Windows 10 Spotlight is not working

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I have been having trouble getting Windows Spotlight to work in Windows 10 21H2. Following various bits of advice I have found on the Internet what I have done so far (with the spotlight turned off) is:-

1. Run sfc /scannow
2. Run DISM to restore health
3. Run a batch file containing the following to reset and re-register Windows Spotlight:-
<beginning of batch file>
:: Reset Windows Spotlight
DEL /F /S /Q /A “%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets”
DEL /F /S /Q /A “%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings”

:: Re-register Windows Spotlight
PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command “& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage *ContentDeliveryManager*).InstallLocation + ‘\AppxManifest.xml’ ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}”
<end of batch file>

All this was completed about a week ago now and all to no avail. I have read that others have experienced this problem too, I have got the media creation tool for 21H2 and I wondered if running that would make any difference.

Has anybody got any ideas of what else I could do to get Spotlight back?

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Did you follow all the steps at Reset and Re-register Windows Spotlight in Windows 10 | Tutorials (tenforums.com)?

--Joe

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@PaulB –

It sounds as if you’ve done part of the procedure outlined in @joep517 ‘s link above. Although you’ve already done the middle part of it, the part involving the batch file, can you please visit the link mentioned above and perform all of the steps indicated in the order presented?

Please report back here once you’ve done that to let us know how it went. If you still need help at that point, it will gladly be given.  🙂

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@joep517 and @Bob99 Thanks both for the information. I will work through the step, hopefully, on Sunday afternoon and get back to you by Tuesday (given that it can apparently take Spotlight up to 48hrs to sync).

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Sounds good. As a minor “heads up”, I just went through and read the instructions on the link that @joep517 posted above, and I wanted to add emphasis to one of the first items that’s pointed out.

That emphasis is to only turn on Microsoft Edge as a background app if it appears in the list. So, in the first step, if you don’t see Microsoft Edge listed as an app that you can “turn on” to run in the background, then don’t worry about it, but make sure that Settings and Microsoft Store are turned on as background apps.

The way the instructions are written on the Tenforums page made me overlook that fact about Microsoft Edge until I’d read them for a second time much more slowly than the first time. Because of that, I thought I’d add the emphasis.

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Firstly, apologies for my earlier post where I posted without logging in.

In looking at the instructions I realised that I had missed out some of what I did before (i.e. the beginning and the end) but I worked through the instructions again just to make sure I had covered everything. I had come across the issue of Edge not being listed in apps but I followed the instructions here How to prevent new Microsoft Edge from running in the background on Windows 10 | Windows Central to make sure it was running in the background i.e. I didn’t have to change anything in Edge itself.

Having gone through all the steps (and completing them about 48hrs ago having got them done earlier than expected), I have attached an image of what I see for the lock screen settings and this image hasn’t changed.

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Have you tried the instruction here : https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-windows-spotlight-stuck-same-image-windows-10

I am using slideshow with Windows 10 (now 21H2) and the background changes every couple of minutes.

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I believe I have, thanks. I don’t know what the difference is between those instructions and the ones I followed on tenforums.com. At first, I thought the difference was the Powershell suggestion but that command is in the bat file that I downloaded for tenforums.

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What I do find interesting is that the image I have posted above is the same as the one shown in examples of how to start Windows Spotlight. It would seem that Spotlight is set up but just not starting at the moment.

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