Mac OS X 10.5.6 Spotlight search returns no results from server shared folders

I am running 10.5.6 and am not seeing the issue.  A couple things to check.  First, if you mount a shared folder on a server can you see the files and folders on the share?  If not, I'd check to make sure that you have the right permissions as well as make sure that the Mac has the right settings in DNS and WINS, especially relating to the search domain settings and WINS settings for "workgroup". If the above is giving you issues, correct what's wrong so that you can navigate the share and then see if spotlight can search there.   You might also temporarily turn off the mac firewall if it's on.   If you're not seeing the above, I've seen some chatter that perhaps Spotlight's index may be problematic.  I've included a couple of links below about rebuilding the index and a general Spotlight tutorial.


http://www.wwco.com/~wls/blog/2007/08/29/rebuilding-spotlights-index-on-os-x-manually/

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/stopspotlightindex.html

@ MiniDevo. That is what I was afraid of....although I am confident this is not a corrupt install issue as there are 9 machines exhibiting the same behavior right after updating to 10.5.6. All other machines at 10.5.5 or 10.4.11 can all perform Spotlight searches to these shares as expected.

@jhyiesla I can mount the servers, see, open, save, and create new folders or files, etc.... there is no problem with permissions, DNS, WINS, AD, or OD settings. Same user logged into a different OS (10.4 or 10.5.5 and below) the search works as expected.

I have tried rebuilding the Spotlight indices using both of the methods outlined in the links you attached. The "Using Privacy" section, as well as using the Mdutil tool via the terminal. Both worked to rebuild the local indices for all of my hard drives and locally attached (FW or USB) external drives, but did not do anything for the server shares. Using the "mdutil -s /volume share" command I have verified that indexing is enabled on these shares....

For the record, I went as far as downloading and running the "Maintenance automator task referenced in the wwco.com site with the same results.

All of these tools seem to work but only on the local drives/shares.

FWIW, I have opened a case# with Applecare, but given my experience with them, I am not holding my breath. The issue blew by all of the User support techs there, and was passed to their Enterprise support, where they said "It is a known issue, but they do not have a fix for it yet", he recommended using the Archive and Install method, and continued to say that I should look for an "update via Software Update to fix it in the next couple of months".....

IMHO I expect to find a solution here sooner than there.

If I get an answer within a reasonable time, I will post it here for all to benefit.

Ok. Here is a new development that might shed some light on what is happening...
Although ALL my server share searches still come up with 0 Results, if I go into the share, open any existing folder (by double clicking into it) then that specific folder will show up in all of my subsequent Spotlight "Shared" searches. Interesting note is that the subfolders within that folder will not show up until I individually open each one of them....

I thought about it, but opening each folder/file individually is definitely not a workaround since this share has over 200 top level folders with at least 5-10 subfolders in each....~1.5 TB total.

Just not too hot on the idea of doing this on 10 workstations..... although I do intend to bite the bullet today and attempt to fix my workstation this way... That way I can see exactly how many app specific re-installs I have to do (ie. plugins and all the good stuff that I will not be able to copy straight over from the Previous System folder).

Ok. Just FYI I have an open Problem ID with Apple regarding this issue (6697853). They are aware of the issue and have stated that a new system update will be released to address this issue.... when? Who knows? Given the 10.5.6 update was made available sometime in Dec, I am not holding my breath waiting for the next one.

As a workaround, I have done an Archive and Install back to 10.5.4 (as that was the latest Intel Mac OS X Install Disc I have). And will probably look for the 10.5.5 standalone updater to bring up to that version.
Interesting thing I noted, is that the (Intel) Archive and Install's "Importing users and settings to new system" subroutines seem to be much better than prior versions at detecting and copying over user settings. I only had to re-install the virus protection and printers.

Not really solved but I will distribute points nonetheless. Thanks jhyiesla!

This has finally been fixed with the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update. Yeah!