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Just to be fair: I installed a copy of IntelliJ IDEA on my macOS. It was the trial version. I use Spotlight (and a year back, Alfred) to launch my all applicati

Just to be fair: I installed a copy of IntelliJ IDEA on my macOS. It was the trial version. I use Spotlight (and a year back, Alfred) to launch my all applications. However, Spotlight couldn't find the app for it's life, even if it found all the other apps in the same directory. After I upgraded to the paid app, the problem suddenly fixed itself. But I keep having shivers. It shouldn't be Spotlight's business.

graeme 9y ago
Did it happen right after install? It usually takes spotlight a few minutes to index any new program - trial or not.
- GolDDranks 9y ago
  It persisted for the whole month of the trial period. I rebooted multiple times during that period and also checked the Spotlight settings for a few times that they wouldn't exclude anything - and nope.
dpkonofa 9y ago
This sounds like a series of coincidences more than anything. Spotlight has to index your drive at intervals so, if you recently added an app, it's possible that the app hadn't been indexed yet by Spotlight. Then, by the time you had done the upgrade to paid, Spotlight had indexed the file and and then it started working. There's nothing nefarious going on there. It just sounds like a coincidence.
- aerique 9y ago
  You'd think that installing a new app would add it to the index right away.
  - majormajor 9y ago
    If more non-store Mac apps had an "Install" process, you would. But you're just dragging a special type of folder off a disk image, so nah. This was a weird coincidence or bug, nothing more. I've used free and trial versions of IntelliJ on Macs countless times without search ever having issues with them. It's hard to imagine how you'd even make the system work in that way, as an app developer.
  - MagerValp 9y ago
    And it does. Copying any app bundle to an indexed disk, like your boot drive, will cause it to get indexed immediately. There are the occasional bugs though, and there’s also aggressive caching.
- hellcow 9y ago
  I can speak to this too. Latest version of MacOS. I installed Spotify weeks ago, and Spotlight just never indexed it (it's in the /Applications folder). I use Spotlight to launch every app... except Spotify, which it can't find.
  - j-kearl 9y ago
    What fixes it for me is reindexing via going into Spotlight preferences and adding /Applications to the list of folders not to index, then removing it.
- GolDDranks 9y ago
  I don't know what the priors are, but Spotlight having missed the app for a 30 full days, and then suddenly finding it after the full registration, sounds very unlikely to me. However, I do believe it's just an unfortunate bug, nothing more sinister there. Still would be nice to know: why?
  - MagerValp 9y ago
    A bug kept it from indexing the app when you first installed it. Forcing a re-index of /Applications would have fixed it, likewise duplicating the app and deleting the original. When you registered the app I assume it modified itself, triggering a re-index.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  Spotlight indexes continually, it doesn't run at intervals. (it uses fsevents to subscribe to changes to the disk and processes those as they come in)
CydeWeys 9y ago
I've experienced similar. My most pleasant experience with finding and launching applications is, surprisingly, in Linux. I think it's best in breed now. If you'd told me this 15 years ago I wouldn't have believed you, but it's gotten much better over the years and everything else has somehow gotten worse. I spend more time using Linux as a desktop OS than anything else these days, and it "just works".
- mwambua 9y ago
  What DE do you use? Back when I used Unity in Ubuntu I found their search widget really hard to use. It was laggy and mixed in results from the web, their 'appstore', and my files. Now I use dmenu in i3wm and I couldn't be happier. All I need is something that searches my path for applications... and that's what it does.
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    Not at my computer, so can't provide a detailed answer yet. It's GNOME something-or-other though. Not Unity. And the menu is question that just works is accessible from something like Alt-F2 or the super key (it's muscle memory and I'd need to be at a keyboard to say for sure).
  - AgentME 9y ago
    The Unity search menu was really frustrating. It had confusing category buttons, and if you did a search that only had results in a specific category, it would inexplicably turn on that category filter and use it for future searches too until you cleared the textbox. I loved pretty much everything about Unity except for that baffling bit. I'm almost glad they're killing Unity just so it means people aren't subjected to that wacky design decision or bug.
  - smnrchrds 9y ago
    KRunner on Kubuntu os a joy to use.
    - abrowne 9y ago
j-kearl 9y ago
I've had the same problem with Spark and even Xcode, so very unlikely it's Apple willfully refusing to index. What fixes it for me is reindexing via going into Spotlight preferences and adding /Applications to the list of folders not to index, then removing it.
acdha 9y ago
Did you ever open the folder which contains the app? Spotlight at least used to use the Launch Services database which was … idiosyncratic … about updating things. The Finder displaying it would reliably trigger that. The other thing was, naturally, it has a database behind the scenes which historically was prone to silently breaking with no UI cue. Back when I did Mac system administration one of our scripts ran this periodically to deal with missing or duplicate entries in e.g. the Open with… menu: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -r -f -v -domain local -domain user -domain system The other thing you can try is nuking the Spotlight database: mdutil -E -a That'll be slow for a little while as it reindexes whatever it's configured to index but it fixed a fair number of odd problems, which often turned out to be due to previously-unknown hardware issues.
seanp2k2 9y ago
Use `mdfind foo` in the terminal on mac. I hate Spotlight and use Alfred instead.
nsxwolf 9y ago
Spotlight can't find the IntelliJ app on my macOS either, but mine is registered.
multibit 9y ago
Spotlight works by indexing applications and files every once in a while (for speed), so sometimes it doesn't find newly installed apps.
- Sidnicious 9y ago
  I believe it indexes continuously by watching the filesystem: https://imgur.com/sipDUCD https://imgur.com/sipDUCD.
timrichard 9y ago
Another vote for Alfred, here. I use it for launching absolutely everything, so when I install something new I notice how long it takes to be available. Couple of seconds max, every time.

graeme 9y ago

Did it happen right after install? It usually takes spotlight a few minutes to index any new program - trial or not.

