I think this is a change in Sequoia relating to files in ~/Library/Preferences. I am running macOS 15.2.
This file exists: /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.animoji.plist
In HS, I create a search for:
Name contains: animoji
File Extension is: plist
I try this search with three different locations:
1) ~/Library/Preferences - The file is found
2) ~/Library - No results
3) User home folder - No results
I expected all three locations to find the plist file.
Similarly a Finder search only finds the plist if the search scope is narrowed down to ~/Library/Preferences.
Is this a change in Spotlight results?
Or, has it always been like this and I am wasting your time 🙂
There is nothing special about using "animoji" in the query (it is the same for any other preference file), but it came up in https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/after-updating-to-sequoia-finder-does-not-find-system-files-anymore.2445615 where there is (as usual) much well meaning confusion.
I believe Spotlight indexing of ~/Library/Preferences was dropped a while ago. I just checked Sonoma 14.7 and find that preferences files are not indexed by Spotlight.
You can check this in Terminal:
> mdls com.apple.reminders.plistkMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2014-07-17 07:52:44 +0000kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2014-07-17 07:52:33 +0000kMDItemFSCreatorCode = ""kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 0kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon = 0kMDItemFSInvisible = 0kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0kMDItemFSIsStationery = 0kMDItemFSLabel = 0kMDItemFSName = "com.apple.reminders.plist"kMDItemFSNodeCount = 42kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 20kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501kMDItemFSSize = 42kMDItemFSTypeCode = ""
Note that all reported values are for keys that start with kMDItemFS where FS stands for file system. mdls got all the information from the file system and none from the Spotlight index.
When you point Spotlight / Finder / HoudahSpot at a specific directory it can perform simple - basically name only - searches without using the Spotlight index. Thus the observed behavior. When you search local volumes or user home, you can't find the plist file. When you ask to search the Preferences folder, you will still get the file.
Thank you. That clearly explains what is happening. Another change that went mostly unnoticed at the time.