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Verified for macOS Tahoe 26.2

How to Fix Spotlight Category Search Missing in macOS Tahoe 26.2

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

TL;DR fix

Start with Fix 1: Reset Spotlight Preferences. If the issue persists after that, try Fix 2: Re-enable Search Categories. Full Terminal commands and step-by-step instructions are in each section below.

Why this happens

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

Recommended Troubleshooting Tool

Before proceeding with manual fixes, we recommend using CleanMyMac X. Quickly identify high CPU apps and optimize system memory with one click.

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.

Tested and documented by the MacDebug team — about MacDebug. See also Photoshop & Adobe Apps Crashing on macOS Tahoe, Fix macOS "No AirPlay Found", or browse all guides on macdebug.