Quite a few Mac users have discovered that Spotlight Search doesn’t work well in macOS Sequoia, causing files, apps missing, and sometimes not working at all to find a local file. For some users, Spotlight issues occur right after updating to MacOS Seqouia, and for others, it may appear later, seemingly randomly. The most obvious examples of Spotlight issues with MacOS Seqouia involve Spotlight’s inability to find the files and data you’re looking for on the Mac, often even with exact match names, but this can cause the issue to fail Particularly strange search is that some files and search data come back correctly.

If you’re having issues with Spotlight Search, where Spotlight Search appears to be broken or not working properly, after updating to MacOS Seqouia in particular (although the troubleshooting tips here apply to any version of macOS), read on to fix the Spotlight problem. research problem.

How to Fix Spotlight Issues in MacOS Sequoia

You will want back up your Mac with Time Machine or your preferred backup method before continuing.

1: Wait, did you just install Sequoia?

If you just installed macOS Sequoia in the last few days, give your Mac time to complete the process of indexing your data. The easiest way to enable this is to keep your Mac 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 carry out the necessary maintenance. .

This is especially 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 that the background indexing tasks for Spotlight and other system maintenance tasks aren’t even finished yet. Give it time, be patient.

2: Install all available MacOS updates

The first thing to do is to install all available MacOS system software updates. This is a simple and standard practice for any troubleshooting, so head to the Apple menu > System Settings > General > Software Update and install any available system software updates.

System software updates for MacOS often include bug fixes that could resolve any search issues, but every time you install a software update on a Mac, maintenance tasks occur in the background and can also fix Spotlight issue.

After installing updates, leave the Mac on overnight for a day or a few, so that all background tasks can finish.

3: Rebuild Spotlight Index on MacOS Sequoia

After installing all available system software updates on the Mac and letting the Mac sit for a while to complete its indexing tasks, if you are still experiencing search issues and issues with Spotlight search, your next task involves manually rebuilding the Spotlight index.

1. Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities/ (you can also use Spotlight to open Terminal, if Spotlight works well enough to do so)
2. On the command line, enter the following command exactly, with precise characters and capital letters:

sudo mdutil -Eia off

3. Now that Spotlight Search has been disabled, it’s time to re-enable it, which will force the index to be rebuilt:

sudo mdutil -Eia on

4. Let the Spotlight index rebuild process complete, this may take several hours depending on how much data you have on the Mac, so just let it run in the background.
5. When Spotlight has finished rebuilding its index, now run the following command to confirm that indexing is enabled on the volumes your data is on and you want to search:

mdutil -as

6. Make sure your primary drive (/) displays “Indexing Enabled” and that any other volumes you want to search or index also display “Indexing Enabled.”

For detailed information on the mdutil flags used here:

-i is used to enable and disable indexing

-E is used to clear and rebuild the index

-a is used to apply the command to all volumes

This process, which you may have assumed, simply involves turning Spotlight off and on again (a simple and incredibly effective troubleshooting technique for virtually all electronic devices, computers, and software in general). This will force the Spotlight index to rebuild, and when that’s complete, you should be able to search and find your files, applications, and data again.

We’ve covered tips to fix Spotlight running over 17 years ago (!) which involve turning Spotlight on and off to rebuild the index, and, funnily enough, it still works. This particular command string is slightly different from the standard -E flag and comes from Apple Support via Apple Discussionswhere a good number of users encountered issues with Spotlight after updating their Mac to Sequoia.

Spotlight has gone through many changes over the years and remains a fantastic search engine for local data and file content. Some of the troubleshooting tips for fixing a misbehaving Spotlight are basically the same. like they always were for MacOS even on much older versionsso long-time Mac users may find the process of rebuilding indexes familiar, although the old trick for using the GUI forcing a rebuild of the search index often seems less effective.

Have you experienced any issues with Spotlight after updating to macOS Sequoia or another recent Mac software update? Did the index rebuild trick work for you? Let us know your experiences in the comments.

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