spotlight
I have a Spotlight to search for the applications.
However, nothing shows up when I searched the application.
What might be wrong? I use Yosemite, and I made sure that spotlight works with this command.
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
The Spotlight window does not include files treated as system files by default. Try setting "System files" to "are included":
Or use mdfind:
$ mdfind -name tweetbot
/Applications/Tweetbot.app
/Users/lauri/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Tweetbot_4C49445B-E14E-51E5-87DC-7CE59AE6A841.plist
/Users/lauri/Library/Containers/com.tapbots.TweetbotMac/Data/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Tweetbot_4C49445B-E14E-51E5-87DC-7CE59AE6A841.plist
/Users/lauri/Library/Containers/com.tapbots.TweetbotMac/Data/Library/Application Support/Tweetbot
/Users/lauri/Library/Containers/com.tapbots.TweetbotMac
/Users/lauri/Library/Speech/Speakable Items/Application Speakable Items/Tweetbot
/Users/lauri/Library/SyncedPreferences/com.tapbots.TweetbotMac.plist
The first thing I would do is remove the Spotlight local store on your boot volume :-
sudo mdutil -E /
Do the above at a Terminal Prompt.
You might also try adding the entire volume to the "Privacy" pane in System Preferences→Spotlight.
Best Answer
A recent article on MacIssues suggests rebuilding the spotlight index in situations like this.
Briefly, the proposed solution is to go to the Spotlight preference pane (in System preferences) and add your disk drive to the privacy list, then remove it again.
The article also makes oblique reference to certain “Terminal-based approaches”. The obvious candidate is called
mdutil. You can use the-Eflag to erase the local metadata store for the named drive(s), or-i offfollowed by-i onto turn indexing off, then on. (Disclaimer: I have not tried this. Check the manual page.)