GolDDranks 9y ago
It persisted for the whole month of the trial period. I rebooted multiple times during that period and also checked the Spotlight settings for a few times that they wouldn't exclude anything - and nope.

dpkonofa 9y ago

This sounds like a series of coincidences more than anything. Spotlight has to index your drive at intervals so, if you recently added an app, it's possible that the app hadn't been indexed yet by Spotlight. Then, by the time you had done the upgrade to paid, Spotlight had indexed the file and and then it started working. There's nothing nefarious going on there. It just sounds like a coincidence.

aerique 9y ago
You'd think that installing a new app would add it to the index right away.
- majormajor 9y ago
  If more non-store Mac apps had an "Install" process, you would. But you're just dragging a special type of folder off a disk image, so nah. This was a weird coincidence or bug, nothing more. I've used free and trial versions of IntelliJ on Macs countless times without search ever having issues with them. It's hard to imagine how you'd even make the system work in that way, as an app developer.
- MagerValp 9y ago
  And it does. Copying any app bundle to an indexed disk, like your boot drive, will cause it to get indexed immediately. There are the occasional bugs though, and there’s also aggressive caching.
hellcow 9y ago
I can speak to this too. Latest version of MacOS. I installed Spotify weeks ago, and Spotlight just never indexed it (it's in the /Applications folder). I use Spotlight to launch every app... except Spotify, which it can't find.
- j-kearl 9y ago
  What fixes it for me is reindexing via going into Spotlight preferences and adding /Applications to the list of folders not to index, then removing it.
GolDDranks 9y ago
I don't know what the priors are, but Spotlight having missed the app for a 30 full days, and then suddenly finding it after the full registration, sounds very unlikely to me. However, I do believe it's just an unfortunate bug, nothing more sinister there. Still would be nice to know: why?
- MagerValp 9y ago
  A bug kept it from indexing the app when you first installed it. Forcing a re-index of /Applications would have fixed it, likewise duplicating the app and deleting the original. When you registered the app I assume it modified itself, triggering a re-index.
kalleboo 9y ago
Spotlight indexes continually, it doesn't run at intervals. (it uses fsevents to subscribe to changes to the disk and processes those as they come in)

CydeWeys 9y ago

I've experienced similar. My most pleasant experience with finding and launching applications is, surprisingly, in Linux. I think it's best in breed now. If you'd told me this 15 years ago I wouldn't have believed you, but it's gotten much better over the years and everything else has somehow gotten worse. I spend more time using Linux as a desktop OS than anything else these days, and it "just works".

mwambua 9y ago
What DE do you use? Back when I used Unity in Ubuntu I found their search widget really hard to use. It was laggy and mixed in results from the web, their 'appstore', and my files. Now I use dmenu in i3wm and I couldn't be happier. All I need is something that searches my path for applications... and that's what it does.
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  Not at my computer, so can't provide a detailed answer yet. It's GNOME something-or-other though. Not Unity. And the menu is question that just works is accessible from something like Alt-F2 or the super key (it's muscle memory and I'd need to be at a keyboard to say for sure).
- AgentME 9y ago
  The Unity search menu was really frustrating. It had confusing category buttons, and if you did a search that only had results in a specific category, it would inexplicably turn on that category filter and use it for future searches too until you cleared the textbox. I loved pretty much everything about Unity except for that baffling bit. I'm almost glad they're killing Unity just so it means people aren't subjected to that wacky design decision or bug.
- smnrchrds 9y ago
  KRunner on Kubuntu os a joy to use.
  - abrowne 9y ago

j-kearl 9y ago

I've had the same problem with Spark and even Xcode, so very unlikely it's Apple willfully refusing to index. What fixes it for me is reindexing via going into Spotlight preferences and adding /Applications to the list of folders not to index, then removing it.

acdha 9y ago

Did you ever open the folder which contains the app? Spotlight at least used to use the Launch Services database which was … idiosyncratic … about updating things. The Finder displaying it would reliably trigger that. The other thing was, naturally, it has a database behind the scenes which historically was prone to silently breaking with no UI cue. Back when I did Mac system administration one of our scripts ran this periodically to deal with missing or duplicate entries in e.g. the Open with… menu: /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -r -f -v -domain local -domain user -domain system The other thing you can try is nuking the Spotlight database: mdutil -E -a That'll be slow for a little while as it reindexes whatever it's configured to index but it fixed a fair number of odd problems, which often turned out to be due to previously-unknown hardware issues.

seanp2k2 9y ago

Use `mdfind foo` in the terminal on mac. I hate Spotlight and use Alfred instead.

nsxwolf 9y ago

Spotlight can't find the IntelliJ app on my macOS either, but mine is registered.

multibit 9y ago

Spotlight works by indexing applications and files every once in a while (for speed), so sometimes it doesn't find newly installed apps.

Sidnicious 9y ago
I believe it indexes continuously by watching the filesystem: https://imgur.com/sipDUCD https://imgur.com/sipDUCD.

timrichard 9y ago

Another vote for Alfred, here. I use it for launching absolutely everything, so when I install something new I notice how long it takes to be available. Couple of seconds max, every time.