This can now test and search any regular volume that’s connected to your Mac and mounted in /Volumes, using either NSMetadataQuery in the API, or mdfind instead.
search
New app tests Spotlight indexing and search of local files across 15 test files and two search methods. This should provide valuable clues for diagnosis.
Looks at how Spotlight adds a batch of new files to its volume indexes, and how it handles and answers queries.
A meta-search for Apple’s patents on search, and turning the incessant log chatter of RunningBoard to our advantage in following uninstrumented apps.
Supported by some of the many patents awarded to Apple’s engineers, a year-by-year account of the development of Spotlight from 1994 to 2019.
How a long-deprecated extended attribute can stop files such as images from being found in Spotlight search, and how to fix it.
The most popular interface to Spotlight, through the menu bar, dates back 27 years to Sherlock, when mixing web and local search seemed a good idea. A great deal has changed since, but not Spotlight.
From AppleSearch and Find File in 1994, demand for search has grown with rising storage capacity. Sherlock was released in 1998, then replaced by Spotlight in 2005. Twenty years later it’s still going strong.
Entering search queries directly into a Spotlight search box, using the raw query attribute in the Find window’s search bar, and using mdfind. Which is best?
How to create and use a Saved Search or Smart Folder, which isn’t a folder at all, how you can change its search, and how it works.
The Eclectic Light Company 