MacOS – Spotlight “Indexing and searching disabled.” message in terminal on OSX. Why

macossearchsettingsspotlight

My spotlight searching hasn't worked for quite some time and I've tried everything I could find on Google. I can't search for anything on my MacBook.. literally nothing shows up. I'll list the things I've tried and specs:

Early 2011 2.2Ghz MBP
4GB RAM
OSX 10.9.4

  • disble/enable spotlight via terminal
  • toggled hidden files and looked for ".metadataneverindex" couldn't find it
  • repeated the previous, using terminal commands.. file not found
  • put everything in the preferences/privacy "prevent indexing" then removed
  • sudo mdutil -i on /

  • sudo mdutil -E /
  • sudo mdutil -a -i on
  • zapping the PRAM

Based on what Trane Francks said in the comment below.. I built the DB and ran the line again. The second line is what it returned:
locate .metadata_never_index
/.metadata_never_index

I found .metadata_never_index as a hidden file in my root, so I deleted it and tried reindexing.. but its giving the "Indexing and searching are disabled" message still.

I've tried many of things and every time.. I get "indexing and searching disabled."

I just wanna be able to search my mac again!! Please help! Thanks.

Best Answer

FINALLY!! I got it working again!

Heres what I did:

In terminal I ran:

locate .metadata_never_index

No database existed, so it prompted me to run:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

It ran for a few seconds and I retried the locate command.. it found it in my root. I deleted it and tried turning on spotlight again, but still got the "indexing and searching disabled."

I checked the permissions of my SSD and my account wasn't even listed. I added myself to read/write. Then ran:

sudo mdutil -i on /

terminal returned "Indexing enabled."

Lastly.. I went to system preferences>spotlight>privacy.. dragged my SSD then removed it to reindex. 40 minutes later.. everything is back to normal! It had been a year since spotlight worked on my MBP. Ohhh the struggles I faced trying to find emails/files.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions everyone and Google!