How to Use Spotlight Search on a Mac

Spotlight is the built-in search built into every modern Mac. If you are coming from Windows, think of it as the equivalent of the Start-menu search box or Windows Search — but faster to reach and available from any app. Everything below is written for current macOS, which uses System Settings (the app that replaced the older System Preferences).

There are three ways to bring up the Spotlight search field, and they are the same three Apple lists in Search with Spotlight on Mac:

1. Press Command–Space bar — this works from the desktop and from inside almost any app.
2. Click the Spotlight icon (the magnifying glass) in the menu bar, if it is shown.
3. On keyboards that have one, press the dedicated Search key in the function row.

Type your query and results appear as you type. To close Spotlight without opening anything, press Esc, or press Command–Space bar again.

The most common use is launching apps and opening documents:

1. Open Spotlight with Command–Space bar.
2. Type part of the name — for example saf for Safari, or a few words from a document's title or contents.
3. Spotlight highlights its best match at the top. Press Return to open it, or click the result you want.

Spotlight searches file names and the text inside many documents, so you can find a file by a phrase you remember from inside it, not just its title. It also matches contacts, Mail messages, Calendar events, System Settings panes and more.

You can drive the whole results list without reaching for the mouse:

1. Use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys to move through the results.
2. Selecting a file shows a preview on the right — a Quick Look–style panel with the document's contents, image, map location or other details.
3. Press Return (or double-click) to open the selected item.
4. To jump to a file's location in Finder instead of opening it, select it and press and hold the Command key — the path to the file is shown at the bottom of the preview. .
5. To reuse an earlier search, press the ↑ arrow key when the search field is empty to see previous searches.

Spotlight is a fast, hidden calculator and reference tool. You do not need to open any app first:

• Calculations: type an expression such as 1280*0.15 or (45+55)/4 and the answer appears instantly.
• Unit conversions: type something like 10 km in miles or 72 f in c.
• Currency conversions: type an amount and currencies, for example 50 usd in eur.
• Definitions: type a word to see its dictionary entry.

Press Return or Command–C to copy a result where offered.

When your query is not an app or a local file, Spotlight offers web results and suggestions. Selecting a web result opens it in your default browser. Spotlight can also surface things like Maps locations, movie times and sports scores in supported regions. If you would rather keep Spotlight to your own files, you can turn these online categories off — see Tune what Spotlight indexes below.

Recent versions of macOS turn Spotlight from a search box into a small command bar. Depending on your macOS version and region, you may be able to run quick actions directly from Spotlight — for example creating a reminder, sending a message, starting a note or running one of your Shortcuts — without leaving the keyboard. Spotlight can assign short quick keys so a task you use often can be triggered with just a couple of characters, and on-device intelligence surfaces the apps, files and actions that are most relevant to what you are doing.

These features build on the same search field, so nothing here changes the basics: press Command–Space bar, type, and press Return.

If Spotlight shows categories you never use — or hides ones you want — adjust its settings:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu () or from the Dock.
2. Click Spotlight in the sidebar — the label Apple uses in its own Spotlight settings instructions (you may need to scroll down).
3. Under Search results, tick or untick each category — such as Applications, Documents, Contacts, Mail & Messages or web suggestions — to control what Spotlight returns.
4. Close System Settings. Changes take effect on your next search.

Turning a category off both hides it from results and stops Spotlight offering it, which is a quick way to make searches tidier and faster.

You can stop Spotlight from indexing and returning results from specific folders or disks — useful for a work archive, a backup drive or anything private:

1. Open System Settings and click Spotlight in the sidebar.
2. Scroll down and click the Search Privacy button near the bottom — Apple's Prevent Spotlight searches in folders or disks places it in the lower right of the pane.
3. Click the add (+) button and choose the folder or disk to exclude, or drag it into the list.
4. Close the window. Spotlight will no longer index or show results from anything in that list until you remove it.