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Pro plugin

Spotlight Metadata

Collects Spotlight search shortcuts, preferences, volume configuration, and raw metadata stores from macOS

system.spotlightPromacOS 10.15+v1.0.0systemmetadatasearch

Run this plugin

Trigger collection for Spotlight Metadata on its own with the --plugin flag, or include it in a wider sweep by category.

# Just this plugin
macfor-pro collect --plugin system.spotlight --output ./evidence.zip

# Dry run — list what would be collected
macfor-pro collect --plugin system.spotlight --dry-run

Compatibility

  • macOS 10.15+

Licensing: ships in the macfor-pro binary. See Community vs Pro.

Artifacts collected (5)

Each row corresponds to an entry in the plugin's artifacts.yaml manifest. Optional artifacts are skipped unless explicitly enabled.

history

ArtifactFormatPathNotes
Spotlight Shortcuts
spotlight_shortcuts
binary_plist~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist
+2 more
  • ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.spotlight.Shortcuts
  • ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.spotlight.Shortcuts.v3
—

config

ArtifactFormatPathNotes
Spotlight Preferences
spotlight_preferences
binary_plist~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist
+1 more
  • /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Spotlight.plist
—
Spotlight Volume Configuration
spotlight_volume_config
binary_plist/.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
+1 more
  • /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration.plist
—

metadata

ArtifactFormatPathNotes
Spotlight Volume Store
spotlight_volume_storeOptionalOpt-in
binary/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/*/store.db
+1 more
  • /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/*/store.db
Proprietary binary format (NOT SQLite). Use spotlight_parser or mac_apt for offline parsing.
User CoreSpotlight Store
spotlight_user_storeOptionalOpt-in
binary~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/index.spotlightV3/store.dbSame proprietary format as volume store. Contains app-contributed searchable data.