Force Spotlight to Index a FW HDD

Hello!
Well, I recently aquired (as in 2 days ago) a Seagate 400GB FireWire/USB drive. I have it connected via FW.
Well, after formatting it to Mac Extended format, I partitioned it for a 60G section (intended for a secondary boot volume) and a 320 GB volume.
Yesterday, I coppied all 6 gig of data from our old G4's hard drive. Tonight, I want to look for a couple of files - but spotlight hasn't indexed anything - so not even find will find the files.
How do you force spotlight to index a hard drive?
-Dan

To force a volume to index just drag it into the privacy window for a moment and then drag it out.
-mj
[email protected]

Similar Messages

Forcing Spotlight to index dot directories (& contents thereof)

I commonly need to find files hidden in dot directories of my computer. I am given to understand that Spotlight does not index hidden directories by default. I'd like to know if there is a way to force indexing of the +contents of hidden directories.+ According to an old doc I found online, the mdimport -f option used to this, but -f is obsoleted in Leopard. Is there another way?
If not, why? It's inconvenient enough to have to manually do it. It's atrocious if there's no way at all.

Actually you can search things that are simply hidden, such as /private. Just go there using the "Go To Folder" item in the Finder's Go menu, or use the open command in Terminal, or make aliases to all the ones you want to quickly open and double click the alias (this is what I have done). So open /private, and hit Command-F, then click "private" in the Search window toolbar, and set your seach. For instance, if I do that and select Name:contains:make, I instantly get two files listed
/private/var/yp/Makefile.main
/private/var/yp/Makefile.yp
The problem is that searching for content in pretty much any of those places is basically fruitless, because all, or nearly all, the files are things that do not have mdimporters (and why a perfectly ordinary plain text file isn't handled, just because it doesn't have a .txt extension, when Finder itself can identify the file as plain text, well, I'm at a loss to understand that). Whether the files would be indexed at to content if there were an mdimporter for them, I just don't know.
You can do the same sort of thing with dot folders: open it by "Go to" or with an open command, then hit Command-F to bring up the search window. But again you will be able to search by name, even date, but the content searches won't work. In this case I happen to know that the items are not actually handled by their mdimporters, even when there is an mdimporter. The only information available to spotlight is the basic file system information, name, extension, size and dates.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Spotlight stopped indexing?!

I have recently upgraded firefox 3 (but just drag and drop and replacing the old one) and also Skype to the most update to date version. However, spotlight can not find these... I use bootcamp and parallels for windows XP system and the spotlight will only show the windows version of the software!!!
Help! Is there a way to force spotlight to index everything? I have checked everything in the preference panel. Is my spotlight somehow corrupted? If so, is there a way to fix it?
Thank you in advance for all your help!

Hello everyone! I am having the same problem with my Spotlight not indexing anymore. In fact, when I use Spotlight, putting in a term that I KNOW a file exists for, it returns the error "nothing found." I used the following tip found on the site to manually turn on indexing (or so it said) but still no indexing. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do? It's really becoming a pain not having spotlight work. Thanks to everyone!! P DUB
(Here is the solution I tried that didn't seem to work--at least not for me---I will say this however:
AFTER I completed these steps, I did get a message in TERMINAL that said "indexing enabled." which was encouraging---but spotlight has still not indexed!! Again, any ideas??
This tip is useful, but a way too complicated way to do this. A better and simpler solution is as follows:
1. Login in to your server as an administrator.
2. Open the Terminal application (in your /Applications/Utilities folder)
3. Type the following exactly as written in to the Terminal:
sudo rm /.metadataneverindex
It will ask you for your password. I have never seen this file, so you may get a "file not found" error - in which case move on to step 4 anyway.
4. Type the following in to the Terminal:
sudo mdutil -i on / 
5. Spotlight in the right corner of your server login should indicate it is indexing, and before long will start working.
I don't believe editing of hostconfig is required at all, and you don't need to do all this stuff with making invisible files visible since you are already in the Terminal anyway.)
THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP!! P DUB OKC

IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION

For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
- Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
- The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
- Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
- From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
- Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
- Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
Quit iPhoto
Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
- Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
- After some time, a message should come up saying:
* Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
- When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
Open iPhoto
- Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
- Click the Keywords tab
- Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
- Close out of iPhoto preferences
- From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
- Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
- Select the Keywords tab
- CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
- UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
- Quit iPhoto
Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
Thanks.
Graham

IPhoto/Spotlight not indexing SOLUTION *edit

For those iPhoto 6 users whoose comments and keywords not being indexed by Spotlight, here is the solution to your problem!
If you are getting * Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
ERROR: syntax error (<key>PhotoCount</key>) when you try to manually index your iPhoto library with mdimport, this will solve your problem!
You can only have single-line comments on your photos:
- Create a smart album: "Comments... contains... [option][return]"
Note: press option+return with your keyboard... the box will appear blank
- The smart album should become populated with photos where you entered a comment containing a character return
- Click the ( i ) in the bottom left-hand corner to draw up the info for each file, and manually remove the character break until your smart alum is empty OR go to Photos -> Batch Change and enter a new comment. Make sure that "append" is UNCHECKED -- This will overwrite all of the comments.
Now, you must also make sure you only have single-line comments on your rolls:
- From the iPhoto Library, go to View -> Sort Photos -> By Film Roll
- Hold the Apple (command) key, and click the drop down triangle once or twice (until all are collapsed)
- Manually examine each roll and make sure that the comments (if any) are all on one line.
Note: If the comments are all on one line, the whole line will be visible in the collapsed view under the Film Roll name
Quit iPhoto
Open Terminal (in the Utilities folder)
- Type mdimport -f ~/Pictures and hit return
- After some time, a message should come up saying:
* Parsing file: '~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml'
As long as there is not an error message underneath, this is good!
- When the command has finished running and you're at a blank prompt again, quit Terminal
Open iPhoto
- Click iPhoto in the menu bar, and go to Preferences
- Click the Keywords tab
- Click the "+" and create a new keyword called Spotlight
- Close out of iPhoto preferences
- From the iPhoto Library, select all of the photos (Edit -> Select All)
- Get info on the files (Photos -> Get Info)
- Select the Keywords tab
- CHECK the box that says [Spotlight] *THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
- UNCHECK the box that says [Spotlight] * THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE
Note: This forces all of the pictures to be updated in the database
- Quit iPhoto
Search for your comments and keywords with Spotlight

Can I ask, does this need to be done every time you add photos to iPhoto, or is this a one-off trick to get Spotlight to look at iPhoto keywords in the first place?
My first experience with iPhoto is iPhoto6 so I don't have any baggage that I am bringing from earlier copies of iPhoto. I've imported in 1500 photos and am working my way through tagging them with keywords and am hoping that spotlight will index them. Is this bug related to keywords applied in older versions of iPhoto, or does the issue manifest itself even on a brand new library? Are Apple looking to patch iPhoto / Spotlight to resolve this?
Thanks.
Graham

How to know when spotlight is indexing

hi,
in previous OS versions you could tell when spotlight is indexing by clicking the spotlight icon in the toolbar and the dropdown would tell you. now in yosemite how can we tell when spotlight is indexing? because i use mail.app a lot and search won't work properly until the indexing is done. thanks!
rc

Same way.
Re-index Spotlight: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support
If that doesn't work, force it with this command in Terminal:
sudo mdutil -E /

Spotlight random indexing?

Yesterday I was erasing an external 40 gb hard drive through disk utility and the program seemed to have froze since it never updated the time remaining (53 minutes). That drive may have some bad sectors. So I just forced my computer to shutdown and unplugged my hard drive (via usb). Today morning when I started the computer, Spotlight was indexing my computer. Did i mess something up because I pulled the hard drive out? Or is this due to me copying 4 gb worth of files from the drive before erasing it? Ive heard that this done if a drive is failing, is that true?

