How to Rebuild Spotlight Index on a Mac

MacOS (OS 13+ and later)

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Siri & Spotlight in the sidebar, then scroll down and click Spotlight Privacy on the right.
3. Click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add.
4. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added, then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list.
5. Click Done, then quit System Settings. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the disk or folder.

Earlier versions of MacOS

1. Open System Preferences, then click Spotlight.
2. Click the Privacy tab.
3. Click the add button (+) and select the disk or folder to add.
4. From the same list of locations, select the disk or folder that you just added then click the remove button (–) to remove it from the list.
5. Quit System Preferences. Spotlight will reindex the contents of the disk or folder.

Note:  It may take some time for index to fully rebuild.