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Spotlight is not finding Word Documents

The contents of most of my Word files (.docx) aren't being indexed by Spotlight.  Very few of them show up at all -- it's really annoying.  (EasyFind doesn't see them either!)  Re-indexing is no help. 

Here's the really weird thing:   If I open one of these "invisible to Spotlight" .docx files, and "save as" with a different name (either as .doc or .docx), Spotlight finds the copies.  I can delete the original, rename the copy with the original name, and Spotlight now finds it.  The same pattern holds if I "show all in Finder" and search on the same term:  the copies are found, while the original -- right there in the same folder -- is not found.

I don't have time to do this for hundreds of documents.  I tried to create an Automator workflow to do this for me, but Office 2016 seems to have ditched Automator actions and I couldn't find a pack to download - so I'm feeling pretty exasperated here...  HELP PLEASE

I have no issues finding specific content within MS Word (.doc/x) documents located on my internal boot drive — old, or new, on Sierra 10.12.4. I happen to have all categories selected in System Preferences : Spotlight : Search Results, but certainly one would want Documents and Folders selected which is among the defaults.

How are you searching for that internal Word content? Here are some examples that work for me:

Search all MS Word documents (.doc, .dotx, docx, etc.) with the word stranger in them:

kind:word stranger

Search only MS Word .docx documents with name 4pager with content "Mrs. Hall" in it:

kind:word +.docx name:4pager "Mrs. Hall"

These search sequences are equally effective in Spotlight, and the Finder window's search panel. In Finder, I suggest the following, to learn more about Spotlight searching options:

I have no issues finding specific content within MS Word (.doc/x) documents located on my internal boot drive — old, or new, on Sierra 10.12.4. I happen to have all categories selected in System Preferences : Spotlight : Search Results, but certainly one would want Documents and Folders selected which is among the defaults.

How are you searching for that internal Word content? Here are some examples that work for me:

Search all MS Word documents (.doc, .dotx, docx, etc.) with the word stranger in them:

kind:word stranger

Search only MS Word .docx documents with name 4pager with content "Mrs. Hall" in it:

kind:word +.docx name:4pager "Mrs. Hall"

These search sequences are equally effective in Spotlight, and the Finder window's search panel. In Finder, I suggest the following, to learn more about Spotlight searching options:

No, that does not solve my problem.  I accidentally clicked "Helpful" on my phone, but the issue is not solved at all.  I can't figure out how to "unsolve" the topic.

Even when I'm only searching within a folder that contains nothing but .doc/.docx files, it will not search the contents no matter which tags I use.

The only way I've found to solve the problem is to open the document, Save As, close the document. 

If EasyFinder cannot see these files, then there is a bigger issue than just Spotlight.

If not created on your Mac, where did these Word documents originate, and what was the transport mechanism to get them onto your Mac? Are they now on the boot drive, or elsewhere?

They have always lived on my external hard drive, but the files were created on my PC over the last 15 years or so.  They still live on my external drive; my current drive is a LaCie 1TB Mac formatted.

This is the solution that I found that finally worked:

Part 1

# Right-click the folder that needs to be re-indexed and choose _Get Info_

# Unlock the folder using the lock icon in the lower right-hand corner so changes can be made

# In the Sharing & Permissions section, make sure your username has Read/Write permission

# Click the gear icon and choose _Apply to Enclosed Items_

# Close the Get Info window

Part 2

# Open the Terminal

# Type "sudo mdutil -E /"

# Press the Return key

# If you get a "Indexing disabled" message, enter "sudo mdutil -a -i on"

#* Reindexing should start

# Double-check the permissions from Part 1

#* Sometimes the account name can disappear and you have to re-add your account as well as Read/Write permissions for the whole drive

最後更新：2017-09-02 05:30:19

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