Spotlight not finding something obvious (?)

Hello, all...


Earlier today I went to look for an item that was in a folder (on my iMac) which name, I knew included "heath". (The full name is "Health Insurance ID".)


So I opened Spotlight (⌘-space) entered "health", and got only this:


I don't see any folders at all. Clicking "Search iCloud Drive" (which is where it is) came up empty. Finder's "Find" command found it (what a strange sentence). Everything in "Spotlight Search Categories" is enabled, except Clipboard search.


What am I missing? Is there a switch I need to flip somewhere? Is this an OS 26 thing? I seem to recall Spotlight used to find folders readily.


Tnx,


Jeff 🤔😉😊


iMac 24″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 28, 2025 2:20 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 28, 2025 2:38 PM

I think you're suffering from the (d)evolution of Spotlight.


When it first came out, Spotlight was limited to - and great at - finding files and folders on disk - better than the Finder, despite its name.


Over time Spotlight have morphed into an uber-search, capable of finding things in the App Store, on the web, under the couch, or that unicorn in the forest. What it's not so good at is finding files.


Part of that is spotlight itself. Part of that is added security protocols that limit what spotlight can and cannot see (especially in a multi-user environment). Part of that is the sheer volume of searchable content (especially once you incorporate the web), and part of it is that the Finder is actually better at finding things than it was, so maybe Spotlight doesn't need to (or at least doesn't need to try so hard).


There are a few options, though.


First off, consider using the Finder to find files. It's seriously not as bad as it was.


Secondly, if you do prefer Spotlight, when Spotlight finishes its search, there should be categories listed below the search field, and above the response. You can use this to filter the results to specific types, and one of those types should be 'Folder':


Third is that you can provide hints to Spotlight. Instead of searching for 'Health', type 'folder Health' and compare the results - folders matching the search term should be listed at the top.



4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 28, 2025 2:38 PM in response to Jeff Mark

I think you're suffering from the (d)evolution of Spotlight.


When it first came out, Spotlight was limited to - and great at - finding files and folders on disk - better than the Finder, despite its name.


Over time Spotlight have morphed into an uber-search, capable of finding things in the App Store, on the web, under the couch, or that unicorn in the forest. What it's not so good at is finding files.


Part of that is spotlight itself. Part of that is added security protocols that limit what spotlight can and cannot see (especially in a multi-user environment). Part of that is the sheer volume of searchable content (especially once you incorporate the web), and part of it is that the Finder is actually better at finding things than it was, so maybe Spotlight doesn't need to (or at least doesn't need to try so hard).


There are a few options, though.


First off, consider using the Finder to find files. It's seriously not as bad as it was.


Secondly, if you do prefer Spotlight, when Spotlight finishes its search, there should be categories listed below the search field, and above the response. You can use this to filter the results to specific types, and one of those types should be 'Folder':


Third is that you can provide hints to Spotlight. Instead of searching for 'Health', type 'folder Health' and compare the results - folders matching the search term should be listed at the top.



Oct 28, 2025 4:49 PM in response to Camelot

Yeah, thanks for this, Cam, these are all good suggestions. I normally used Finder Find (I mean, it's called "Finder" right?) in the past, but with all the hype around the new, improved, Spotlight, I gave it a try. So much for that.


I do note that I didn't see the selection of categories that you showed. As you can see from my pictures, I only had three categories, none were "folders".


tnx again,


Jeff 🤔😉😊

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Spotlight not finding something obvious (?)

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