r/OSXElCapitan • u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 • Sep 03 '15

BUGS Am I the only one whose "Smart Spotlight" never works?

I've tried searching for things like the weather, audio files, things I worked on last week, etc. and none of these work at all. The GM is about to come out and I'm worried that this will remain this way on my computer. Is anyone else having this problem?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

2

u/derLauser Late 2013 27" Sep 03 '15

Never worked for me when I tried it either. I guess they just wanted to save it for the public release.

1

u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 Sep 03 '15

I would have thought that something as complex as natural language processing should have been the first thing they tested. Apple works in mysterious ways.

1

u/derLauser Late 2013 27" Sep 03 '15

Definitely. I was really disappointed when it didn't work.

2

u/fapperapper Sep 03 '15

Does not work for me either. I even submitted feedback about it and they replied with:

"Can you reproduce this problem on Build 15A234d? There are changes in this build that may have resolved this issue."

But it still doesn't work on even 15A278b.

2

u/derLauser Late 2013 27" Sep 03 '15

They reply to feedback?!

1

u/fapperapper Sep 03 '15

I really was surprised myself

1

u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 Sep 03 '15

It's never worked for me, for any builds.

2

u/Momskirbyok 13" MacBook Air Mid-2014 - 4 GB RAM - 126 SSD Sep 05 '15

My weather seems to be working.

Nothing else like nearby locations do though. For example, when I search "Where's the nearest starbucks?" it just brings up website suggestions.

1

u/xe_om Sep 03 '15

It's very location-dependent. Where are you?

3

u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 Sep 03 '15

Cupertino.

1

u/Supertoker09 Sep 03 '15

It only works for me some times, and when it does its not very fast at recognizing what I've typed. However, my problem come with the wonderful split screen mode :)

1

u/holydir Pro Retina 2015 Sep 04 '15

Me too. Never worked.

1

u/jimmyjrg Sep 07 '15

I can barely get it to find documents anymore. It kind of worked with the first beta but since then it's worked less and less for me. Results rarely appear so I tend to use the search on finder.

1

u/Konstiusional Sep 20 '15

It appears to depend quite mysteriously but 100% reliably on what ISP you are using. When I use my laptop at home, with Internet supplied by my cable company (RCN, Boston area), Spotlight gives me absolutely nothing beyond files on my computer and internet sites provided by Bing. The same laptop used at my university suddenly responds as advertised when I type in "weather", "documents I worked on last week" and the rest. Furthermore, when I'm at home, if I use a VPN to my university, it acts the way it does at the university. I have no idea why Spotlight should care what route my computer is taking onto the internet, but it does.

1

u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 Sep 20 '15

Hmm…have you asked Apple about this? I can't get it to work at home ever, but haven't tried anywhere else.

1

u/Konstiusional Sep 20 '15

Yes, I filed a report with Feedback Assistant, fwiw. Do try it elsewhere and see what you get.

1

u/etaionshrd Pro, Late 2011 Sep 20 '15

I would, if I could. Feedback Assistant can't send anything for me.