Apple - Spotlight on Mac doesn't accept keyboard input
This seems to have worked. I'd still be interested in other answers people might have, in case there's something better.
- Run Activity Monitor
- Type "spotlight" in the search field.
- Several items will be remain. Select the one just named "Spotlight". Use the "x" button at the upper left corner of the window to kill it.
Spotlight automatically re-launches, and now works.
A more faster way than the GUI is through Terminal:
- Run Terminal (via Application panel -> Other -> Terminal)
- Type:
killall Spotlight
Spotlight will restart and be operational.
If the above mentioned are not working then give a try for this:
- Open Terminal
Type - not copy! - the following but wait a few second between them:
sudo mdutil -i off / sudo mdutil -i on / sudo mdutil -E /
If, after a few minutes, Spotlight is still not indexing, try running this command, followed by the three commands above:
sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100
This is the site where the help comes from, big thanks for it!:
https://www.amsys.co.uk/blog/how-to-fix-spotlight-search-on-a-mac/