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mdutil

Can you disable Spotlight and Siri in macOS Tahoe?

If you don’t want any of their services, you can turn Siri off in its settings, and disable indexing and search in Spotlight settings. Or you can use mdutil, if you know its limitations.

January 16, 2026 Macs, Technology

How to search successfully in Spotlight: GUI tools

Using the Spotlight window and Finder’s Find window to locate local files that match your search criteria. Word boundaries and their effect on search results.

June 2, 2025 Macs, Technology

How to tell if Spotlight has indexed a file correctly

You use Spotlight to search for something you’re sure is there, but it can’t find it. Here are some methods to discover why that search failed.

November 22, 2024 Macs, Technology

When and how to rebuild Spotlight indexes

Why Spotlight can now take a long time building and updating its volume indexes. Understand when forcing them to be rebuilt is a good idea, and when it isn’t.

November 19, 2024 Macs, Technology

Spotlight on search: How Spotlight works

Almost 16 years old, many think it has grown steadily worse. It has faced new challenges such as iCloud, privacy, and APFS backups. Here’s how it works, and how to get the most from it.

January 28, 2021 Macs, Technology

File types, the UTI, and even more metadata

The Desktop and Finder illusions are held together by Launch Services, which associates file types with apps. This and more now hinge on the UTI.

January 24, 2018 Macs, Technology, xattr
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