How to stop Spotlight from indexing backup drives

Is there any way to stop Spotlight from indexing backup drives?
Thanks

Yes, in Spotlight preferences there is an option to do this. I'm not on my Mac now, so I forget exactly where in Spotlight preferences it is. I believe there is a second tab that you have to click on, then click the "+" sign to add items to Exclude. Just add your backup drive.

Similar Messages

  • Stop Spotlight from indexing new drives

    I know how to block a drive in Spotlight's privacy settings.
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    Is there a way to just have Spotlight NOT try to index a new drive?

    Sorry, I missed that part.
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  • How can I stop Spotlight from indexing external drives?

    I work in an environment where we plugin several different costumer harddrives all day long as part of our working process. Often only to extract one file from a given drive. Therefore its annoying that Spotlight automatically starts indexing these drives, because it slows down everthing, but also because our windows costumers suddenly see these weird mac files on their drives, that are invisible to the macuser. The Privacy setting is not of much use, as its impossible to add oru costumers drives to the list - we simply don't know the drive until we see it.
    How can spotlight stop indexing?

    The Privacy option is okay for private users, but at work we receive alot of harddrives from costumers and we simply cannot spend the extra time waiting for a drive to be indexed every time it is connected. That drive may never be connected again as it belongs to a costumer, and it is impossible for us to add drives to the Privacy pane, because we do not know they exist before we see them infront of us. The ption to disable all external drives from being indexed would be great. Or that the indexing can be stopped in the spotlight menu, or that the indexing will not start until 10 minutes after the drive has been mounted - and only if the drive is inactive.

  • How do I stop spotlight from indexing files?

    I only have 2GB of RAM and Indexing files really slows down my computer, so much that i can hardly operate the computer. Is there any way that i can stop Spotlight from indexing my files automatically or have it index every week instead of every day?

    It shouldn't be running so much that it slows down the computer. It will run for a while, initially, but after that it should index files on the fly as they are added. I suppose if you dumped a ton of files onto the hard drive, it would spend a while indexing them.
    You might try restarting the index as it might be corrupt. To do so, go to the Privacy tab in Spotlight. Add your hard drive to the list. Wait about 10 seconds, then remove your hard drive. Don't do that while you're working, though.

  • How do you stop Spotlight from indexing other OSX partition?

    I have my harddrive partioned, on one partition is osx 10.8, on the other is osx 10.9. I'd like to stop Spotlight on 10.8 from indexing 10.9's partition. If 10.8 is booted and I set Spotlight to not index 10.9's "macintosh HD"  via systemprefs/spotlight it has the unfortunate consequence of carring over, so when I boot into my 10.9 partition Spotlight won't be indexing - which is not what I want.
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    Unfortunately, when you add a drive in the Privacy field, a small file is created on that drive which tells Spotlight not to index it. So both 10.8 and 10.9 see that file and won't index, no matter which OS you did the Privacy change from. Also then, of course, if you remove the drive from Privacy, both will index it.
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  • Stop Spotlight from Indexing drive

    I recently purchased a new external drive - partitioned it into 3 partitions but Spotlight is being very insistent on trying to index one of those partitions that doesn't even have anything on. It says "Indexing My External Drive" and has been continuning to do this forever. To the point where I decided to repartiton the drive but no, it still wants to Index nothing! I've also added the drive to the Privacy setting in Spotlight Prefs.
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    Georgy
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    My suggestion, let Spotlight index the drive. Particularly if you are using it as a backup. Once in place, updating the index and searching is extremely fast.
    Be careful however, of using third-party solutions. Some will affect Spotlight's normal indexing process and their preferences have to be changed for Spotlight to work.

  • Prevent Spotlight From Indexing External Drive?

    Is there a way to prevent spotlight from commencing to index an external drive immediately upon connection?

    As Király says, once you have put the volume into System Preferences > Spotlight > 'Privacy' tab it will remain there - with one caveat, though...
    Bear in mind that if you ever erase that volume it will have gone from the 'Privacy' tab (because erasing gives the volume a new UUID) and will need to be replaced.
    NB:  It's not actually the drive that goes into the 'Privacy' tab - it's the volume(s) on the drive.

  • Keep Spotlight From Indexing Removable Drives

    Is there a way to get Spotlight to not index e.g. any removable drive? For example, is there a plist that I could edit? I would have tried dragging /Volumes into the Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy pane, but of course, Mac OS doesn't let you view /Volumes in Finder, and so such a dragging is impossible.
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    Thanks. That's not as proactive as what I'm looking for, however. That solution has a chicken and egg problem where you mount the device, and Spotlight starts to index it before you get a chance to create the .metadataneverindex file...
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  • Confirmation on How to Stop Spotlight Indexing an External Hard Drive

    Hello everyone,
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