Bug with Spotlight Search. How to fix/restart?

There's a bug with my Spotlight Search. For example, when I search for "script editor", normally the search result would show the script editor app in Applications, but now it doesn't:

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Without restarting the computer, is there a way to simply restart or refresh Spotlight Search?

(I've tried Relaunching Finder multiple times but it doesn't work.)

Finder itself is working fine, other than the fact that Ctrl-F Search will not show any results while being stuck at Searching "foobar", and <Recents> (in the sidetab) shows a blank page and no results.


- I'm sure this bug can be fixed by restarting the computer, as it has happened several times before in the past.

Solution 1:

Have you checked System Preferences > Spotlight, to see whether Applications are included in the results?

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Otherwise, you may need to reindex your Spotlight database.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201716

Drag the disk "Macintosh HD" onto the Privacy panel of System Preference > Spotlight, and then click - to remove it from the window.