Xcode doesn't show up in spotlight results, neither search results

Question

I haven't noticed exactly when it happened but previously I was always using spotlight to run Xcode. Now if i'm typing "Xcode" in it, only folders containing this name show up, or some xcode projects, not all though. I've tried search in finder and even choosing kind of files - Application, still no luck. Did Anybody face this problem before?

it looks like only to xcode. other apps that i run through the spotlight (like Chrome, Pages, Terminal, TextWrangler, etc.) are working fine as it was before. — peetonn, Nov 27 '12 at 15:17

score 67 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 26 '17 at 12:51

67

Try Rebuilding Spotlight index. You can do it from the Terminal:

$ sudo mdutil -i on /

edited Jun 26 '17 at 12:51

jpsecher

959

answered Nov 27 '12 at 16:13

Anonymous

2,756
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Awesome, I'm glad it helped you, cheers! :-) – Anonymous Nov 28 '12 at 07:11
2

Just to let people know that this answer still works as of 2017. – Lucio Paiva Oct 31 '17 at 11:44

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '17 at 07:41

10

I had a similar problem after upgrading to Xcode 8.3. It simply stopped showing up in the spotlight search result. Rebuilding by adding Application folder to the privacy list in spotlight preferences, didn't help.

Executing sudo touch /Applications/Xcode.app in the Terminal worked.

Cheers, Jon

answered Apr 04 '17 at 07:41

Jon

101

For me only a combination of both steps worked, only touching Xcode didn't work, but after putting in into the privacy list and then running the command fixed the problem – Simon Meusel Jul 16 '17 at 10:06

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 18 '17 at 18:30

3

After upgrading from El Capitan to macOS Sierra I had the same problem.

The only command that did the trick was:

sudo mdutil -E # from mdutil usage "Erase and rebuild index"

If that one doesn't work directly, try running this command first:

sudo mdutil -i on # from mdutil usage "Turn indexing on or off"

edited May 18 '17 at 18:30

bjbk

9,463

answered May 18 '17 at 17:46

adelindev

131

peresleguine · Answer 4 · 2018-09-30T19:57:59.277

2

Updating the permissions did the trick for me: chown -R $(whoami):staff /Applications/Xcode.app

Suggested from here: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/82503

edited Sep 30 '18 at 19:57

answered Sep 30 '18 at 12:24

peresleguine

121

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Xcode doesn't show up in spotlight results, neither search results

4 Answers4