Finder unable to find the files that I know exists in Downloads folder

Hi,

Rebuilding the Spotlight index usually fixes the issue where Finder or Spotlight cannot find files in your Downloads folder.

How to Rebuild the Spotlight Index

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Click on Siri & Spotlight (or just Spotlight).
3. Scroll down and click Spotlight Privacy (or Search Privacy).
4. Drag your Macintosh HD (or your Downloads folder) into the list, or click the + button to add it.
5. Wait about 30 seconds.
6. Select the drive or folder in the list and click the - button to remove it.
7. Leave your Mac plugged in and awake while macOS re-indexes the files from scratch.

I went the hard way, for basic tasks .... it does return the files I was looking for now, after running these steps :

1. In Terminal, completely wipe and restart the Spotlight index database by running:

2.Next, delete the local Spotlight metadata database folder:

3.Re-enable indexing globally:

4.Check if it started rebuilding:

On my terminal it returned

/:
	Indexing enabled.

I than tried to search again in the Finder and it finally found the files.

So, Mac is not able to detect if it has a corrupt search database ? Or what could be the root issue ?

[Edited by Moderator]

ovisopa wrote:

How do you actually search for files on a mac ?

I use EasyFind. Find any File gets support round these parts too.

ovisopa wrote:

It's a basic function of every operating system, the search is nothing advanced.

Spotlight isn't just a search function. For a start it's closely entwined with TimeMachine to support backup and restore. It does the in-app searching for native apps such as Mail, Notes, Calendar, etc. It keeps the average user away from files and directories where their tinkering can do damage. It probably does other things too that I don't know about. Whether or not this does or should or could make Spotlight a bit rubbish at just finding your files is moot. As HWTech pointed out earlier - it is what it is and it's been like that at least ever since I got my first Mac (2008?). The very first app I downloaded was EasyFind because Spotlight wasn't very good at finding files and nothing substantial has changed in those 18 years (I'm still on Sequoia).

Spotlight doesn't support any kind of wildcards.

In your video, the first set of "destination" results are source code header files. That suggests you may be a developer and could have installed some non-standard 3rd party software.

It's not that I'm blaming you per se. It's just that Spotlight is extremely fragile and unreliable. Even the smallest amount of metadata on a file that it doesn't like will render it invisible.

So, no. There is nothing "weird" about this. This is 100% normal Spotlight behaviour.

Unfortunately the search feature has been broken for years. Since Apple has not fixed it, that implies this is now normal & expected behavior. Apple is more about the next new shiny toy than it is about hitting pause & fixing the currently broken older toys.

I have seen other contributors recommend Find Any File. I've never personally used it, but may need to start since I've been starting to experience more macOS search breakage recently....I've just suffered along in silence for years since a Mac is required for my work (maybe not complete silence as I get the odd looks from the coworkers as I grumble).

Hi, Zurarczurx, Have you seen this, just visible to you: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256387474?sortBy=oldest_first

Thanks.

It's a weird flow, to force a folder to be ignored and than to remove it from that list to trigger a reindex ?

Shouldn't there be a reindex button in Spotlight settings ?

Anyway, I just did it, I added my downloads folder

I than waited about 30 seconds and removed it from that list.

But nothing happens, should there be somewhere a notice, reindexing folders, or is there a way to see if I Spotlight has any reindexing process running ?

I waited about 5 minutes and the search is still not finding the files.

Any other methods to make such a basic function of this OS work again?

Spotlight doesn't support any kind of wildcards.

It should find without any wildcards, in the video you seen I searched without any wildcard initially, but after Finder did not return any results I searched using wildcards too, hoping this will make it find those files.

...That suggests you may be a developer and could have installed some non-standard 3rd party software.

I don't know what you mean, indeed I have an developer acount, I use XCODE and VS CODE ... what this could have to do with such a basic function of the operating system, a search function is nothing advanced, is a very basic function that should just work!

It's not that I'm blaming you per se. It's just that Spotlight is extremely fragile and unreliable. Even the smallest amount of metadata on a file that it doesn't like will render it invisible.

I'm searching for a file that was recorded using the iOS screen recording utility , sent that file using Airdrop to my Mac, and than used Davinci Resolve to add some animation where I tapped the screen, export it and that's how I ended up with a few files with the word "destination" in the filename. I don't understand why is so complicated to search for some video files in my downloads folder.

So, no. There is nothing "weird" about this. This is 100% normal Spotlight behaviour.

I'm sorry but I can't agree with you and I really don't understand why you would say that this is a 100% normal behaviour.

Why would it have a search function if it can't find the files anyway ?

I really hope someone can show me a real solution, to this REAL PROBLEM, a search function should find files, if the filenames contain that word, no matter what, it is that simple.