Hard to tell, but in Spotlight's Pref Pane>Privacy tab, add all your drives to that to stop Spotlight from doing it's thing until you get it figured out.
Try Erasing the drive again with the Security option of Zero Data once.

Spotlight keeps indexing external set to Privacy

After completing a SuperDuper backup Spotlight started indexing all of its contents ('30 hours remaining...'). To stop this I dragged the backup image into Spotlight's Privacy panel, but to no avail. To stop the indexing I had to do a force unmount of the external drive. Somewhere else I read that as soon as the drive is dragged into the Privacy folder Spotlight's indexing stops. Is this how it is supposed to work?
Thanks in advance

Well, this time immediately after SuperDuper started doing its backup operations I went to Spotlight's Privacy panel and added the SuperDuper image there, and Spotlight didn't index anything. So I suppose this is the way it should work.

Spotlight always indexes mac on startup

I've read several reports on Spotlight rebuilding indexes on startup. I found this issue on both my macs (with TIme Machine either on or off).
Here's what I've done trying to solve the problem:
1) I removed all of the spotlight indexes from all the disks and forced a re-index;
2) Removed all the *.mdimporter files from /Library/Spotlight
3) Erased all the system and application's caches with Onyx.
Are there any other solutions?

I don't mean to presume that all your guys' issues are related to this, but I am having this problem as well, and am quite sure it's due to a faulty logic board, and/or the inability of the machine to properly access RAM and other key components. My MBP 2.16, 1 GB constantly makes helicopter sounds that are emitted from the right speaker area. Apple replaced the first logic board in this machine while it was under warranty, and apparently put another defective one in. Overall, Apple hasn't been to helpful since.

Spotlight is indexing, but no pulsing dot

Wonder if anyone has this issue. My MBP (2009 5,3, latest Mtn. Lion) seems to perform Spotlight indexing, but the pulsing dot only pulses for a few minutes.
The rest of the time when it's indexing, the dot is absent.
I have removed the main drive from Spotlight, and replaced it, but the same thing occurs.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks!

I have rarely seen the pulsing dot in the magnifying glass during indexing. So I can't say whether the "no dot" is a new behavior in Mountain Lion - or whether I just simply never noticed the dot in the past.
I just forced a re-index of an external USB drive - by adding the volume to the list of locations not to be indexed - and then after a few minutes - removed the volume from the list. After removal - a fresh re-indexing process has started - and the only way that I am aware of the indexing being activie is by noting that the external drive is actively doing something - or by clicking on the magnifying glass - where I can then see the indexing progress bar.
I really only ever notice indexing activity after copying large folders to a volume or after a restore of some sort.

Spotlight NOT indexing root of share point

Wondering if anyone else has ever encountered this issue...
I have a 10.4.9 server install on a G5 Xserve, which has recently stopped allowing any successful searches against the root of the 3 configured share points. It will search properly if you drill down even one level, although that clearly restricts the functionality of being able to perform finds!
The share points are 3 folders located in a second ADM module.
I've walked through variants on the suggestions included in the following thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1242226
With the addition of specifically grep/rm'ing all .Spotlight-V100 folders in place of mdutil -E /Volumes/Name; I've also done the procedure both on the server as root and as client via the above instructions.
I've also created new share points from new folders, which exhibit the exact same issue... so I doubt that it's with any sort of config on the share points themselves.
Is it possible that the volume index for the second drive is being kept in a "primary" .Spotlight-V100 folder, say on the boot volume? I'm banging my head now!
Any help or insight would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Brendon

jimbarg wrote:
Exact same problem with me. I'm still not getting any decent replies from anyone here on the discussions. I've been trying to work with one person who responded to my original post, we've been going through various procedures to try to pinpoint the problem, but so far, no luck. I figured I'd post here as well because MAYBE someone has found a solution for this. It seems you're not the only one with this problem.
Does anyone know if there's a singular file where Spotlight stores its index data, and can it be located, tossed in the trash, and be automatically rebuilt? It seems that every time that I try to force a re-index (by turning the Spotlght Privacy settings on and off for my hard drive), Spotlight fails to re-index (well it seems that way, anyway, because there's no indication of re-indexing taking place in the Spotlight menu item on the top right side of the screen). If there is such a file, I'm wondering if it's somehow corrupt and just refuses to be rebuilt.
Any ideas anyone?
Have you tried trashing the
com.apple.spotlight.plist
from User > Library > Partition and then reindexed with Spotlight?
Pete

Spotlight's Indexes - where stored?

