How to prevent Spotlight to search specific items on iPhone and Mac

Spotlight is a great way to find things on your Mac OS X and iOS devices, like iPhone or iPad. However, you may try to keep some stuffs private/separate, and would not want Spotlight to show those items while is being search. It can be done easily and we will tell you how.

How to prevent Spotlight to search specific items on Mac OS X

Go to System preferences on your Mac, and click on Spotlight

Click on Search Result tab, and uncheck any of the items listed there that you don’t want to appear in Spotlight Search result. For example : unchecking Mail and Messages will stop Mac to to search any item from your email or messages when you type anything in Spotlight search

Now if you want Spotlight not to search any specific folder or item, you can click on Privacy, and then click on + sign, and can choose any folder or app that you want to exclude from Spotlight search

That’s it, and you are done.

How to stop Spotlight to search from any specific app on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

1. Go to the Settings on your iOS device
2. Tap on General
3. Tap on Spotlight Search
4. Now you can disable any apps, and Spotlight Search will not check those apps when you search anything. You can also stop Siri Suggestions if you want

Like Mac, iOS devices don’t have an option to create folder or put additional files. All the files are stores in the suitable apps, so disabling app is the only option.