Can I delete the spotlight database using a command line? Can I see spotlight indexing progress ?

ovisopa wrote:

It should find without any wildcards, in the video you seen I searched without any wildcard initially, but after Finder did not return any results I searched using wildcards too, hoping this will make it find those files.

I was just pointing out that Spotlight doesn't support wildcards. Wildcards, regular expressions, etc. are features of powerful and advanced search systems. We're not talking about such systems. We're talking about Spotlight.

I don't know what you mean, indeed I have an developer acount, I use XCODE and VS CODE ... what this could have to do with such a basic function of the operating system, a search function is nothing advanced, is a very basic function that should just work!

It does not work. There could be any number of apps that include some Spotlight importer that breaks this functionality. I can't begin to guess what apps you've installed and what features they have.

But to be clear - I'm not blaming you. I'm simply pointing out one possibility, out of many, for Spotlight's failure. Spotlight can also fail with no 3rd party interference at all.

To reiterate my main point - it does not work.

I don't understand why is so complicated to search for some video files in my downloads folder.

It's not complicated. It simply doesn't work.

I'm sorry but I can't agree with you and I really don't understand why you would say that this is a 100% normal behaviour.

What don't you agree with? You've demonstrated for yourself that it doesn't work. Now you're trying to tell me that it does work? I'm sorry, but you're wrong. It doesn't work.

Why would it have a search function if it can't find the files anyway ?

People believe that it does. That's all it takes in the modern age. People believe what they're told. The evidence right in front of them is irrelevant.

I really hope someone can show me a real solution, to this REAL PROBLEM, a search function should find files, if the filenames contain that word, no matter what, it is that simple.

A search function should find files. But Spotlight doesn't do that.

There is no solution. I didn't write the software. I can't fix it for you. Best I can do is hog 200% of your CPU, while still not finding any files.

Can I delete the spotlight database using a command line?

Sure. But that won't fix it.

Can I see spotlight indexing progress ?

No, but even if you could, that wouldn't fix it either.

It's not complicated. It simply doesn't work.

You seem very chill about it, but you are saying the MacOS Search doesnt work ?

I'm trying to find a file using Mac's Finder app .. it has a SEARCH field in the top right corner, after paying so much for a Mac I expect it to do also these basic tasks like searching for my files. Do I ask too much ?

So, should I report a bug, call Apple Support for this, is there such a service to make this SEARCH function work?

ovisopa wrote:

you are saying the MacOS Search doesnt work ?

Several times now.

I'm trying to find a file using Mac's Finder app .. it has a SEARCH field in the top right corner, after paying so much for a Mac I expect it to do also these basic tasks like searching for my files. Do I ask too much ?

You do.

So, should I report a bug

Should you? You're asking my advice? I value your time, your data, and your mental health. My advice is to drop it and move on with your life. But you can choose to ignore my advice and keep beating a dead horse if you so desire.

call Apple Support for this

You can choose different tools with which to beat your unfortunate animal. But it ain't ever gonna ride again. The horse is dead.

is there such a service to make this SEARCH function work?

there is not.

I than tried to search again in the Finder and it finally found the files.

Congratulations!

So, Mac is not able to detect if it has a corrupt search database ?

Maybe it uses Spotlight to search for corrupt databases.

Or what could be the root issue ?

It doesn't work. That's the root issue. You ran some Terminal commands you found on the internet and you were able to find your files. But I can assure you that those tools don't always work. That's the problem with a search feature. It can't be 92% reliable. It's a binary. It's either reliable or it isn't.

Why was your database corrupt in the first place? How you can prevent that from happening in the future? But most importantly, when you search in the future and find either no results or some results, how do you know that those are the complete results? You've already demonstrated that it's possible for the database to become corrupted and cause your search to fail. Do you have to run those commands before every search?

Your search can fail even if your database isn't corrupted. I've experienced this myself. I fixed it and was able to determine which specific metadata was causing the problem. But I could only do that because I knew where the file was and that it wasn't being found. My file system has over 3 million files on it. I could run a Terminal command and delete this metadata on most of those files (but not all). But how do I know there isn't some other random metadata field that breaks Spotlight? I won't know until I perform some kind of useless search for files in the location where I know they exist. That's not Spotlight's use case. One runs a search to look for data that isn't right in front of you. Spotlight will either find the data you're searching for, or it won't. There's no way to spin that other than abject, mission failure. Spotlight doesn't work.

Search is not working again :(

I can't believe how an operating system like this can be so poorly created and how such basic futures are not reliable, I really can't understand it.

Aren't there any Apple developers on this forum to suggest solutions, collect user reports, and actually fix things in this 43-year-old software? ... how could a software so mature be full of bugs ?? Can anyone explain, I really can't understand :(

How do you actually search for files on a mac ? Really, is just my mac acting like this (judging by @etresoft

replies I'm not the only one)

I use this mac mostly to build an iOS / iWatch / MacOS app, it's a project I've been working the entire year, all my free time this year was spent on building this app and now I'm in the last phase where I try to build some videos to promote the app ..

