Prevent Spotlight From Indexing a Particular Folder [Mac]

2 Answers

1. Open System Preferences and click Spotlight.
2. Click Privacy.
3. Drag folders or disks to add them to the Privacy list, or click the Add (+) button to browse for an item.
4. To remove an item, select it and click Delete (-).

1. How do I stop Spotlight from indexing Mac?
2. How do I restrict access to a folder on Mac?
3. How do I stop my Mac from indexing my hard drive?
4. How do I prevent a folder from being deleted on a Mac?
5. What does Spotlight indexing mean on Mac?
6. How do I fix Spotlight search on my Mac?
7. How do I change folder permissions on a Mac?
8. How do I make a folder writable on a Mac?
9. How do I get permissions on my Mac?
10. What is indexing a drive?
11. How do I turn off Spotlight on Mojave?
12. Can you hide files on Mac?
13. How do I unlock all files on Mac?
14. How do I password protect a file on Mac?

How do I stop Spotlight from indexing Mac?

Launch System Preferences, and then select the Spotlight preference pane. Select the Privacy tab. The Privacy tab holds a list of volumes and folders that have had indexing turned off. Add a volume to the list, and the indexing process is turned off; no new indexing is performed for that volume.

How do I restrict access to a folder on Mac?

Apply permissions to all items in a folder or a disk

1. On your Mac, select a folder or disk, then choose File > Get Info. If the lock at the bottom right is locked , click it to unlock the Get Info options, then enter an administrator name and password.
2. Click the Action pop-up menu , then choose “Apply to enclosed items.”

How do I stop my Mac from indexing my hard drive?

Best way is to plug in the external drive and then go into system prefs. Click on spotlight and then click the privacy tab. Drag the external hard drive from the desktop to this screen. This will disable all spotlight indexing on that drive.

How do I prevent a folder from being deleted on a Mac?

Locking a File or Folder on the Mac to Prevent Changes & Deletion

1. Select the file or folder you want locked from the Finder of the Mac.
2. Go to the File menu and choose “Get Info” (or hit Command+i)
3. Look under 'General' and click the 'Locked' checkbox so that it's selected, this will lock the file.

What does Spotlight indexing mean on Mac?

Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates an index of all items and files on the system. ... There are also command-line tools to perform functions such as Spotlight searches.

How do I fix Spotlight search on my Mac?

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
2. Click the Privacy tab.
3. Drag the disk or folder that you want to index again to the list of locations that Spotlight is prevented from searching. ...
4. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added. ...
5. Quit System Preferences.

How do I change folder permissions on a Mac?

Change permissions for files, folders or disks on Mac

1. On your Mac, select a disk, folder or file, then choose File > Get Info.
2. If the information in Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the arrow . ...
3. Click a user or group in the Name column, then choose a privilege setting from the pop-up menu.

How do I make a folder writable on a Mac?

Make a directory writable by Apache in Mac OS X Maverick

1. Set the ownership of your desired directory/file to the _www user: sudo chown -R _www:staff path/to/folder.
2. Set the permissions so that the _www can write in the directory/file without giving permissions to everyone else: sudo chmod -R 755 path/to/folder. Problem solved. Happy coding :-)

How do I get permissions on my Mac?

Create a Administrator account on macOS.

1. Go to the  Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” -> “Users & Groups”
2. Click on the lock icon in the corner, then enter an existing administrator account user and password to unlock the preference panel.

What is indexing a drive?

The indexing feature was designed to speed up Windows search. Basically, it indexes all files and folders on your hard drive, so that the indexes can be used to find files and folders more quickly when the need arises. ... This causes your hard drive to start making noises and slows everything down.

How do I turn off Spotlight on Mojave?

Open System Preferences -> Spotlight. Click on Privacy tab. Open A finder window, navigate to the top most level, drag and drop the "Macintosh HD" icon to the spotlight excluded items in the privacy tab, that way Spotlight will not perform any indexing for the entire hard disk.

Can you hide files on Mac?

Macs offer a way to hide files and folders, just like other operating systems. ... To hide a file or folder, you'll need to set the “hidden” attribute for it. The Finder and other Mac apps will then ignore and not display this file or folder by default.

How do I unlock all files on Mac?

The quickest method is to select all the files you want to unlock, then press "Option + Command + I" (or hold down Option while choosing "Get Info..." from the File menu) to open one Info pane for all of them. Then uncheck the 'Locked' checkbox, and you're done!

How do I password protect a file on Mac?

To password protect your Pages, Numbers or Keynote document, follow these steps:

1. With your document open, choose File > Set Password.
2. Enter a password, enter it a second time in the Verify field, then click Set Password.
3. Another way to password protect your Pages, Numbers, or Keynote file is by using the Share menu.