How to exclude Developer category from Spotlight in macOS

Spotlight is an integral search feature in macOS, providing quick access to documents, apps, emails, and more. It can index and categorize your content, making it faster to search and find what you need. One of these categories is the Developer category, which consists of developer-related files like source code, scripts, and more.

While Spotlight is a powerful tool, not all users want every category indexed, especially if they seldom use it. Excluding categories can help in decluttering search results and improving performance. For developers, it might make sense to keep the Developer category indexed, but for those who don't frequently use developer-related files, excluding them can make the search experience more streamlined.

Here’s how you can exclude the Developer category from Spotlight in macOS:

1. Click on the Apple logo located at the top-left corner of the screen.
2. Choose System Preferences from the dropdown menu.
3. Navigate to Spotlight to open Spotlight preferences.
4. Under the Search Results tab, you'll see a list of categories that Spotlight indexes.
5. Uncheck the Developer category from the list.
6. Close the Spotlight preferences window to save changes.
7. Wait a few moments. Spotlight will automatically update its index and the Developer category will no longer appear in your search results.