Mac OS X El Capitan: Turn Spotlight Off and On

To turn Spotlight off and on in Mac OS X El Capitan, you disable and re-enable the Spotlight indexing for your startup disk in System Preferences. This is done by dragging your hard drive out of the Privacy tab’s list and then back in, forcing the system to rebuild its search index.

Why You Would Want to Reset Spotlight

Spotlight is the built-in search tool that indexes your entire Mac. When it works correctly, it instantly finds apps, documents, emails, and even text inside files. However, the index can become corrupted. Symptoms include searches returning no results, results that are clearly outdated, or the spinning beachball appearing whenever you type in the Spotlight menu. A full off-and-on cycle forces macOS to erase and rebuild that index, which resolves the vast majority of these issues.

How Spotlight Indexing Works in El Capitan

El Capitan uses a background process called mds (Metadata Server) and mdworker to scan and catalog your files. This index is stored in a hidden folder on your drive. When you search, Spotlight queries this index rather than scanning the drive in real time, which is why it is so fast. The Privacy list in System Preferences is the master switch for this process. Adding a folder or disk to that list tells the system to stop watching it and to delete its index entry. Removing it tells the system to start indexing it again from scratch.

Step-by-Step: How to Turn Spotlight Off and On

This is the standard method used in El Capitan. It takes about 10 seconds to set up, but the re-indexing can take 30 minutes to several hours depending on how much data you have.

1. Open System Preferences from the Apple menu ( or from the Dock).
2. Click on Spotlight (the magnifying glass icon).
3. Click the Privacy tab at the top of the window.
4. Open a Finder window and locate your startup disk (usually named “Macintosh HD”).
5. Drag that hard drive icon from the Finder window into the Privacy list. If prompted, click OK to confirm you want to prevent Spotlight from searching this disk.
6. Wait a few seconds. You will see the disk listed with a dash icon next to it, meaning indexing is paused.
7. Now, select that disk in the Privacy list and click the minus (–) button below the list to remove it.
8. Close System Preferences. Spotlight will now begin re-indexing your entire drive.

You can check the progress by clicking the Spotlight magnifying glass in the menu bar. A progress bar will appear at the top of the search results with a message like “Indexing…” Until it finishes, searches may be incomplete.

Alternative: Rebuild the Index via Terminal

If the Privacy method fails or you prefer a more direct approach, you can use the Terminal app (found in Applications > Utilities). This method is more technical but achieves the same result.

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the following command and press Return: sudo mdutil -E /
3. Enter your administrator password when prompted. You will not see characters as you type.
4. To confirm indexing is enabled, type: sudo mdutil -i on /

The -E flag erases the index, and -i on ensures indexing is enabled. This is a faster way to trigger a rebuild without touching the Privacy settings.

What to Do If Spotlight Still Doesn’t Work

If you have turned it off and on and searches are still broken, the issue may be with a specific folder or file type. First, check the Privacy tab again to ensure no other disks or folders are listed there—a leftover entry can block indexing. Second, verify that the Search Results tab (the first tab in Spotlight preferences) has the categories you want checked. If “Documents” or “Applications” are unchecked, they won’t appear in results. Third, try restarting your Mac after the re-index completes. If the problem persists, it could indicate a deeper file system issue, and running Disk Utility’s First Aid on your drive is a reasonable next step.

Common Mistakes and Misconceptions

A frequent misunderstanding is that turning Spotlight off in the menu bar (by unchecking “Show Spotlight in menu bar”) disables indexing. It does not. It only hides the search box. The indexing continues in the background. Another mistake is dragging only a folder (like your Documents folder) into Privacy when the whole drive is corrupt. That will only fix that folder. For a full reset, you must include the entire startup disk. Also, be patient: if you have a large drive with hundreds of thousands of files, the re-index can take several hours. It is normal for the Mac to feel slower and the fan to spin up during this time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will turning Spotlight off and on delete any of my files?

No. This process only deletes the search index, which is a database of file names and metadata. Your actual files, folders, and applications are untouched. It is a safe procedure that Apple has supported for years.

How long does the re-indexing take?

It depends on the size of your drive and the number of files. A typical 256 GB SSD with normal usage can take 30 to 60 minutes. A 1 TB drive with many large files can take several hours. You can continue using your Mac during this time, though searches will be incomplete until it finishes.

Can I turn off Spotlight entirely to save battery or CPU?

Yes, but it is not recommended. You can add your entire drive to the Privacy list and leave it there. This stops all indexing and prevents Spotlight from searching. It will save a small amount of CPU and battery, but you will lose the ability to search for files, and many apps that rely on Spotlight (like Mail’s search) will break. The performance gain is usually negligible on modern Macs.

Why does Spotlight show old files that I deleted?

This is a classic sign of a corrupted index. The index still contains entries for files that no longer exist. Turning Spotlight off and on, as described above, is the exact fix for this problem. After the rebuild, the deleted files will disappear from search results.

Does this method work on macOS Sierra or later?

The Privacy tab method works on all versions of macOS up to the current release. The Terminal command (mdutil -E) also works on modern versions. However, the menu bar interface has changed slightly in newer versions (macOS Big Sur and later), but the System Preferences path remains the same. For El Capitan specifically, the steps above are exactly correct.

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