Unity Search Not Working [closed]

Question

When I attempt a search after hitting Super, the spinner spins, but no results come up once the spinning stops. I'm not sure what changed that caused this. I had a newer kernel installed, but I have since reverted back to the default kernel.

I also followed this guide: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-reset-unity-launcher-icons-or.html

• Alt+F2 does not work.
• The packages unity-place-applications and unity-place-files are installed.

But search still doesn't function correctly.

Answer 1

Try stopping and re-starting Zeitgeist daemon (background task).

open Terminal (search for 'term', in Dash)

(to halt)
zeitgeist-daemon --quit

(restart)
zeitgeist-daemon &

And, as suggested (by RobinJ), watch the activity.

If it is giving errors, and/or otherwise not working, you can clear all history:

(halt)
zeitgeist-daemon --quit

(check/remove files)
ls -l ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/

sudo rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite.bck  (if present)
sudo rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite-journal  (if present)
sudo rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite

(re-start)
zeitgeist-daemon &

UPDATE:

Add these paths to excluded: (edit to match your setup)

/home/[user]/.thunderbird/#####.default/Cache
/home/[user]/.mozilla/firefox/#####.default/Cache

Answer 2

Try running sudo zeitgeist-daemon in a terminal window. While it's running, does the search function work?

Answer 3

Check to see if you have a filter activated, it has happened to me before.

Answer 4

If mainly the files&folders results are missing, you can try following, it helped me:

zeitgeist-daemon --quit
cd ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/
rm -rvf fts.index/
zeitgeist-daemon