Blog
Notes from the launcher
Product updates, deep dives into keyboard-first workflows, and the occasional rant about Spotlight. Written by the CmdSpace team.
Spotlight on macOS Tahoe can't find your files? Six fixes that actually work
You type a filename you know is on disk. Spotlight returns nothing — or worse, it returns the file's parent folder but not the file itself. On macOS Tahoe 26 this has become common enough that the TidBits forum keeps a running thread about…
mdworker eating your CPU on macOS? Here's what to do in 2026
If your fans suddenly sound like a jet engine and Activity Monitor shows a process named mdworkershared or mdsstores near the top, you have already met Spotlight's indexer. On a healthy machine the indexer should be invisible — it runs in…
Rebuild the Spotlight index in 2026: the only guide you need
A Spotlight rebuild is the macOS equivalent of "have you tried turning it off and on again?" — boring, slightly slow, and effective often enough to be the first real fix to try when search results stop matching reality. This guide is the l…
The lsof port cheatsheet for macOS developers
lsof is the standard tool for answering "what is using this port" on macOS. It is also one of the most cryptic command-line tools you will use this week. The man page is 300 lines of options, most of which you will never touch. This post i…
Why `git checkout` triggers a Spotlight storm (and how to stop it for good)
You run git checkout main. Three seconds later, your fan spins up. Activity Monitor shows mdworkershared at 280% CPU. Your battery icon turns yellow. The build you wanted to start is now waiting on the indexer to settle.
The Finder shortcuts cheatsheet every macOS user should know
Finder is the macOS app most users touch dozens of times a day, and the macOS app most users use the slowest. Apple has spent twenty years adding keyboard shortcuts to Finder; most users have memorized seven of them.