MacOS – How to restore Spotlight to menu bar

macosmenu barspotlight

I removed the Spotlight icon from the menu bar. I would like to restore it.

I tried the recommended method: 

sudo mdutil -a -i on
sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search
sudo killall SystemUIServer

…which did not help. The command keys still work, but I would like to see the icon. I read the suggestion to reinstall the system and would prefer not to do that.

Does anyone have a different suggestion?

Problem solved: The article from OSXDaily worked perfectly. Thanks to all who responded.

Best Answer

Just to make an official answer.

User M K referenced an article in osXDaily that explains how to both hide and un-hide the Spotlight icon.

Show the Spotlight Menu Again

Getting the Spotlight icon back is a matter of bringing the permissions back to their default setting in OS X. Go back to the Terminal app by relaunching it from /Applications/Utilities/, and then enter the exact command syntax below: sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

Hit the return key, then follow this up with killing the SystemUIServer process again: killall SystemUIServer The system menu bar will refresh, and the Spotlight menu will be visible again.

I just tested this on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 with success.

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