aliases showing up in all my search results

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Level 1

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aliases showing up in all my search results

Every time I do a search using spotlight or the search area in a window I get a ton of responses that are useless aliases, that cannot be clicked on. You can see in the image below that every file seems to have a useless alias. When I click on the alias, I get the pop up you see below. I tried going into system preferences and then Spotlight.. and then dragging my whole disk to the privacy section. Waiting and then removing the disk back out of privacy.. but that did not rectify the problem. Does anyone know what else I could do to get rid of these aliases? Thanks.

MacBook Pro 13″

Posted on Dec 2, 2022 6:52 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,273 points

Dec 2, 2022 3:11 PM in response to carol_joy

You may need to rebuild the spotlight index as described here:

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

85,273 points

Dec 2, 2022 3:10 PM in response to carol_joy

It is probably because the Spotlight index is messed up.

Follow the steps to create a smart folder here:

Create or change a Smart Folder on Mac - Apple Support

with the criteria I listed. You can even drag a known working JPEG image into the File type search field, and it will extract it from the known working file type. One that opens directly in the Finder in Preview or whatever your default application for JPEG is.

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Answer 3

a brody

Level 10

85,273 points

Dec 2, 2022 12:54 PM in response to carol_joy

Don't get rid of the alias, as that's the shortcut to where Photos believes the original file is stored. If you have disconnected a flash drive or external hard drive where it is stored, and was stored at the time of import, that explains the remaining alias.

You want to search for document type of JPEG and make sure the file is larger than 1 MB.

you can create a smart folder from the File menu of the Finder that fits those criteria.

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Answer 4

carol_joy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 2, 2022 1:05 PM in response to a brody

Thanks for replying but I'm not sure I understand. This is something that just started recently. I have not been doing anything differently. Everything is stored on my Mac... I have backup files on an external hard drive, but the original files are still on my Mac hard drive. And when the popup says the original document of the alias can't be found... well, it is just below it in the search! And that document can easily be opened.

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Answer 5

carol_joy Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 5, 2022 6:16 AM in response to a brody

Yes. Thank you. I just tried that. I still get a few aliases... but maybe it is still indexing. I will give it a while.

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aliases showing up in all my search results

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