This guide will tell you more about macOS Spotlight Search and show you how to Exclude Folders and Files from Mac Spotlight Search. Spotlight is a powerful tool that lets you look for anything on your Mac right away. But there are times when you’d rather not share certain things.
Or maybe you’re just sick of seeing setup files in the results. In either case, it’s easy to hide a folder and all of its items from Spotlight search. Are you sick of seeing files you rarely use in the search results on your Mac’s Spotlight? Or do you want to keep some things on your Mac out of the public eye? Any way you look at it, you should keep some things out of Spotlight.
Spotlight is a great feature of Mac OS X that lets you quickly look for files, apps, folders, emails, you name it, and Spotlight will find it. But sometimes you don’t want everything to be indexed. This could be an extra backup drive, a scratch disk, or a list of temporary files. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Apple Support site.
How to Exclude Folders and Files from Mac Spotlight Search
You can quickly and easily remove folders and files from your Spotlight Search index that you don’t want to be found. You can always add it back if you change your mind. This method works on the latest version of macOS on the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and the iMac. Just do what’s written below.
- On the top left corner of your Mac, click the Apple icon.
- Select System Preferences.
- Look for Spotlight and click to open it.
- Navigate to the Privacy tab.
- At the bottom, click the Plus sign button.
- Now, look for the folder or file that you want to exclude.
- Highlight the folder and click Choose.
- Do the same process until you listed all the folders that you want to exclude.
In the settings, keep in mind that you can only exclude the folder, not the file itself. Go back to the Privacy tab under Spotlight if you want to add the area back to your Spotlight Searches. To get rid of the folder, select it and click the “-” button. If you want to keep a single file out of Spotlight, you can put it in a folder and then add the folder to the list of files to keep out.
Why exclude items from Spotlight?
You can use Spotlight to find almost any file or folder on your Mac. To open it, press Command + Space Bar. But if you share your Mac or have private media on it, you can easily keep certain files and folders from showing up in Spotlight searches. So, they will stay secret and won’t be easy to find or open. Spotlight can even be told not to scan whole disks, volumes, or partitions on your drive.
Second, files you don’t use often or media you don’t need may pop up every time you use Spotlight to look for something and make the small search window look messy. You can also take care of these by following the steps below. Lastly, if you don’t want certain groups to show up in Spotlight, like contacts, Siri suggestions, reminders, etc., you can tell your Mac not to show them in search results.