Fix Spotlight Not Showing Applications on macOS

If Spotlight stops showing apps when you search (e.g. typing "Terminal" or "Safari" returns garbage), it’s likely the metadata index is corrupted or stuck in a transition state. Here’s how to fix it using terminal commands:

Delete Spotlight Index Folder

Try to delete the existing index. If SIP blocks this, enable Full Disk Access for Terminal in System Settings.

sudo rm -rf /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100

Kill Spotlight Metadata Services

This force-quits the background services responsible for indexing.

sudo killall -9 mds mds_stores

Reset Spotlight Index on Root Volume

You’ll disable indexing, erase the current index, and re-enable indexing.

sudo mdutil -i off /
  sudo mdutil -E /
  sudo mdutil -i on /

Re-index the Applications Folder

This triggers a manual reindex of all apps in /Applications.

mdimport /Applications

Verify Indexing is Enabled

Run this to confirm Spotlight indexing is active.

sudo mdutil -s /

Expected output:

Indexing enabled.

After following these steps, Spotlight should return applications in search results again.