1. Diagnosing the problem
  2. Enabling indexing at the filesystem root
  3. BONUS: Enable indexing of external hard drives

After upgrading to macOS Big Sur I noticed that Spotlight would no longer list any local applications or files.

Diagnosing the problem

Open Terminal, and type sudo mdutil -sa. Your password will be requested. You will see something like this:

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sudo mdutil -sa
Password:
/:
	Indexing and searching disabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
	Indexing enabled.

Enabling indexing at the filesystem root

In my system, I had Indexing and searching disabled. for /. I had to enable it again, using these commands:

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cd /
sudo mdutil -a -i on

Resulting output:

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/:
	Indexing enabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
	Indexing enabled.

Done! Indexing is now enabled for / and Spotlight starts indexing again (you will see the progress bar when pressing Cmd+Space).

After a while, local apps and files start appearing in the list.

BONUS: Enable indexing of external hard drives

Run this Terminal command:

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sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpotlightServer.plist ExternalVolumesIgnore -bool False

Then, go to your external hard drive directory (using cd) and enter:

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➜  Backups sudo mdutil -a -i on
/:
	Indexing enabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
	Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/Backups:
	Indexing enabled.

You will see Indexing enabled just below your external hard drive.

To disable indexing of external hard drives again, run this:

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sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SpotlightServer.plist ExternalVolumesIgnore -bool True

You will see Indexing and searching disabled. this time around.

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/:
	Indexing enabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
	Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/Backups:
	Indexing and searching disabled.