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Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 4:04 pm
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.

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:10 pm
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.

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 6:54 pm
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.

Re: Changes to Spotlight and how to reverse the change

Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:53 pm
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.


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