How can I do a regular Spotlight search of my Time Machine backup?

[berlingoodman]

Hello,

Apologies if this question was answered already. I looked for search window, spotlight and time machine in the forums and couldn't find a solution to my problem.

I simply want to search for a specific file on my Time Machine backup (local, not network). Everytime I enter anything in the search window and direct it to any folder on my Time machine, 0 items comes up.

Why is this? Time Machine is not on my Privacy list in the Spotlight System Preferences. I even added it to Privacy and removed it in the hopes it would re-index. Nothing.

What's up with this? This happens on my 2021 iMac running Monterey, and my 2012 MacBookPro running Catalina (different Time Machine backups for each obviously).

Thanks all for any help!

 

[MacInWin]

Can't help with Spotlight, but you can search with Find Any File or EasyFind. You can find them at the developer websites, just do a search on the name.

 

[IWT]

I think this might help you:

Recover files using Time Machine and Spotlight on Mac

If you use Time Machine to back up your Mac, use Time Machine with Spotlight to recover lost or deleted items.

support.apple.com

If, following these instructions, you come across a problem, let us know.

BTW, the above link is for Monterey; but if you click on "Select version" at the top of the article, you can choose another OS including Catalina - just in case the instructions are different.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

What version of macOS are you attempting this?