Finder search not including multiple locations
<p>The Spotlight searching and indexing feature of OS X makes finding files much easier and faster than using filesystem search routines; however, it is limited to having an accessible index for each attached drive. As such, sometimes drives will not be i
The Spotlight searching and indexing feature of OS X makes finding files much easier and faster than using filesystem search routines; however, it is limited to having an accessible index for each attached drive. As such, sometimes drives will not be included in file searches.
One Apple discussion poster recently wrote:
"I have three Lacie external HDs connected via firewire with a lot of files. When I want to do a finder search it only searches the main HD and not the other HDs connected. Is there any way to make finder perform a search on all the HDs attached?"
There are several reasons why spotlight will not include a specific drive. If spotlight is not searching a drive that it should, you can try a few things to ensure it is set up and functioning properly.
Basic setup
The first thing is to check your spotlight settings, to see if the external drive has been added to the "Privacy" list. If so, remove the drive and allow spotlight to reindex the drive.
Additionally, be sure that in your Finder search window you select the "This Mac" button to include all local volumes in the search. Alternatively, to test one volume, open it and start the search from the open Finder window either by entering a query in the search bar or by pressing command-F. In the search window, instead of clicking "This Mac," click the button next to it, which should be the name of the opened volume being searched.
Forcing drive reindexing
If the Spotlight index has become corrupted, you can force it to be rebuilt. To do this, just add the drive to the "Privacy" list and remove it again. Additionally, you can run the following series of commands in the Terminal to remove and rebuild the spotlight index:
In this command, "DRIVENAME" is the name of the problematic drive. If the drive name has a space in it, put quotes around "DRIVENAME", or place a backslash before the space as follows:
If you are intimidated by the terminal, you can use a program called Spotless, which will do the same thing. There are two versions of Spotless: one for Leopard users and another for Tiger users.
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