You can use Finder to search for things on your Mac. You can find apps, files, documents, folders and folder contents. To do this, you will need to use the search box in a Finder window. However, many people don’t know that the Finder search is very advanced and does more than provide you with a simple search box. You can narrow your search results based on search criteria like size or type.
A common issue that a number of Mac users are experiencing is that the Finder search is not showing any results, or some of the items, like folders, are not showing up in the results. In this article, I explain what you can do to fix the problem if your Mac Finder Search doesn’t work. In this article, I will describe how you can reset by erasing the search database using the Terminal.
The first thing I recommend that you do when your Mac Finder Search is not working is to reindex the Spotlight database. This may fix the Finder Search problem. There are a few ways to do this. Open System Settings on your Mac, navigate to Siri & Spotlight, then click Spotlight Privacy. Click the button and add your startup disk (typically "Macintosh HD"). Click Done, then immediately return to Spotlight Privacy. Select the disk you just added and click the – button to remove it. Click Done. Spotlight will begin reindexing your Mac automatically.
If Spotlight reindexing does not fix the issue, then read on and follow these troubleshooting steps.
Step 1: Erase Spotlight’s Index Database
LaunchTerminal. The Terminal app is located in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. Then copy the command below, paste it into the Terminal and hit Enter.
cd /System/Volumes/Data
rm -R .Spotlight-V100
Note: If you get a permission denied error in Terminal, ensure that the Terminal app has full disk access. You can grant this access by following these steps:
- launchSystem Settings on your Mac.
- From the left sidebar, click Privacy & Security.
- Click Full Disk Access.
- Then turn on Terminal.
Step 2: Restart your Mac
The next step is to restart your Mac. When your Mac has restarted, ensure that you are logged in as an admin.
Step 3: Rebuild the database
Now, we will rebuild the search database using Terminal again. Open Terminal, enter the following code and hit Enter.
sudo mdutil -E /
You will need to enter your admin password to execute this command. Now, your hard disk will start being indexed. After the indexing is done, try to do a Finder search to see if it is working properly or not.
See also: How To Use And Access Your Mac’s Utilities Folder
