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
206
Reaction score
24
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Your Mac's Specs
13" MacBook Pro
I agree with Aptmunich. You probably just need to re-index.

By the way, spotlight has made me laaaaaazy. I don't even click on things that sit in my dock anymore, because i can type faster than I move the mouse LOL. I just hit command+space, and type away :)
 
Joined
May 27, 2006
Messages
445
Reaction score
16
Points
18
Location
Concord, NC
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 17" 2.6GHz 4GB RAM
Spotlight works great for me.
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
9,065
Reaction score
331
Points
83
Location
Munich
Your Mac's Specs
Aluminium Macbook 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM, SSD 24" Samsung Display, iPhone 4, iPad 2
Richie_Gecko said:
I agree with Aptmunich. You probably just need to re-index.

By the way, spotlight has made me laaaaaazy. I don't even click on things that sit in my dock anymore, because i can type faster than I move the mouse LOL. I just hit command+space, and type away :)
If you're abusing spotlight as a launcher, try Quicksilver, butler or launchbar.

They let you do basically the same thing, but work much faster and offer more options via the keyboard (reveal, copy/move files, open with etc.)
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
217
Reaction score
7
Points
18
Aptmunich said:
If you're abusing spotlight as a launcher, try Quicksilver, butler or launchbar.

They let you do basically the same thing, but work much faster and offer more options via the keyboard (reveal, copy/move files, open with etc.)


i haven't used spotlight much yet. i'm trained to avoid search functions as an XP user (lets face it, windows search just doesn't work), but this command space thing is INTRIGUING



dude, i just tried it... thats so EASY ... i see how it made the one guy lazy.
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
6,999
Reaction score
187
Points
63
Location
Hamilton College
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
Spotlight has worked great for me, I use it as a launcher for most things
 
Joined
Jul 23, 2004
Messages
3,169
Reaction score
164
Points
63
Location
North NJ
Your Mac's Specs
i dont have no mac's
spotlight isnt useless, your spotlight is just running with a broken bulb or something.

i dont use spotlight because i know where everything i need is so i cant help
-chris
 
OP
mig.gentry
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Messages
251
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
London, UK
I've tried re-indexing before and it solves the problem for a little while, but after a while files just stop being recognised. They aren't imported from anywhere, usually created by me on my ibook.

I guess i'll have to live with re-indexing every now and then. I suppose all addictions need to be tended to once in a while
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
So far on all my Macs with Tiger, Spotlight has worked great with no problems at all.
 
Joined
Mar 17, 2006
Messages
312
Reaction score
17
Points
18
Location
Texas
Your Mac's Specs
Mac mini i5, 2.3Ghz dual core, 8 GB RAM, OSX 10.8.2
dtravis7 said:
So far on all my Macs with Tiger, Spotlight has worked great with no problems at all.

Well, "great" is relative. I was wondering just why the **** you can't use Boolean searches, you know, "find all files containing 'wibble', excpet PDFs". Turns out that this feature is one of the OMGLEOPARDFTW! features we won't see until Spring 2007.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Kar98 said:
Well, "great" is relative. I was wondering just why the **** you can't use Boolean searches, you know, "find all files containing 'wibble', excpet PDFs". Turns out that this feature is one of the OMGLEOPARDFTW! features we won't see until Spring 2007.


Spotlight works perfectally for me. Never had an issue at all with it. It does what it supposed to do.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
206
Reaction score
24
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Your Mac's Specs
13" MacBook Pro
kevin_msu said:
i haven't used spotlight much yet. i'm trained to avoid search functions as an XP user (lets face it, windows search just doesn't work), but this command space thing is INTRIGUING



dude, i just tried it... thats so EASY ... i see how it made the one guy lazy.
Hehe...not it's going to make someone else lazy. My job here is done. ;)
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
206
Reaction score
24
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Your Mac's Specs
13" MacBook Pro
Aptmunich said:
If you're abusing spotlight as a launcher, try Quicksilver, butler or launchbar.

They let you do basically the same thing, but work much faster and offer more options via the keyboard (reveal, copy/move files, open with etc.)
Abuse...that is a good way to put it. LOL

I have tried QuickSilver, and I liked, but I still found myself using spotlight. It just became a habit, and truthfully, Spotlight is pretty darn fast anyway.

OT: I just tested my typing speed...98 words per minute! Last time I checked, i was at 68, so I was kind of surprised. I guess that's why I find it faster to use spotlight than to mouse down to the dock. hehe...
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top