How can I re-enable the Spotlight icon?

rimanere1 August 29, 2011
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I removed the Spotlight icon from the menu bar by entering the following command for Snow Leopard: sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search;

I thought it will only get rid of the icon, but I cannot access Spotlight anymore. Is there a command to re-enable Spotlight back to my Mac?
Thank you in advance!

  1. Rimanere1
    August 30, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    Thanks Mike, I followed your advice and Spotlight is working like a charm. I sincerely hope you can get the reward as the best answer of the week. From now on, I won't play around with the chmod on files located on my system folder. I also want to thank ha14 for trying.

    • Mike
      August 30, 2011 at 5:25 pm

      Thank you~ I'm glad I could help.

      I guess never is an exaggerated expression. There are times where it is appropriate or has some use to it but the key is doing your own research.

      • Rimanere1
        September 11, 2011 at 2:18 am

        Mike, Congratulations on winning the best answer of the week.

  2. Anonymous
    August 30, 2011 at 10:10 am

    From anothe MAC find a copy of the Resources directory and place it back in the proper location

    To get Spotlight icon back
    $ sudo mv Search2.bundle/ Search.bundle/
    restart SystemUIServer again...

    To revert the changes replace +a with -a in the chmod command:$ cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS
    $ sudo chmod -a "USER_SHORT_NAME deny read,execute" Search
    $ killall -HUP SystemUIServer

    from a terminal
    > sudo su
    password: (write your administration password)
    > cd /
    > ln -s /private/tmp ./tmp

    ONYX
    Possible can be of help and its free, under maintenance you can reset spotlight i think
    http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/OnyX.shtml

  3. Mike
    August 30, 2011 at 8:36 am

    You should never use chmod on files located within the System folder on your Hard Drive! You didn't get rid of the icon instead you changed the permission so that your user isn't allowed to access this file [and in this case the entire search function].

    option 1. use the same command again but set the permissions to 755 (read, write & execute for the owner, read & execute for group and all)

    option 2. open the Disk Utility and run Repair Permissions on your Hard Disk

    Actually, I would run both in the same order just in case. You will have to make a reboot after the change.