Spotlight search broken since update to MacOS Tahoe

Hey Luca,

I found your bug as this was happening to me as well and Logi Options + was the culprit in my case.

I debugged this and I just ran these in the terminal:

launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.logi.manager.daemon

launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.logi.optionsplus.updater

🧩 1️⃣ launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.logi.manager.daemon

Disables the Logitech Manager Daemon (background service that listens for devices, runs analytics, and injects input hooks).

→ Prevents Spotlight freeze by stopping those system-level hooks.

→ Your Logi Options+ app and custom button mappings still work normally.

🧩 2️⃣ launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.logi.optionsplus.updater

Disables the Logi Options+ auto-updater agent.

→ Stops background update checks and daemon restarts that can reintroduce the bug.

→ You can still check for updates manually inside the Logi Options+ app.

You must reboot your laptop.

Enjoy.

Turn OFF Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Inc. in System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > App Background Activity

I had the same problem with Spotlight not working. I tried rebuilding the index, turning off Apple Watch Unlock etc. but nothing worked. Eventually I found that Adobe Creative Cloud and/or Adobe Inc in App Background Activity were causing the problem. After I turned these OFF, and restarted my mac, Spotlight was working.

androidguy2004 wrote:

After I upgraded the software on my Mac to the latest version (Tahoe), Spotlight search works worse than before. The new features work as promised, however previous features, such as dictionary definitions, do not work at all. Instead of getting 5 somewhat relevant results, Spotlight now shows 20 code files of apps that I have on my computer, which are completely irrelevant to what I was looking for. Can I somehow reset Spotlight? I have seen other users complaining about this, so I am hoping that Apple will fix this in the following updates.

To be proactive you can file a bug report / submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

yes—Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

[Edited by Moderator]

There are some login items that are preventing spotlight from loading properly. In my case it was Logi Options, an outdated software that I had. I would suggest:

• Reboot into safe mode, check if spotlight works
• If it works normally, then try disabling outdated login items or other known problematic ones such as creative cloud.

I have deleted in Preferences all spotlight plists, and search was ok again.

I have the same issue. No weird login items (most things that garbage apps install disabled anyway), and rebuild doesn't help. In fact, mdfind on the command line works just fine while the Spotlight Cmd+Space dialog doesn't. So the search infrastructure is fine, but something in the GUI seems to be blocking the results.

Absolutely same experience here! I have been an Mac user for more than 30 years. Spotlight in Snow Leopard seemed to be the top of the hill. For every OS update it has just gotten worse and worse. I also don't seem to be able to disable the "search the internet" option, wich is completely useless, since I do have a webbrowser if I wanna do this and I don't know if this is actually a part of the problem (that the searches gets to ambigious?). I also have problem with the Audio since upgrading, it's unreliable. I can not recommend upgrading to Tahoe at the moment! I wish I had learned better from the past myself and wait until the bugseason was over..

Dude, you're a lifesaver

I finally managed to uninstall creative cloud and spotlight works perfectly again.

Dude, you're a lifesaver

I finally managed to uninstall creative cloud and spotlight works perfectly again.

Re-indexing does not fix the my issue with Spotlight. After a restart is works normally, but after some time, it only shows expected results if I'm searching for applications. If I try to search for files (locally stored on macbook), no results. Restart helps for some time, but then it breaks again. Frustrating to say the least.

I tried new function of invoking spotlight, then selecting Cmd+2 to look specifically for files. The file I want is displayed in spotlight window (under Recents), but when I start typing its name, spotlight says no files found...

I just want to find my contacts! I don't want to find some celebrity with the same name. I used to use Spotlight as my instant address book. Yeah, yeah, I've tried reindexing. I have the setting turned on for it to search Address Book. Nothing. All these other features do not matter to me one bit.

Im very disappointed with this new update. Since I work with macOS professionally and handle a lot of files, spotlight has become a blessing in finding items - and the more it is frustrating that it doesnt work reliably now.

I've since rolled back to Sequoia so I can't confirm if this would have solved it for me, but it's definitely interesting to hear as Creative Cloud user myself. Is there any detriment to having these Adobe extensions turned off? Any issues with Adobe apps or constant complaints to reinstall, etc?

I'm not ready to try Tahoe again for a few more versions at least, as I had another major issue where media playback just stops working after a few days (almost every video or audio format, local or streamed).

GOT IT TO WORK!

It seems on my end the spotlight was there but hidden on the top right. Just press cmd space a few times and see the little icon appear. you can try to click it and then drag it to the center.

Happy again!

You may confer follow this other question as it relates " as dictionary definitions "

Seems to be a localized issue and unique ?