The spotlight tag has no wiki summary.
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2answers
40 views
locate similarly named files
I'm running OS X 10.7.3. I would like to locate all the files that have common strings in their filenames.
I have a folder that contains several files whose filenames are the same except for the ...
1
vote
1answer
61 views
Different Spotlight kMDItemKind metadata values for same file on different drives
I have run into an issue where I find the same video file to have different values for the kMDItemkind Spotlight metadata depending on the drive it resides on (same machine, of course), which makes ...
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2answers
66 views
Spotlight refuses to be enabled on Lion
Working with a fresh install of Lion, including wiping the hardrive, Spotlight refuses to be enabled. I've tried:
Unloading and loading the MDS service
sudo mdutil -a -i on
sudo mdutil -i on /
sudo ...
2
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0answers
67 views
changing spotlight default to search file names, not contents
Does anyone know if it's possible to change the Spotlight default search behavior to search file names, not contents? Right now, bringing up the Spotlight field and typing "terrible" brings up a bunch ...
1
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1answer
40 views
OS X mdls command gives “null” in output
I have bash script that utilizes the Mac based mdls command in a shell script to generate a metadata report for media files. When the script works the output looks like this:
1) [./test1.mov]
- ...
1
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1answer
53 views
Why does Spotlight not return the correct result?
I dont know if the search features on most operating system is bogus or I am getting it wrong.
I am looking for a particular file where css property is set like
left:-59px;
I perform search on ...
2
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0answers
68 views
Spotlight calculator doesn't work (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
In the last few days the spotlight's calculator doesn't work. It will search and return results, but not the numerical one.
I found only several references to this type of problem, all dealing with ...
1
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0answers
42 views
How to search for all labeled files, except those in some folders?
I want to add a saved search to my sidebar that contains all labeled files on my Mac, except files that are in certain folders. Files that are in subfolders of the excluded folders shouldn’t be ...
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0answers
701 views
MDS errors: “DiskStore: No block in wakeup” and “Ignored bogus fetch for MDSQueryWithBlockTask”
I've been getting tons of these entries in my system log. I can't find any indication of what they mean.
I assume it's a problem with spotlight somewhere, and I've rebuilt the spotlight indexes, but ...
0
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1answer
34 views
Drag from spotlight
Is there any way that I could implement the functionality of being able to drag files and folders from spotlight to a finder window?
0
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0answers
60 views
reinstall stock applications on OS X Lion
I uninstalled the calculator app that comes with Lion using Appcleaner, now my Spotlight can't do math anymore.
I am using Alfred for now, however I still prefer Spotlight since it just gets the job ...
1
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1answer
53 views
Disable Spotlight to search certain type of files (e.g. based on file extension)?
I have searched for this one.. without luck.
Especially, I would like Spotlight not to index target/ folders.
Thanks for any hint.
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0answers
110 views
OSX Spotlight not removing web searches
I've unchecked everything but I still can't seem to remove the websearches. Is there a way to turn that off? I've tried adding volume to privacy and removing it to rebuild the index, no go.
Also ...
2
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1answer
100 views
How to Prevent Spotlight from Indexing Non-Apps in /Applications Directory?
The only thing I need indexed in the /Applications folder are the .app files.
Is there any way to setup a filter to have mds or Spotlight ignore everything in /Applications except .apps?
Otherwise, ...
2
votes
1answer
50 views
How to launch second process of a program from Spotlight on Snow leopard
I usually launch programs from Spotlight, and there is one program that I want to launch second process. The program in particular is Mathematica. The second process of Mathematica allows me to keep ...
0
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1answer
93 views
Exclude pyc files from spotlight results (Mac OS X)
How should I go about disabling specific files with extensions .pyc from showing up in my quick spotlight search results?
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0answers
60 views
Spotlight and all contents on desktop disappeared in OS X
My Spotlight disappeared and I can't find it or get it back. Where is it and how should I make it come back? And when I do, all my folders disapeared from my desktop along with my hard drive. Does ...
