Spotlight and Alfred can't find my file, how do I fix that?

Question

I have a MacBook Pro with 10.7.4, my Spotlight isn't working and I downloaded Alfred, and it still doesn't work? I have tried reindexing Spotlight but it still doesn't work? I think there is a file for spotlight that have been deleted but I might be wrong, can someone help?

Answer 1

Use a tool like Cocktail or Onyx to rebuild your Launch Services DB. Make sure to run Disk Utility first to ensure there's not any other kind of damage on your hard drive.

Answer 2

I understand how inconvenient it is when you can't use Spotlight.

Alfred uses the result (MacOS metadata index) from Spotlight to find files ^1 . This is why they stopped working at the same time.

I would recommend you to do the following:

• Go to Alfred Preferences -> Advanced (tab) and Click " Rebuild macOS Metadata " .

• Terminal window will be opened and you will need to type in your password. In your case, check the box saying 'Delete /.Spotlight-V100'. Return as the instruction says.

• This may take up to few hours, and it will definitely solve the issue if the system is working fine. You can do this manually in Terminal as well.

If this doesn't work, try to re-check the items in System Preferences -> Spotlight; or Update your system in Software Update.

Best Wishes.