Mac Search does not work ( New to Mac )

[nukenorman]

Ok I am used the search on my external hard drive. Not the spotlight but the search bar in the window. I typed in the movie name exactly how it was written and it still could not find it. I even went to the exact folder where It was located and still it could not find it even though I saw the file with my own eyes right in front of it.

 

Can anyone tell me why mac search does not work? I am new to apple ( 1 week ) and I always heard how apple search was so good but I see it cant even find a simple movie file that I typed in exactly and was in its folder.

[macoman]

You need to make sure that you Mac synchronized spotlight first of your entire Mac. Then the search will work without issues. But spotlight needs to have the sync first in order to see the map of all your stuff.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

1 hour ago, macoman said:

You need to make sure that you Mac synchronized spotlight first of your entire Mac. Then the search will work without issues. But spotlight needs to have the sync first in order to see the map of all your stuff.

This.

 

Make sure the HDD is indexed: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201716

[nukenorman]

Ok thanks for the replies. I wonder if it can sync a NTF formatted drive? Also I am new to the mac but if mac is suppost to be so easy why does windows automatically search everything  but on Mac you have to take the extra strep to synchronize it.

[allannyholm]

macOS does not index a drive formatted as NTFS.