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Dropbox content isn't searchable in Spotlight when using Mac OS Monterey 12.0.1
Dropbox files/folders are not searchable in spotlight on new MacBook Pro with M1 chip - Monterey OS 12.0.1. Have re-indexed spotlight. Have uninstalled and reinstalled Dropbox and rebooted. Have made sure Dropbox has full access in Security and Privacy. Help please?
I have found a solution, everyone! I hope everyone struggling with this will find this post. The problem isn't with dropbox, it's with Mac Spotlight. Which surprised me, as I always thought the finder search was separate from Spotlight, but apparently, on the back end, both are one-in-the-same. I've heard many times that re-indexing spotlight didn't work, but it does! You just have to do it a different way for everything to ACTUALLY 100% reindex.
Tutorial is here on apple's forums: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253479408
Just giving credit where credit is due.
In case that goes away, instructions are also listed below.
- Open System Preferences and go to Spotlight's Privacy tab.
- Add the entire hard disk INTO the Privacy list.
- Maybe wait 30s.
- Remove the hard disk FROM the Privacy list.
Spotlight will re-index. After finish re-indexing, the search in folder works for me.
(To see if Spotlight is indexing, use Command+Space to invoke Spotlight, and type in something. Wait a second. You should see a progress bar to show indexing progress)
Of note, I am on Mac OS Monterey 12.6 (21G115). My dropbox version is 158.4.4564. These are both the lastest, as of now, 10.3.2022.
Hopefully this helps! Changed my life - I can work again!
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Excellent, it worked for me on a Mac Studio, Sequoia 15.3.1.
Thank you !
if rebuilding spotlight index doesn't fix it as was the case with me, this is what worked:
system settings>
privacy and security>
full disk access >
toggle off and then on dropbox
3 years later, this still works. Thanks for taking the time to share!
Thank you, thank you! I'd just noticed this behavior w/in the last month. Using Sequoia 15.1.1., 4yo MacBook Pro. I keep all my files in Dropbox as opposed to Documents or some other local-only directory, and recently when I would use Finder to search within a specific folder in Dropbox, Finder would keep going back to searching "This Mac." It woud find the files with names or content specified, but produced uselessly long lists of results because it was searching the whole hard drive. I used the solution provided by Davidarden and it worked well for me.
I want to point out that this problem persists for Mac Sonoma 14.1.1 and Dropbox v187.4.5691. The proposed solution worked for me.
Hello @youmailtocarlos.
Since this thread is so long, I wanted to be sure you saw the solution that worked for many of us unable to search Dropbox from the finder. It's on page 9 of this thread, see link below. (I also just noticed the Go To Solution link at the top of the page). It's taken me 7 months to find this!
Instead of re-indexing Dropbox (or Spotlight) I had to re-index the entire hard drive.
Instructions I found on Apple from keganx:
I have managed to fix this. (For reference, I have tried re-indexing Spotlight using command line, and does not work).
- Open System Preferences and go to Spotlight's Privacy tab.
- Add the entire hard disk INTO the Privacy list.
- Maybe wait 30s.
- Remove the hard disk FROM the Privacy list.
(To see if Spotlight is indexing, use Command+Space to invoke Spotlight, and type in something. Wait a second. You should see a progress bar to show indexing progress)
----
Hope this helps you too.
Here's a link to the solution posted by @davidarden: https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Create-upload-and-share/Dropbox-is-not-searchable-in-Mac-OS-Monterey...
- Nancy
Dropbox Community Moderator
Hey youmailtocarlos! When possible, please check your email address, and reply back to my message.
Cheers.
Hello,
Of course, no problem. You probably can see my e-mail address but just in case it’s [removed per Community Guidelines]
- Walter
Thanks for clarifying that for me youmailtocarlos
Would it be OK if we reached out via email to have a further look internally at this point?
