MacOS Sonoma: Spotlight Issues - App Indexing

I can do 5+5 in spotlight and it gives an answer... but "CALC" doesn't find calculator...

Still not working after the 14.1 update. The terminal commands are really cumbersome. I suppose there's probably a way to automate, or maybe I could just use the local account only, but I'm being stubborn. I want to see a fix!

Upgraded to 14.1 and it worked

I was able to fix this same issue by running this terminal command sudo mdimport -r /Applications. You do not have to be in a specific directory. I had also run the previously mentioned terminal commands but those did not work in my case. It was until I specifically referenced the application directory that spotlight was able to reindex and find my application queries.

Update: FixedMy

In this order:

sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight*
sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo mdutil -E /

Reboot

I am not sure if any of the other steps I took below helped. I will probably remove the wheel group from my account as that is reserved for root.

MacBook Pro is managed by the university and they use Microsoft AD for login. After updating to Sonoma spotlight is fully broken. When I open it, it hangs for a few seconds before accepting input. Then another hang after 1 letter. I try to dismiss with ESC or click away and that hangs about 4 seconds too.

I see other comments mentioning MS AD and issues and user accounts that are tied to a network and not local.

I have tried to use UI UI to rebuild spotlight, and also the commands listed here in the thread: "sudo mdutil -E /" "sudo mdutil -i off " and "sudo mdutil -i on /"

I also have added my user to the wheel group upon seeing that listed on .Spotlight-V100 directory, and seeing a comment here.

I also removed the plist file Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist but not com.apple.IMCoreSpotlight.plist

No fix so far. Waiting to see if it rebuilds or something. I am using the system about 24hours after the update to Sonoma.

I would note here a second issue, unrelated but fixed by updating OS. My iCloud Keychain was empty just before the Sonoma update. That has to do with the default login keychain having a different password than my network MS AD managed password. The setting to update the password is disabled, I assume by our IT dept. Good news is that after updating to Sonoma and rebooting the system caught the mismatch and offered to allow me to update the login keychain password or delete it; I updated the password and now iCloud Keychain works as before.

For some inexplicable reason, Spotlight has been working for me over the past few days. I'd been doing the whole su/mdutil series until then.

Yep. Same here. I even reinstalled MacOS from ground. One week later, the same issues... After rebuilding the spotlight index it seems to works for some time... but sometimes only minutes. At first it doesnt find files in Dropbox, then no programs, then after a while even Finder doesnt find files I can see in front of me and that are in the same folder I´m searching. I tried...

• this:

sudo mdutil -E /

• this:

sudo mdutil -ai on mdutil -Ea

• this:

sudo fs_usage -f filesys mds mdworker mdworker32 | grep open

• and this (deleting the index first):

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

cd /

sudo rm -rf .Spotlight-V100

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

On my MBP 16" (2023) Spotlight would only return results for my OneDrive folder and for Apple's core apps (Safari, Pages, etc.). It would NOT return results from files or non-Apple apps (Illustrator, Word, etc). In other forums, users have speculated that OneDrive could be at fault.

One other potentially important wrinkle for my computer - it was set up using Migration Assistant, transferring files, apps, and settings from another MBP 16" (~2020).

I tried all the tricks to fix Spotlight: adding/removing the drive from Settings > Siri & Spotlight indexing, and using Terminal to turn Spotlight off/on while clearing the index. Nothing worked, even after multiple tries, booting into safe mode, etc.

What ultimately worked was using root to erase/recreate the Spotlight index:

(1) turn on "root" access, which is not activated by default (2) Log out, then back in as root. (3) Use Terminal to turn spotlight off. [ sudo mdutil -i off / ] (4) Use Terminal to delete the .Spotlight-V100 file in System/Volumes/Data. This is a hidden file. (3) Run mdtutil commands to clear cache to be doubly sure [ sudo mdutil -E / ], then turn Spotlight back on [ sudo mdutil -i on / ]

After I completed these steps, I could see immediately that Spotlight was reindexing. I let it run overnight. In the morning, still as root, I confirmed that Spotlight was working. I then logged out/back into my regular account and voila - fixed.

I have not deactivated root yet to test whether logging out of Root will make the problem return. I can't imagine it would, but ... I'm going to enjoy Spotlight again for a few days before I try turnning root off.

Hoping this helps others!! What a mess.

I have the same issue. I tried sudo mdutil -E / sudo mdutil -i off and sudo mdutil -i on / and, but it is still not working.

I have also noticed that spotlight crashes after typing two characters.

Strangely, typing just one character does not cause spotlight to crash.

This definitely looks like a Sonoma bug. It only started happening recently to me and i'm currently on Sonoma 14.1.

In any case, I was able to quickly fix this issue by following the steps here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321

In short, you have to exclude your home folder and then remove it from the exclusion so that it is re-indexed:

This seems to have resolved for me after upgrading to 14.1.1. Anyone else?

... since upgrading to Sonoma, Spotlight search results (images) are no longer drag-able. hope this gets resolved. thank you

Apple did a really bad ****** of testing the upgrade to Sonoma.

I struggled with this issue for weeks and tried every workaround offered in these forms and elsewhere ( Reddit ) . Nothing worked.

Computer : MacBookPro with an Apple M1 Pro Chip runing Sonoma 14.1.1 Symptoms on my computer :

1. Spotlight totally stopped working
2. Mail search totally busted - Mail always shows status as Indexing

What all i tried unsuccessfully

1. erase and rebuild of Spotlight Index
2. Rebuild Mail Database
3. all the mdUtil Workarounds from Terminal (mdutil -ai off / on etc )
4. login / logoff from icloud

What i discovered

1. The problem is that after the Sonoma installation the secure token got corrupted and i saw "authentication disabled" errors on trying to do admin actions.

What finally fixed the issue Did the following operation from a local admin account

1. sysadminctl -secureTokenOff
2. sysadminctl -secureTokenOn

logged back into my account . Everythign works !

Thank you Apple for killing my productivity and shame on you for not testing this workflow properly , to add ti this so many months after release you dont even have a fix !

I have the same problem with Spotlight, but only with mobile users, Spotlight works perfectly for local users.

If a local user is logged on to my MacBook in the background, Spotlight also works immediately for a mobile user.

Even if I am logged in as a mobile user and log in to the terminal with su- <user> with a local user, Spotlight works immediately.

It seems that something is not activated in MacOS when you are logged in as a mobile user. Maybe someone can do something with this information and find a solution to the problem.