Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac
If you get unexpected results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help.
Before rebuilding the Spotlight index
Follow the steps for when Spotlight returns unexpected results.
If the issue affects only Mail, learn what to do if you can't find email messages in Mail.
Rebuild the Spotlight index
To rebuild the Spotlight index for a disk or folder, turn Spotlight indexing off and back on for that item, based on the version of macOS that you're using:
macOS Ventura 13 or later
From the Apple menu , choose System Settings.
In the sidebar, click Spotlight (or Siri & Spotlight).
Scroll down on the right and click the Search Privacy (or Spotlight Privacy) button at the bottom of the window.
Drag the disk (such as Macintosh HD) or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching, or click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add. Click OK if asked to confirm.
If you get an "unknown" error or error related to permissions, your macOS user account might not have ownership permissions for certain items in the disk or folder that you’re attempting to reindex. Learn how to change permissions for files, folders, or disks.
Wait a few seconds. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added, then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list so that it can be reindexed.
Click Done, then quit System Settings.
Spotlight will now reindex the contents of the disk or folder. This can take some time, depending on the amount of information being indexed. During indexing, you might see an indexing progress indicator at the top of the Spotlight window.
Earlier versions of macOS
From the Apple menu , choose System Preferences.
Click Spotlight, then click the Privacy tab.
Drag the disk or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. Or click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add.
If you get an "unknown" error or error related to permissions, your macOS user account might not have ownership permissions for certain items in the disk or folder that you’re attempting to reindex. Learn how to change permissions for files, folders, or disks.
Wait a few seconds. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added, then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list so that it can be reindexed.
Quit System Preferences.
Spotlight will now reindex the contents of the disk or folder. This can take some time, depending on the amount of information being indexed. During indexing, you might see an indexing progress indicator at the top of the Spotlight window.
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