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Pressing "command + space",i want to remove "Spotlight Search" placeholder text in it, i think its kind of disturbing. Is there any way do achieve this?
user956609
Posted 2020-02-12T16:56:28.237
Reputation: 3
How to remove "Spotlight Search" placeholder in macOS spotlight?
Answers
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System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Spotlight. Mine is set to F4, or you could just turn it off.
jimtut
Posted 2020-02-12T16:56:28.237
Reputation: 832
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Based on my previous answer (which was addressing the wrong problem) and the op's comments there, it looks like this string is stored in /System/Library/OnBoardingBundles/com.apple.onboarding.spotlightsearch.bundle/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/SpotlightSearch.strings for English systems. Similar/nearby location for other files.
However, you can no longer edit System files, AFAIK. This article shows a way around it: https://www.howtogeek.com/230424/how-to-disable-system-integrity-protection-on-a-mac-and-why-you-shouldnt/
It involves modifying NVRAM settings, something I'm not willing to try. But, if you are, also download this tools to edit those "binary" strings files: https://github.com/igorkulman/iOSLocalizationEditor
I used it to modify a copy of that .strings file, but I can't move it into place without also doing the NVRAM hack above.
If it works, let us know here!
jimtut
Posted 2020-02-12T16:56:28.237
Reputation: 832
i cant use that app edit it directly,
mv SpotlightSearch.strings /System/Library/OnBoardingBundles/com.apple.onboarding.spotlightsearch.bundle/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/
override rw-r--r-- root/wheel for /System/Library/OnBoardingBundles/com.apple.onboarding.spotlightsearch.bundle/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/SpotlightSearch.strings? (y/n [n]) y
mv: rename SpotlightSearch.strings to /System/Library/OnBoardingBundles/com.apple.onboarding.spotlightsearch.bundle/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/SpotlightSearch.strings: Read-only file system
shows read-only file system – user956609 – 2020-02-16T19:01:25.350
Yes, I know, I tried that too. That’s why I included that link on the NVRAM settings needed to edit the System folder. Apple really doesn’t want us editing in there anymore... – jimtut – 2020-02-16T23:09:55.473
i disabled SIP,and use mount -uw / ，then i can edit that file, delete "Spotlight Search",but after reboot, the text is still in that Input box – user956609 – 2020-02-22T02:50:55.137
i want hide "Spotlight Search" grey color placeholder text in that input box when not input anything, not disable spotlight search – user956609 – 2020-02-15T09:06:32.967
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood. I’m guessing that text is different in other countries/languages, so it’s likely that this is stored as a string inside a resource file. Open up Terminal and “cd” into /System (or /Library) and “grep -R” to find that string in a file. if it works, document it here, because you’ll likely need to redo that change with every macOS update. – jimtut – 2020-02-15T14:22:37.837
i find a dir like below "/System/Library/OnBoardingBundles/com.apple.onboarding.spotlightsearch.bundle/Contents/Resources"
dont know if this was,and many different language files there,but are binary files – user956609 – 2020-02-15T15:08:39.657