In this guide, we will show you the steps to fix the issue of the Spotlight Search Index not working with External Hard Disk Drive. As opposed to its Windows counterpart, the offering from Mac doesn’t allow you to expand the storage [or even the RAM for that matter]. While you. could still get your hands on an external HDD and format it as per the Cupertino giant requirement, but you might still come across a roadblock or two at regular intervals.
One such issue is the inability of Spotlight Search Index to work with an external Hard Disk Drive. This system-wide desktop search feature is built into the OS and is without the shadow of a doubt among the best ones out there. So the fact that it is unable to search the required files on the HDD, even though it is present there, is bound to raise a few eyebrows. Fortunately, you could easily rectify this issue using a handy workaround. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Fix Spotlight Search Index not working on External Hard Disk Drive
- Go to your external hard disk and press the Shift+Command+Period keys.
- You should now see the hidden /.Spotlight-V100 file. Delete this file.
- Then restart your Mac and launch Terminal from the Launchpad.
- Now type in the below command to restart Spotlight Search Index
sudo mdutil -i on /
- Finally, execute the below command to reindex spotlight search
sudo mdutil -E /
- Give it some time to complete. Once done, check out the results.
That’s it. These were the steps to fix the issue of the Spotlight Search Index not working with External Hard Disk Drive. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.
