Similarly, it is unlikely for a NAS to understand Finder tags and allow searching by tags with no importer to process Pages files, the NAS cannot extract and index text content from such a file. Indeed the NAS cannot rely on specialized importers to process files. Search features provided by the NAS cannot match the full capabilities of a local Spotlight index. I don't know if these drives save an actual Spotlight index or have their own technology that is queried when the Finder on a remote Mac runs a search. Some NAS drives support remote searches via Spotlight. Such importers are installed with the system and with third-party applications that introduce new file formats. Spotlight relies on importer plug-ins to read various file types to extract metadata and content. Spotlight indexes can exist on external drives and on network drives. The Spotlight window that you invoke by clicking the loupe in the menu bar searches only the startup disk. When Synology says that Spotlight can only search local files, one needs to clarify the distinction between Spotlight the engine/index/technology and Spotlight the interface/window. What else could I try? Is there any hope or possible workaround? Most of my documents are on the NAS, so both Spotlight and HoudahSpot are of very limited use as of now. However, I find in this discussion forum some posts about the possibility of using HoudahSpot even for remote drives in a NAS. Spotlight on the Mac desktop can only be used to search for local files'. On the Synology KB () it is stated 'Use Finder to search within mounted folders.

Spotlight does not see any file from the NAS, but if I do a search using the searchbox in a Finder window where the volume in question is open, files can be found (by the Finder, not by HoudahSpot).Įven launching HoudahSpot from the Finder does not help, it cannot see a single file on the driveįor information, I'm on Catalina, the NAS is connected via AFP. I also stopped and re-initialised the indexation from the Terminal. I have a Synology DS215, indexation is active (mdutil gives an 'Indexing enabled' for the volume I want to search). Yes, I know it's a common issue, but here's my situation.

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