How to Fix Windows Spotlight not Working

Using the powerful Windows Spotlight feature, you can let Windows set background images for lock and login screen automatically. Here, it searches amazing images from Bing and displays them on your lock screen. If you have noticed that images aren’t changed on lock screen for many days now, probably Windows Spotlight isn’t working right. To fix Windows Spotlight not working issues on your Windows 10 PC, follow steps mentioned below.

How to fix Windows 10 Spotlight not working?

There are multiple solutions to fix Spotlight not working on Windows 10. Some of these solutions include:

Solution 1: Check the network connection

The first quick solution is to check the network. As Microsoft Spotlight uses the internet to download background images, you need to ensure your system is connected to the network. Once you turn on your PC, check Wi-Fi or LAN connection enabled status on your PC. You can find it on the taskbar at the bottom right corner.

Solution 2: Disable Windows Spotlight Service

Next solution is to stop the Windows Spotlight service and switch to it again. To disable Windows Spotlight on your PC, head to Start menu > Settings > Personalization. On the next window, select Lock Screen from the left pane. Click on Background drop-down in the right pane and select Picture or Slideshow. Once done, reboot your PC, and switch to Spotlight.

Solution 3: Use Powershell to Re-register the Windows Spotlight

In case the above steps didn’t work, you need to re-register the Windows Spotlight service using Powershell. To do this, follow steps mentioned in solution 2 until the reboot. Once done, open Command Prompt as administrator. To do this, you can search and select Command Prompt from the search box on the taskbar. Once selected, right click on it and select Run as Administrator. Now that  you are on Command Prompt window, input the following commands and hit Enter:

Powershell

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Now that you have completed this step, next is to tweak the Personalization settings again that we have changed in solution 2. Here, you need to change it back to Windows Spotlight. Reboot your PC and check if Windows Spotlight has started working.

Solution 4: Reset Spotlight settings

The next step is to reset Spotlight settings. To do press Win + R keys to open Run box. Here, input below location and press Enter:

%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings

Now you will be on a new window. Here you will find roaming.lock and settings.dat files. You need to rename settings.dat to settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock to roaming.lock.bak. Once done, restart your PC and check if Windows Spotlight not working error is fixed.

Solution 5: Delete Spotlight files

The images displayed on lock/login screen by Spotlight are fetched from Bing. If any of these images are corrupt, you may encounter Windows Spotlight not working on your PC. To fix the error, you may need to delete these files. To do this, press the Win + R keys to open the Run box. Type below command and press Enter.

%USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets

Now you will be on new window. Here, select all the files and delete them. Reboot your PC to fix Windows Spotlight not working issue.

Solution 6: Update device drivers

Another possible reason behind Windows Spotlight not working could be corrupt, outdated, or incompatible device drivers. Here, you need to update all these drivers to fix the problem with Windows Spotlight. To update drivers manually, follow steps mentioned below:

• Right click on Start menu and select Device Manager.
• On the Device Manager window, expand one of the categories for which you want to update the driver
• Once you expand the category, you will find multiple device types here. Right click on it individually and click Update Driver

Now it will ask you to browse the location for driver update or let Windows search and install latest drivers on your PC. You can select one of these options and continue the on screen instructions to complete the process.

Note: In case you have selected to browse the location for the device driver file, you need to ensure you have downloaded the latest driver file from the device manufacturer’s website first.

Try best driver updater software:

If you find manually updating drivers too complicated to perform, then you can use driver updater software for instant and effective results. One such tool is Smart Driver Care that helps you update all your outdated, corrupt, and incompatible drivers in one click. It takes backup of your existing drivers as well to help you undo action if something goes wrong with a driver update.

These were a few quick steps to fix Windows Spotlight not working on Windows 10. Do try these steps and share your feedback in the comments below.

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