MacOS Sonoma: Spotlight Issues - App Indexing

After updating to Sonoma, I couldn't find apps in Spotlight. I tried to trigger re-indexing through the System Settings UI and the terminal commands that have been shared. Neither resolved the issue for me. However, when I deleted the spotlight plist files in Library → Preferences, my searches for apps started working again.

Same issue as many folks here. Spotlight not working at all. Neither if I click on search icon from top menu bar. Has Apple acknowledged this? Any fix coming? Many of the things in this thread feel like bit of a hack. And the solutions people list are quite varied.

I have the same problem since updating to Sonoma. It must be an Active Directory issue, as I do not see this issue on my private computer with only one local account (apps and extensions installed are the same). There is a workaround I found that might work for others though...

When I unplug the network cable prior to booting up, spotlight, mail and settings work once the computer is running. Then plugging in the network cable does not cause the problem to reoccur until another reboot, at which point I have to unplug the network cable again.

Completely ridiculous, but at least there is a sort of workable workaround...

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?