In this article, we have discussed the ways you can use to prevent spotlight from searching specific locations on Mac. Alongside the versatile Dock, Spotlight has been among the iconic Mac features for a very long time. But what this feature a useful asset is its ability to provide accurate and fast search results to individuals. Beyond this, Spotlight also provides access to a vast number of cool tricks like performing calculations, converting currency, and more. Spotlight digs deep through your Mac in order to deliver more accurate results. It indexes all the folders and related files that are present on the system.

No doubt this intense searching behavior is an appreciable aspect; it, however, leaves very little room for Privacy. What if some of your private folders get indexed in the search results? There’s a way to prevent this. Yes, you can restrict Spotlight from searching for any of the specific folders on your Mac. Follow the steps mentioned below to figure out the steps regarding the same:

Exclude a Folder or Disk from Spotlight Search on Mac

A privacy tab is featured by the Spotlight preference. Here you can list all the files and folders that need to be excluded from the search on the Mac. After selecting the folders, you would no longer be able to perform a search in those areas. This way, your personal folders or files will remain out of sight when the Spotlight search will be performed. In case you have changed your mind and now want the removed files to get re-indexed again, you can do so very easily by diving into the same privacy settings. With all that said, let’s proceed further to the steps:

1. Tap on the Apple menu appearing at the upper-left side of your Mac’s screen and further select System Preferences. Besides this, the System Preferences app can also be launched.

2. Further, press the Spotlight icon.

3. Now, tap on the tab related to Privacy.

4. Then, press the “+” button.

5. Lastly, choose an external drive or folder that you don’t want to get indexed any further in the search results of Spotlight. Following an alternate method, you can directly drag and drop files and folders into the window. Once you have done that, Spotlight will not be performing any further searches in the location that has been specified.

6. In case re-indexing of the restricted folders is what you are looking for, head back to the Spotlight settings. Further, choose the specified folder from the list and tap on the “-” button to remove re-index it.

So, these were the ways using which you can restrict Spotlight from showing the specific list of files and folder(s) on your Mac. The steps mentioned above will help you shield your private files and folders from getting shown in the search results by Spotlight. No doubt, you would want to keep your personal data hidden from the prying eyes, and following the steps mentioned above will help you do so with ease.

Dane Foster is a software enthusiast who aims to share his insights so as to help the customers understand what are the software about and how to use it beneficially. This time he has come up with a blog on McAfee.com/activate to guide the users on how to download, install, and access the software.

Source: Spotlight on Mac