[bbales]

A few weeks ago I was using spotlight quite a bit to find some older files for a project I was working on. The computer froze while Spotlight (using it fro the menu bar); I had to restart.

Since then, Spotlight will no longer work from the menu bar. I can type text but nothing happens. It just sits there. Now, if I do an apple/find and call up the bigger spotlight window, Spotlight does find things. But it won't work from the menu bar at all.

Any ideas? I wonder if I upgrade to the latest OS, it might solve the problem. I can't remember what I'm running now (and I'm on my laptop or yes, I would check), but it's certainly not the latest.

Repairing permissions hasn't helped, nor has a simple restart. I will probably try a disk utility next.

[Simon]

If you open Activity Monitor and force quit the SystemUIServer process, does the menu bar Spotlight start to work again?

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by Simon 

If you open Activity Monitor and force quit the WindowServer process, does the menu bar Spotlight start to work again?

Don't you mean the SystemUIServer? I'm not sure force quitting the WindowServer is a good idea. And he restartet, so that would have taken care of relaunching it anyway.

I would suggest you trash the preferences of the SystemUIServer, log out and try whether that fixes the problem.

[Simon]

Yeah, of course. Stupid mistake. Obviously WindowServer would be a bad idea, because it will just log you out. Thanks for pointing that ut. I corrected it in my original post.

In the past I have been able to solve menu bar problems (including Spotlight not searching) by restarting SystemUIServer.

[bbales]

I'll give that a try. Thanks! It's aggravating not to have it working.

[ctw]

I've had the same problem. and found that if I change the monitor resolution, Spotlight works right. I then change back to the original resolution and the problem is solved—at least until the next time I log on.

It's certainly not an ideal fix; more of an annoying work-around. Funny thing is that recently the problem disappeared, and I don't remember doing anything special.

[bbales]

Well, on a whim, I just tried it -- and it's working. Don't know why -- the only change was that I did ANOTHER restart, because the whole computer was just running so slowly. Maybe that did the trick. Very strange. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

[JohnnyZ]

If found the same. I suppose the resolution change makes sense. I think Spotlight is actually working, you just can't see the menu drop down because it is misplaced. Changing the resolution probably helps reset the coordinates where OSX displays the Spotlight menu.

[JKT]

This occurs when you have corrupt com.apple.systemuiserver.plist preference files in your ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Preferences/ByHosts folders. If you delete those files and restart (note, you will lose any additions and modifications to the menubar icons you have made), the problem will go away.