Sherlock and the Can't Index message

Apr 13, '01 12:56:34AM

Contributed by: robg

If your Sherlock screen has a "Can't Index" message next to your OS X volume, this is actually normal. The reasons why are detailed in Apple's Tech Info Library, in this article:

http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n106206

The gist of the article is that Sherlock can't index the entire drive, since OS X is a multi-user system. If it were to index the entire drive, you'd be able to see files and folders that may not be yours. So it indexes your home directory (which shows up as a separate, indexed "volume" in Sherlock), and blocks you from searching portions of the OS X drive that you may not have rights to examine.

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Mac OS X Hints
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