MacOS Sonoma: Spotlight Issues - App Indexing

I'm having problems with spotlight too. In system preferences, the search field is not working, it doesn't filter as you type. I have the "Paste" app (clipboard manager) installed and since upgraded to Sonoma the search field doesn't work either. I'm testing other apps. Already re-index everything and still doesn't work.

I am having problems with Spotlight dependent applications including HoudahSpot and Hazel. Hazel is reporting errors related to not finding metadata for files, causing automated filing of files not to work. HoudahSpot searches fail. Rebooting corrects the problem briefly (hours) but then spotlight failures return.

Same issues with me. I'm also using Paste, Hazel and HoudaSpot. No issues with Hazel or Paste (yet) but HoudaSpot doesn't find anything. Even searching in one folder SpotLight doesn't seem to work. I've tried the following:

sudo mdutil -ai on mdutil -Ea

I tried a few other apps that are supposed to rebuild SpotLight which report back that they have finished in about 10 seconds.

Interested to see what the resolution here is.

The same here! I believe that is a bug....

Oh, I can't see the app indexing properly on Spotlight either. I reset it, but the application is not being searched properly. i think it's sonoma bug.

For me, after updating to Sonoma, Spotlight will not show Anything, except websites if you click the magnifying glass in the toolbar. If you spotlight search from the finder, it finds nothing at all. Sigh. Using a MacBook Pro 16 inch 2019. Tried rebuilding from Sys Pref and Terminal.

Yeah, same issue here. Rebuilding from terminal and sys pref does NOT work. Alfred also has indexing issues and cannot locate common applications or files, even those pinned directly to my dock.

Had the same issue. I am happy to mention this in the past tense. After multiple troubleshooting, I got it working. The problem I had was that the spotlight will not list anything except 'search in web'. The finder items, applications, suggestions, everything was missing. Apart from that Apple Mail was unusable since the Smart folders and search were not working. I tried, "sudo mdutil -E /" "sudo mdutil -i off " and "sudo mdutil -i on /" and still it was not working.

However, my account that I had this problem was a Mobile Admin account that is bound to my network. I never had this problem in previous upgrades for the whole decade.

Solution that worked for me: Tried the same mdutil commands displayed above, but I did it as another local super user who is also an admin. I'm logged in with the mobile admin account. In the terminal I did "su <<local admin>>". Then tried "sudo mdutil -E /" "sudo mdutil -i off " and "sudo mdutil -i on /"

That's it... after the above commands life was back to normal.

I have the same problem. This appears when I installed MacOS Sonoma version 14.0 (23A344). The Spotlight and Search function on finder are working when I turn the computer on but after a while they don't work anymore. The same behavior with Outlook for Mac. When I restart the computer the same happens again. I tried to reindex via System Settings and Terminal but it doesn't fix the problem. It's very annoying to have to restart mi MacBook Air M1 every time I need to search for something. I remember when Mac OS Ventura was launched the same happened. Finally after one of the updates the problem was fixed. It seems that Apple launches new OS without verifying if all the functions are working well. Hope anyone can help me with this problem.

Spotlight isn't working for me at all. Everytime I try hitting command space-bar nothing happens. I tried removing it from the menu bar using control centre, then re-adding it and nothing changes. When I click on the search icon in the menu bar, nothing happens either. I tried force quiting the SystemUIServer via activity monitor and this hasn't done anything either. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Same. My spotlight does not find applications or utilities. Highly annoying. How has this been overlooked? Any fixes so far? Thank you!

I'm also having this problem. Spotlight can find applications, but not files and folders. I can't search inside Apple apps incl. Notes, Reminders, and System Settings. Finder search works.

Also, when I search for apps, I sometimes get web results and the "Search in Finder" option as well. And sometimes, the icons are kind of epileptic flashing between the app icon and a grey box.

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...