Is your Spotlight utility acting wacky lately?
It happens a lot, don’t feel too bad. If your Mac is in otherwise good working order, it’s likely that Spotlight’s Index file has broken. You can force Spotlight to re-index your computer’s hard drive in a few short steps.
Here’s how to fix Spotlight:
First, click on the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, and then launch System Preferences.
Next, from the System Preferences window, click on Spotlight.
This next part might seem a little counter-intuitive, but it’s okay, stick with me.
Select the Privacy tab from the Spotlight window.
Normally, this privacy section contains folders that you don’t want Spotlight to look through. (Click HERE to access an article which describes why you would want to use this function to speed up your Mac.)
For now, click on the + button at the bottom left, and then select your computer’s hard drive from the resulting sidebar, and click Choose.
You’ll notice that your computer’s hard drive now appears in this Privacy list. Right now, Spotlight is no longer going to access your Hard Drive. In essence, you have just broken Spotlight, but that’s okay, because now, you’re going to highlight your Hard Drive, and then click on the remove button (-) at the bottom left to remove your Hard Drive from Spotlight’s Privacy list.
Spotlight is now going to RE-Index your Hard Drive, and will delete its old index file.
This could take several minutes. Once this is done, restart your computer. Spotlight should be good as new right away.
You can also try this trick with any external hard drives you’re using to increase Spotlight’s search power.
Thanks for reading!
~ Chris
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