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1answer
185 views
How to show hidden files in Spotlight search results
If I use the search option in the top right corner of the Finder, hidden files do not show up in the search results. Is there any way to change this?
1
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1answer
137 views
Can Spotlight be configured to index /System/Library/CoreServices?
With Quicksilver (and other launchers of that type) you can configure it to index applications from places other than /Applications. I often like to launch things from /System/Library/CoreServices ...
1
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2answers
190 views
How to enable the Spotlight shortcut in OS X while allowing japanese characters input?
According to this page : http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/cdb_sptfky.html
the keyboard shortcut to open the Spotlight menu in OS X is CMD-Space Bar.
However, I am using a ...
4
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1answer
2k views
Disable Spotlight search in Time Machine backup
I'm running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and am trying to disable Spotlight indexing on my Time Machine hard drive, as the mds and mdworker processes are running wildly through all day at 15-60% of CPU...
What ...
0
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2answers
492 views
Recreate Mail.app Search Index?
It seems that the search index for my Mail.app has been corrupted. I have 4 years of emails, but when searching via the built-in search in Mail.app it always returns no results. Anyone have any idea ...
1
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2answers
112 views
How do I go straight to the dictionary result for a Spotlight search in OS X?
So when I search in Spotlight, is there a keyboard shortcut to go straight to the Dictionary result?
2
votes
1answer
250 views
Why is Spotlight indexing documents although I disabled documents indexing?
I asked Spotlight not to index Documents, but I keep getting full lists of programming files, like *.c *.h and all kinds of developer files
And its not just in one folder, its all over the place, so ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How to stop Spotlight indexing a networked Time Machine backup?
My Time Machine backs up to a hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme. After I've upgraded to Lion I have noticed that the mds process (the Spotlight indexer) has been running at 100% cpu every now ...
0
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2answers
77 views
How can I drag and drop from Spotlight search results on Mac OS X?
I'd like to hit Cmd-Space, type my query, and then from the list, drag a file to my Desktop or my browser or whatever. The best I have is that with the file highlighted, I can hit Cmd-I and then drag ...
0
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1answer
64 views
Search through all files when searching in Finder [closed]
Possible Duplicate:
Spotlight and the locate command don't search all folders
Is there a way to search through all files from Finder? Currently it only searches "safe" files but I would ...
0
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1answer
289 views
OSX - some weblocs open in firefox, some don't - WTF?
I've changed the default app for opening webloc files to firefox (using RCDefaultApp, nice piece of kit, that) and that's all fine, except for one bit of weirdness. If I create a webloc using a script ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
Spotlight search Application name conflict
The use case where I see this the most is when I want to open the "Spaces" app from Spotlight. I would love to minimize the keys it takes to do this, but because other application exist with similar ...
4
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2answers
203 views
How can I do full text searches on files and have a preview?
On Windows XP I used Google Desktop Search which provided full text searches on files and emails with a preview of results, like a Google search. It indexed files when needed.
I'm looking for ...
0
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1answer
273 views
Spotlight Query Exclude Specific Folder(s)
I want to exclude specific folders from a spotlight query. I do NOT want to exclude them from indexing in general -- I just want to exclude them from my current query. I know how to add exclusion ...
3
votes
2answers
521 views
Initiate a chat in Adium with Spotlight
On Linux I can use gnome-do to quickly initiate a chat in Pidgin with my friends by just typing their IM's usernames in gnome-do's search box then press Enter.
Can Spotlight do the same ? I'm open to ...
0
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2answers
183 views
Cannot figure out how to search for a file on mac os 10.6
I have mac os 10.6. I want to search for a specific file on my machine. I am looking at it in finder, so I know it exists (foo.txt).
I type "foo.txt" into Spotlight, no results.
I type "foo.txt" ...
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2answers
248 views
How do I do advanced searches in Mac OS X?
