How macOS actually works

Search and privacy

Updated 2026-07-31 · 4 min read

Local file search is local. Some of what appears alongside it is not.

What stays on your Mac

The file index itself. Filenames, contents, metadata — all stored locally in .Spotlight-V100 on each volume. Searching your own files does not require a network.

What can leave

Siri Suggestions. When enabled, Spotlight sends a query — and some context — to Apple to return web results, definitions and suggested sites. Apple documents this and uses a rotating identifier rather than your Apple ID, but the query does leave the machine.

Safari Suggestions does the same thing in the browser address bar.

Turning it off

System Settings → Siri & Spotlight → uncheck Siri Suggestions and any web-related categories. Local file search is unaffected and usually feels faster afterwards.

For Safari: Safari → Settings → Search → uncheck Include Safari Suggestions.

Verifying

Little Snitch or LuLu will show you exactly what a search triggers. This is the honest way to check any claim about network behaviour, including claims made by app vendors.

What to ask of a third-party search tool

• Does it make network requests at all?
• Does it phone home for licensing, and what does that transmit?
• Is there analytics or crash reporting, and can it be disabled?
• Is the index stored locally, and where?

For what it is worth: Everywhere's index is one local file and the app makes no analytics or telemetry requests. Licence activation does contact the payment provider once, which is worth stating plainly rather than claiming the app never touches the network at all.

Common questions

Does Spotlight send my searches to Apple?

Only when Siri Suggestions is enabled, and only for the web-suggestion portion. Local file search stays on the Mac.

How can I verify what an app sends?

A network monitor such as Little Snitch or LuLu shows outbound connections per app.