Fix Guide: Tahoe Spotlight Category Search Missing

Symptom: Searching in Spotlight on macOS Tahoe returns "Top Hits" and "Applications" but fails to show categories like "Documents," "Folders," or "System Settings."

Why this happens

The Tahoe Spotlight configuration plist can become desynchronized, causing it to ignore user-defined category filters.

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Fix 1: Reset Spotlight Preferences

1. Open Terminal.
2. Delete the Spotlight preferences file:

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist

1. Force a restart of the Spotlight process:

killall Spotlight

Fix 2: Re-enable Search Categories

1. Go to System Settings > Siri & Spotlight.
2. Uncheck all categories in the list.
3. Restart your Mac.
4. Go back and re-check the categories you need.