I don't get it. I just want to do simple searches that work. When I type part of a filename, I want to see all the files that have that part of the filename. I know how to do this in terminal, but it ...
7
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3answers
9k views
How can i quit frozen spotlight without rebooting my computer?
I opened up spotlight, typed '12*' to do some multiplication and it's been frozen for the last 20 minutes. I am looking for how to restart the program/service/whatever it technically is, but it's not ...
3
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2answers
1k views
Spotlight Infinite Indexing issue (external data drive)
This is an external drive, formerly a boot drive which is now in use only to access music files (sibelius, audio, midi, live, logic etc.) without transferring the data into a new boot system, partly ...
0
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3answers
325 views
How to Launch Spotlight from the Terminal
I used this tip top hide my menu bar in a bunch of applications, which is a great way to get more free screen space. The one downside is that (for inexplicable reasons) it disables Spotlight when I'm ...
1
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1answer
933 views
Embedded Spotlight does not function in Outlook 2011
I have a rather strange problem. I manage a network of about 35 Mac, and we all recently switched from Mail.app to Outlook 2011 (Please don't debate this, I've already had this conversation ad ...
2
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1answer
138 views
How to show in finder from Spotlight?
Often I use Spotlight to find some file, but then I'd like to see where that file is. My natural reaction is to right-click and select "show in Finder", but alas no such thing seems to be possible. Is ...
4
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2answers
147 views
How can I open a new Finder window from Spotlight?
Can I open a Finder window from Spotlight? How so?
1
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2answers
709 views
Spotlight in Snow Leopard was instantaneous but has gotten slow, I've tried reindexing
When I first started using Snow Leopard, I used spotlight to launch programs. I would type cmd-space and the first few letters of the program (chr to launch Google Chrome, for example).
This worked ...
0
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2answers
314 views
Reenabling the Spotlight Menubar item in Mac OS X 10.6
I believe I followed the instructions here to disable Spotlight indexing and remove the menubar item.
I reenabled indexing just fine, but when I changed the permissions back to 744, the spotlight ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
How to prevent spotlight from searching external hard drives
I have an external hard drive connected to my Macbook Pro that I always leave on. When I use spotlight to search for something, it always searches this drive. I don't want it to do this because ...
0
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2answers
188 views
How can I find all files that are not of a certain kind using Spotlight?
I can enter "Shockwave Flash Movie" in the the search field of a Finder window and find all files that are of Kind, "Shockwave Flash Movie" However, I really want a list of all files that are NOT ...
2
votes
2answers
267 views
Spotlight and the locate command don't search *all* folders
There are several places in Mac OS X, that don't get indexed by spotlight or the terminal locate command.
Is there a way to change that?
How can I search in places like /private?
1
vote
1answer
113 views
Spotlight searches in Mail.app's Smart folders
Is there a way to use the Spotlight syntax in Mail.app's Smart Folders? I'd like to make advanced boolean searches.
1
vote
1answer
528 views
OS X and Mail Spotlight: Ignoring certain IMAP mail folders
I have my Gmail set up in OS X Mail as IMAP so that my GMail archive is mapped to the trash folder. This has the nice benefit that deleting messages in Mail is the same as archiving them in Gmail.
...
2
votes
1answer
248 views
Configure which spotlight attributes to show in Finder preview?
Is it possible to configure which attributes to show for file in Finder column view?
For all files Name, Kind, Size, Created, Modified and Last opened are shown, but for apps there is also Version, ...
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0answers
437 views
How does Spotlight search regex/other special characters?
I'm trying to find snippets of code in a bunch of velocity files using Spotlight (specifically pages that contain a <html> tag. Spotlight's missing pages that contain that tag that I know are ...
2
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1answer
405 views
How to see what files spotlight is currently indexing
Spotlight has been driving me nuts, over working my poor Harddrive so that my whole computer goes to a crawl. (CPU usage is still pretty low, then again I do have a core i7).
I saw somewhere that ...
