Comments on: Restoring Missing Spotlight Comments

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:01:32 +0000

You are a Saint for posting this! I would have lost a months worth of data hadn’t I found this posting.

I tried the other method (using privacy settings in Spotlight) however it did not recreate all of the comments in all of the files.

Thank-you very much!

By: PIRATzArfyki

PIRATzArfyki — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:32:56 +0000

There is a very easy way to restore Spotlight comments built right into OS X Finder.

Open System Preferences, Spotlight, Privacy

Drag folder containing files with missing comments to the list. This will instruct Spotlight to stop indexing the content of the folder.

Now, remove the folder from Privacy listing. This will force reindexing of its content by Spotlight. Once completed, select any previously commented file inside reindexed folder, Get Info to confirm that Spotlight Comments are back where you want them.

By: Kint

Kint — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:57:44 +0000

Oh man, that’s it. Makes total sense. I use Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php) to run some maintenance tasks, and one of the software’s features is to hunt down and delete .DS* files.

That has to be it. I stopped using that function a while ago (switched to PathFinder, I highly recommend it) and my tags have not disappeared.

Good find!

By: tortoise

tortoise — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:38:03 +0000

I think I found an answer to why it’s happening. According to the second entry at this forum post, “… spotlight comments live in the hidden .ds-file. So one has to make sure to keep t when doing backups or transferring files. Would not work via: mac-windows-pc-mac. …”

By: Kint

Kint — Mon, 07 May 2007 22:44:46 +0000

Hmmr, weird. I havn’t moved files in a while. I dump everything in Documents, and tag it appropriately. This is driving me nuts!

By: tortoise

tortoise — Mon, 07 May 2007 03:26:24 +0000

I forget where I read why it happens, but I think it had something to do with how you move/copy files. For instance, moving files with Hazel can “erase” Spotlight comments.

By: Kint

Kint — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:40:32 +0000

Did you ever find out why on earth this situation arises? Can’t find anything about it on apple.com. Seems to me it happens every few weeks or so. Last time, I re-tagged all my files. Happened again today, but at least your trick saved me all the hard work.

Thanks!