MacOS – How exclude a specific folder from spotlight search but not from search window

findermacossearchspotlight

I'm trying to set up my Mac so that it will exclude files in a folder called 'XYZ' from the search results in spotlight only. The reason is because these files are mostly private, and I don't want them to pop up in a spotlight search.

However, I still want to be able to search them in a finder window, where I have a little more control than in spotlight. (To be clear, search normally with alt+command+space, exclude folder from command+space). Any idea how something like this could be done?

Best Answer

From my experience excluding a folder from Spotlight indexing will exclude the files/folders from showing up when you do a search in Spotlight (command+space) but will still allow you to open that folder in finder and use the search bar in the top right of finder to search within that folder only. I imagine that the search of an un-indexed folder means the OSX will search in real time, or temporarily index the folder to allow you to do a folder search that has been excluded from the main Spotlight index and then erase it when you close the Finder window.

Just make sure once you've typed in your search word(s) in the search bar that you click the name of your folder/drive in the "Search" criteria in the grey bar that appears (as shown below).

enter image description here

To exclude a folder from appearing in the Spotlight search, and therefore from being indexed go to: System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy tab, then click the + and select the folder you want to exclude: enter image description here

Related Solutions

MacOS – How to create a Saved Search that excludes a specific folder from the results

I looked at some of the saved search files in Finder's application bundle, and for example /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/MyLibraries/myDocuments.cannedSearch/search.savedSearch used a format like this for excluding directories:

<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
<array>
  <string>~/</string>
  <string>-Library</string>
  <string>-Music/iTunes</string>
  <string>-Documents/Steam Content</string>
  <string>~/Library/Mobile Documents/</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Keynote</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Pages</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Numbers</string>
</array>

So you can exclude subfolders by adding strings that start with a minus character after a full path. Something like -~/Library doesn't seem to work.

You can edit savedSearch files by dropping them on a text editor. RawQueryDict:SearchScopes and FXScope:FXScopeArrayOfPaths seem to list the same paths by default, but just editing the second one appeared to exclude folders at least in Finder.

Why doesn’t iPhoto show up in Spotlight search results

Try rebuild index

From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Click Spotlight.
Click the Privacy tab.
Drag a folder or an entire volume (your hard drive) to the list.
If prompted for confirmation, click OK.
Remove the item or volume you just added to the list by clicking
it and then clicking the minus ("-") button.
Close Spotlight preferences.
Spotlight will re-index the contents of the folder or volume.

You can also use the command line to rebuild Spotlight’s index.
Open the Terminal application and enter the following command:

sudo mdutil -E /

Authenticate with your administrator password,
and a message appears indicating that the index will be rebuilt.
Spotlight rebuilds the index of your hard disk.
You can track the rebuilding progress by clicking the Spotlight menu.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – How to create a Saved Search that excludes a specific folder from the results

Why doesn’t iPhoto show up in Spotlight search results

Related Question