I assume that spotlight generates indexes that are displayed - to give fast results. I would like to know where these indexes are actually stored for Tiger on my HD? Thanks to someone for this answer. Dale

If you still have those files you don't want indexed on the drive you could put them in a folder, zip the folder, add the drive to the Spotlight Privacy pane, then remove it. Spotlight will then re-index the drive, over-writing the old index. If you want to completely disable Spotlight take a look at the Spotless utility:
http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/software/spot/
Do a search here in the Spotlight forum to find information on disabling Spotlight without the utility.
You can then use the free EasyFind to search.
http://www.devon-technologies.com/download/index.html
Since it does a brute force search it takes longer, and if the sensitive documents are on the drive it can find them. If you really want to protect sensitive material the best way is to keep it on an encrypted disk image.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Spotlight not indexing after hard drive replaced

Hi all
Just wondering if anyone knows how to encourage Spotlight to re-index? Just had my hard drive replaced as part of the recall, and now Spotlight wont index anything.
I've tried previous suggestions (adding and removing hard drive to privacy list, commands through terminal etc), but it's still not working. All the software is up to date (10.7.5).
Any ideas? It's incredibly annoying, and making working on this computer virtually impossible at the moment.
Cheers

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Enter "mdworker" (without the quotes) in the Filter text field. Post the most recent 50 or so messages that appear in the Console window — the text, please, not a screenshot.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Some personal information, such as the names of your files, may be included — edit that out, too, but don’t remove the context.
Step 2
Do the same with the search string "mds".

Spotlight still indexing after upgrading to 10.6.7

I upgraded my 3-1/2 year old black MacBook to OS X 10.6.7 the other day, and after I rebooted, Spotlight began indexing my drive and has been stuck at "Estimating index time" ever since.
Is this a known issue, or am I the only one?
I'm not sure why it started indexing again, but how can I get it to stop?

Hi,
Try to stop NAT, than start Setup Gateway Assistant again, may be help.
Note: you should be sure your firewall is in correct setup. My NAT some time stop and can not start again because of my firewall "open" much ports than nessesary.

I'm a MB Pro beginner (after 25 years with PC). I have an Iomega ext HD, but how do get it indexed. I'm trying searches in Finder, and it says "searching Iomega drive" - but I don't think it's indexing. How do I force it to index?

I'm a MB Pro beginner (after 25 years with PC). I have an Iomega ext HD, but how do get it indexed?, and it doesn't come up with any results I'm trying searches in Finder, and it says "searching Iomega drive" - but I don't think it's indexing. How do I force it to index?

Well I'm leaning the other way. I think my present MBP will be the last Apple product I buy.
With the way Apple is going, all New Mac computers are sealed unit that don't allow the user to upgrade them in any way. They are getting more expensive initially. They are impossible to fix, even by Apple. All the parts are either soldered to the Logic Board or glued inside the case parts. The add on warranty only covers manufacturing defects and is expensive. And to fix one out of waranty is close to if not more then a new system.
The only thing different in a Mac, and most other products Apple sells, is the operating system and the cases they come in. As for the OS both have their glitches and at this time there are no viruses that infect OS X. There is more software available for Windows. More choices as to what hardware you can use or upgrade to at a later date.
Mac computers are becoming large iPads or iPhones with built in keyboards.
jeremy_from_rome wrote:
And as for the question: PC or Mac, the consensus that I hear from colleagues and friends is just as you state it: stay with Mac, be patient, work at it, and you’ll never look back! Thanks again

Force Spotlight to Index a FW HDD

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