Spotlight missing after macOS Sequoia 15.6 update

Spotlight is a service I use regularly; yesterday my MacBook received the latest update to Sequoia 15.6, and the first thing I noticed was that pressing COMMAND+SPACE no longer displayed Spotlight. Are there other users having the same problem? Is there a way to fix it?



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Spotlight disappeared after update

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 7, 2025 06:38 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2025 09:56 AM

Great tip!


I noticed I no longer had the magnifying glass in the menu bar, but I probably removed it because I was using the keyboard shortcut.

I reactivated the magnifying glass in the menu bar, and clicking it didn't do anything.


Since I have two screens, I tried clicking the magnifying glass on both, and on one, I noticed something on the edge when I clicked... basically, SPOTLIGHT, for some reason, had moved almost completely off the screen and so I couldn't notice when it was activated.


Now I've dragged it back to the middle of the screen!


Thanks so much to you and everyone else for your help.

21 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 7, 2025 09:56 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Great tip!


I noticed I no longer had the magnifying glass in the menu bar, but I probably removed it because I was using the keyboard shortcut.

I reactivated the magnifying glass in the menu bar, and clicking it didn't do anything.


Since I have two screens, I tried clicking the magnifying glass on both, and on one, I noticed something on the edge when I clicked... basically, SPOTLIGHT, for some reason, had moved almost completely off the screen and so I couldn't notice when it was activated.


Now I've dragged it back to the middle of the screen!


Thanks so much to you and everyone else for your help.

Aug 10, 2025 04:24 PM in response to FabInxide

I had the same problem after OS upgrade. But I finally found out that the missing Spotlight search popup windown is actually hidden out of the display, leaving a very thin line on the edge.


So you don't have to rebuild index. All I did is to press cmd+space, find the thin line on the right edge of screen, drag it back to the center of screen. Spotlight search popup will be back ! :-)

Aug 10, 2025 05:01 PM in response to FabInxide

FabInxide wrote:

Great tip!

I noticed I no longer had the magnifying glass in the menu bar, but I probably removed it because I was using the keyboard shortcut.
I reactivated the magnifying glass in the menu bar, and clicking it didn't do anything.

Since I have two screens, I tried clicking the magnifying glass on both, and on one, I noticed something on the edge when I clicked... basically, SPOTLIGHT, for some reason, had moved almost completely off the screen and so I couldn't notice when it was activated.

Now I've dragged it back to the middle of the screen!

Thanks so much to you and everyone else for your help.


If you press and hold down on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar— it will return the missing window to the default location on your screen...if that is youe issue(?)

Aug 7, 2025 06:59 AM in response to FabInxide

FabInxide wrote:

Spotlight is a service I use regularly; yesterday my MacBook received the latest update to Sequoia 15.6, and the first thing I noticed was that pressing COMMAND+SPACE no longer displayed Spotlight. Are there other users having the same problem? Is there a way to fix it?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Spotlight disappeared after update



Have you shut down and restarted your Mac more than once since your "update"....(?)

Aug 7, 2025 07:46 AM in response to FabInxide

OP wrote " Thanks for your quick reply. I tried disabling and re-enabling the shortcuts, but nothing. Alt+Command+Space works perfectly, but Command+Space doesn't."


The Alt+ Command+Space ( implied ) BAR )


Mac keyboard shortcuts

  • Command–Space bar: Show or hide the Spotlight search field. To perform a Spotlight search from a Finder window, press Command–Option–Space bar



Aug 27, 2025 05:17 AM in response to FabInxide

Hi, I had the same problem with Spotlight on my Mac Book Pro (M3 Max) since I updated to Sequoia 15.6.1.


The fix mentioned here did not work easily for me. I had also a kind of "glitch" on one corner of my screen. But I was not able to grab it into the center.


I had no idea how it finally works, but by pressing like 2 or 3 seconds on the spotlight icon in the menu bar, spotlight suddenly reappears in the middle of my screen.


Hope it helps, Cedric

Spotlight missing after macOS Sequoia 15.6 update

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