problems with spotlight index

[Larry]

I just did a crazy thing (which I thought was sane - silly me):

I tried to get spotlight to index everything - it did not work.
 

I added two folders briefcase and business to the privacy window in spotlight and then took them out.

Still did not index them.....

I then put my files from my briefcase into all documents, and got an error about the microsoft index and ignored it - hence all my word files disappeared.  

Now apart from getting totally frustrated, the files in my briefcase are no longer visible and do not appear in all files. So where are they?

It is really frustrating that I still can't find things.

Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50), 17-inch Core 2 Duo, Processor  2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory  3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

[Xairbusdriver]

Are you using Time Machine? Any other back up method?

Have you tried searching with Finder? Not via Spotlight, click on your Desktop and make sure Finder is active. Now press command and f to get a Finder search window. Do NOT use the Spotlight entry box.

[Larry]

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ May 20 2012, 05:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you using Time Machine? Any other back up method?

Have you tried searching with Finder? Not via Spotlight, click on your Desktop and make sure Finder is active. Now press command and f to get a Finder search window. Do NOT use the Spotlight entry box.

I have just downloaded Easy Find which is now helping me, but why won't spotlight work?

[Xairbusdriver]

Don't know, I never use it. For exactly these kinds of problems. Spotlight is too sensitive to moving/renaming/deleting stuff. I never found it reliable or useful. Easy find is basically a different UI to Spotlight but it may be helpful. I normally use PathFinder which can even replace Finder if you wanted to. But even Finder can find things with its old Find command/window better than Spotrlight since you can specify different types of files/names/dates/sizes/etc.

If you are using Time Machine, the easiest thing to do is restore those folders from there. Just go back to a time when you know they were there, click on the folder and click the "Restore" button on the right-hand end of the bar at the bottom of the TM screen. That's it. And, if the old folder is still there, you'll get a question asking if you want to replace or keep both copies.

[jchuzi]

You might have a corrupted preference file, namely com.apple.spotlight.plist located in ~/Library/Preferences. In Lion, of course, you can't get there unless you Option-click the Go menu (in Finder). At least, that's how I understand it works.  Then, move that plist to the desktop and log out/in. You'll have to reset your Spotlight preferences but that may cure it. If it works, trash the plist. If not, put it back and then log out/in again.

[Xairbusdriver]

Jon, once you "Go to" your Lion user Library, just drag it onto a Finder sidebar and it will be available without the "hoop-jumping." I suppose you could put it on the Dock, if you use that.

[jchuzi]

I knew that! Just testing (you passed).  

If (or when} I ever upgrade to Lion, I'll use that tidbit. Snow Leopard doesn't make me jump through that hoop.

[Xairbusdriver]

I just hope you don't have to "upgrade" the way I did when my old iMac suffered severe USB failure! OTOH, since my younger son paid for more machine than I would have bought, I can't exactly complain!! OTTH (the third hand!), I don't usually have any trouble finding something to complain about...

[jchuzi]

Are you complaining because you don't have any complaints?  

Here's a corollary of Murphy's Law: If nothing goes wrong, something is wrong.

[Xairbusdriver]

Larry, I'm not sure which folders are even still on your computer. If the two you mentioned have been deleted, just recreate them where ever the were originally and select one of them. Then open Time Machine. It should then automatically show you any folders that it has saved, at least the hour before this episode started. You can always move around in the TM Finder windows manually but if you select the file/folder before entering TM it is just a fraction of a micro-second faster!