Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Macintosh software/hardware discussion and troubleshooting

Moderator: James Steele

Post Reply
User avatar
bayswater
Posts: 12499
Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:06 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Vancouver

Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Post by bayswater »

I never found Spotlight of much use compared to the older simple Find command. Aside from being ineffective, it misses hits. I can copy and paste a file name from the Desktop, which is in the search list, and it sometimes comes back without finding this file while CMD-F will find it.

Now it seems Apple has decided to make it even less useful by removing the option to sort the order of the search results by dragging the types of object searched in to the desired order. This happened in HS and probably in Sierra too.

Now, I get "Top Hits" first. It has a list of stuff of no interest whatsoever. Next comes Safari History, then "Developer" files, and so on.

Someone has provided instructions on how to edit the .plist file to set a new order.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/4 ... h=11338a82

Meanwhile, I've been using EasyFind from the App Store. It can find everything everywhere, including file and packages contents and invisible files and is free.
2018 Mini i7 32G macOS 12.7.6, DP 11.33, Mixbus 10, Logic 10.7.9, Scarlett 18i8, MB Air M2, macOS 14.7.6, DP 11.33, Logic 11
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 16228
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Post by mikehalloran »

Interesting. I’ll check it out. I’ve never found Spotlight to be of much use, unlike the Find command that locates anything and everything.

I’ll check out EasyFind, though.
DP 11.34; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sequoia 15.4, USB4 8TB externals, Neumann MT48, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3, Zoom F3 & UAC 232 32bit float recorder & interface; 2012 MBPs (x2) Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 NE Pro, Toast 20 Pro
User avatar
cuttime
Posts: 4509
Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Post by cuttime »

Thanks, I'll check it out. I'm interested in seeing how it compares to my old standby:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-an ... mt=12&ls=1

Editing the Spotlight .plist? No thanks. About the only thing I use Spotlight for is an application launcher.
828x MacOS 15.5 M1 Studio Max 1TB 64G DP11.34
frankf
Posts: 1133
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Post by frankf »

I like easy find. Also Launch Bar which is deep but it's great for opening apps/files with 2 key combinations like sf for Safari, DP for Digital Performer, individual system preferences. And finding files. It has its own index which you can customize.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Frank Ferrucci
http://www.ferruccimusic.com
Mac Pro 6,1 64gb RAM DP9.52 OSX 10.12.6 MIO 2882d & ULN2d Firewire Audio Interfaces, MOTU MTP-AV USB
Post Reply