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Mac os x indexing and searching disabled

Just to confirm, the filename is actually '.

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When I run 'locate. I tried that and terminal returns: To create the database, run the following command: TraneFrancks I updated my question after I updated the database and tried it again. If you want to delete a system file, you'll need to use sudo , e. I wonder if this is much different than apple. I got it working again! Heres what I did: In terminal I ran: Then ran: Thanks for the tips and suggestions everyone and Google! It gives the "indexing and searching disabled.

How to rebuild the Spotlight index on macOS Sierra

I search for it in the net for months System preferences -spotilight -Privacy -if your harddisk is in the list mark it and then press - When your harddisk is removed from "prevent searching this locations", you spotilight will scan your files for around 2 hours and voila! Sign up or log in Sign up using Google.

How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

Sign up using Facebook. First start with opening up a Terminal Window. Now lets figure out the status of indexing. Type either of these commands, both should do the same thing:. If you get a message that says Indexing and Searching disabled then we may have found your problem. Indexing is the process of finding all files, emails, and other stuff on your hard drive that you will eventually search for. Now run the same commands below we ran before.

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This will let us know if indexing and searching has been enabled. You will need to perform Step 2 below. Otherwise if it shows indexing is enabled you should be all set. We are not certain where this file came from but in our case it was preventing the indexing for search functionality from working. If the next line shows the file then you know you have it on your hard drive. If you see the same result above then we need to delete this file.


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  • Add a file to the Spotlight index;

This is what is preventing the indexing from occurring on your Mac. Run the command below which will delete this file from the root of your hard drive. If I wanted to turn indexing off for my Time Machine drive , which is named Tardis, the command would be:. After executing the command by pressing enter or return, you may be asked for your administrator password. Enter the password at the prompt, and then hit enter or return.

Search Not Working on Mac El Capitan

Instead of typing out the path to the volume, you can drag the volume into Terminal, and the pathname will be added to the command. For example, if I wanted to turn indexing off for my Tardis volume, I would enter sudo mdutil -I off into Terminal, and then drag the Tardis volume into Terminal. Force Spotlight to Re-index a Volume Every once in a blue moon you may find Spotlight gets stuck indexing a volume. This can take the form of having the indexing function continue for a very long time, with no end in sight.

The usual cause for this problem is a corrupt metadata store associated with the volume being indexed.


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To correct the issue, you can delete the file that stores the metadata. The metadata stores are located in a folder at the root of each volume with an index, and are named.

Spotlight reports "Indexing and searching disabled" in Lion - Ask Different

The name includes a period at the beginning, indicating the folder is invisible and will not normally be displayed in the Finder or Terminal. Deleting the metadata store can force Spotlight to create a new one, and start the indexing process over again. There are two methods I will show you for forcing the file to be deleted and re-indexing to start. You can view the indexing status bar by opening Spotlight and entering character or two.


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If Spotlight is indexing, a status bar will be included in the results. Wait about a minute for all the related Spotlight processes to quit, and then remove the volume from the Privacy tab. This will cause a new index to be created. Re-indexing With Terminal The mdutil utility includes a command that will erase the current metadata store file, and then restart the indexing process. Erasing the metadata store for a volume is one of the best ways to fix a stalled or corrupt index.