Can my habit be the cause of it? I'm usually take my mac to Sleep when i'm done each day, I'm rarely shuting down or restarting it.

ovisopa wrote:

Thanks.

It's a weird flow, to force a folder to be ignored and than to remove it from that list to trigger a reindex ?

Shouldn't there be a reindex button in Spotlight settings ?

It's only weird in the real world. In Apple's world, where everything just works, a reindex button would never be needed.

ovisopa wrote:

Aren't there any Apple developers on this forum to suggest solutions, collect user reports, and actually fix things in this 43-year-old software? ...

No, this is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation is minimal and limited, for the most part, to making sure we all obey the rules.

If it were me, I'd believe what etresoft is telling you. And go get one of the recommended search tools.

Zurarczurx wrote:

ovisopa wrote:

How do you actually search for files on a mac ?

I use EasyFind. Find any File gets support round these parts too.

I knew there was another app which was recommended, but couldn't recall it. I'll try to remember that for the future.

ovisopa wrote:

I can't believe how an operating system like this can be so poorly created and how such basic futures are not reliable, I really can't understand it.

It's a long story, but modern AI didn't just spring forth from a vacuum. The world of software development has been rotting for some time now. It's just that regular people are starting to notice the smell.

Aren't there any Apple developers on this forum to suggest solutions, collect user reports, and actually fix things

Short answer is that Apple developers don't participate here. For the long story, see above.

But I can tell you that actually fixing a bug is an extraordinary event with Apple now. Don't get me wrong, it does happen from time to time. But generally speaking, most bugs never get fixed. The software just gets rewritten.

in this 43-year-old software? ... how could a software so mature be full of bugs ?? Can anyone explain, I really can't understand :(

Because it isn't mature at all. macOS is mostly iOS that's been ported back over from the phone. The only new development in it is rewriting bits and pieces of iOS that don't fit the Mac platform. It's literally just a vibe-coded, skinned iOS at this point. And iOS itself is constantly being re-written, sometimes in SwiftUI, sometimes in Swift, sometimes in Objective-C, but always another layer of complexity, another launch daemon, another XPC service.

How do you actually search for files on a mac ? Really, is just my mac acting like this (judging by @etresoft replies I'm not the only one)

I generally don't use Spotlight for searching for files. By default, the search is for contents anyway. Sometimes I do want to search my own documents for content. Maybe I was thinking about some concept from grad school and wanted to see what I had written, or re-read some paper that was interesting. In most cases, Spotlight will find those results, or at least get me close. But I know it's not reliable. Lack of results doesn't mean the content isn't there.

Most of the searching I do is for development. None of those files are included in Spotlight anyway. When I want to search those locations, I use my "rfind" script:

#!/bin/sh find . -not -path "./.git*" -exec grep ${*} {} \; -print 2> /dev/null

This is obviously a one-liner - too complicated for an alias, not complicated enough for Perl.

I use this mac mostly to build an iOS / iWatch / MacOS app, it's a project I've been working the entire year, all my free time this year was spent on building this app and now I'm in the last phase where I try to build some videos to promote the app ..

How would Spotlight affect that? I'm a developer and I don't use it.

But I strongly encourage you to review the Apple Developer forums before submission. It's getting pretty ugly. Established developers don't seem to be suffering that much. But I would hate to be starting off in 2026.

Can my habit be the cause of it? I'm usually take my mac to Sleep when i'm done each day, I'm rarely shuting down or restarting it.

That's not it. My uptime is over 51 days.

As I said before, you may have some 3rd party Spotlight importer. Those can be flaky. And being a developer, you may be doing things that most developers commonly do. Some of those things are a bad idea. You've already mentioned VS Code.

There's no way to guess what it might be. Spotlight's a black box. Any attempt you might make to figure it out would be a total waste of your time. It's not going to help you with your app. If you ever did figure it out, you would probably just apply the next update and start the whole process over again. You said you're running Tahoe now. Spotlight is one of Apple's focus areas for macOS 27. So why bother trying to figure something out that's already dead and buried?

As I said before, you may have some 3rd party Spotlight importer. Those can be flaky. And being a developer, you may be doing things that most developers commonly do. Some of those things are a bad idea. You've already mentioned VS Code.

I do not have any Spotlight importer, actually I did not knew there is such a system named Spotlight in this macOS that is solving all the search queries, and yes, I use VS Code and XCODE for the development of the apps but I don't know what could cause Spotlight to fail if I have XCODE and VS Code installed. I did not installed any programs that can query the spotlight for a searching history, or whatever "spotlight importer" means.

It's a basic function of every operating system, the search is nothing advanced, and it should just work. I should not use commands in terminal to be able to search, or install other programs to find files I created a few months ago.

Very disappointed — almost every day Finder brings me another disappointment.