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.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • Stop Spotlight from indexing new drives

    I know how to block a drive in Spotlight's privacy settings.
    What I'm looking for is a way to stop Spotlight from indexing a drive every time I plug one in.  I'm often connecting external drives for work & spotlight immediatley starts to index & I go in and add it to the blocked list in Spotlight> Privacy.
    Is there a way to just have Spotlight NOT try to index a new drive?

    Sorry, I missed that part.
    Try this, add this file to the external drive.
    touch /Volumes/name of the external drive/.metadata_never_index
    This will add a file called .metadata_never_index to the root of that drive.
    You can also disable spotlight
    sudo mdutil -a -i off
    To re-enable Spotlight:
    sudo mdutil -a -i on

  • 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.

  • Keeping Spotlight from indexing external disks

    Is there a way to exclude ALL external disks from being indexed by Spotlight? I don't need the indexing and it just slows everything down. I know about the list of exclusions, but a disk seems to have to be attached before one can exclude it. Can't one just keep it from indexing anything one might attach?

    Vaughan Schlepp wrote:
    Can't one just keep it from indexing anything one might attach?
    I don't think there is a simple (if any) way to do this, but note that the OS does somehow keep track of excluded disks once they are excluded, even when they don't show up in the list because the drives are not currently mounted.
    Perhaps there is some way to edit that list before mounting new drives, but I don't know where the list is or how to edit it.

  • 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.
    Thanks!

    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...
    In the meantime, I seem to have figured out how to add /Volumes to the list of excluded volumes, but it turns out that's an idea which could be added to the list of things that do not work.

  • [Guide] Install and run Windows 7/8 from an external drive without using bootcamp (works for late 2012 iMacs with 3TB drive)

    This is a copy of a post from my blog, you can also Read it on my blog...
    Introduction
    After I received my new iMac with a 3 TB Fusion Drive, I was disappointed when I realized that Bootcamp was not running on this model and prevented me from installing Windows on it. I wanted to take advantage of the powerful iMac hardware to play games but I couldn't.
    There are a few ways of working around this limitation, but I found most of them quite complex and most of the time they required formatting the internal hard drive or repartitioning it and go for a brand new installation of Mac OS X. I was not comfortable with that.
    But there is another way, and that is to install Windows on an external hard drive, using either USB or Thunderbolt. Personally I used a Lacie Rugged 1 TB drive that has both USB3 and Thunderbolt connectors. Both work very well.
    This guide may interest you if:
    You have an internal hard drive of more than 2TB and you can't run bootcamp at all (like late 2012 iMacs with a 3TB drive)
    You have limited space or you don't want to dedicate disk space on your internal hard disk drive to a Windows installation
    What this guide will make you do:
    It will make you erase all your data from your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
    It will make you install Windows on your external USB3/Thunderbolt hard drive
    It will make you install bootcamp drivers
    What this will not make you do:
    It will not make you modify anything on your internal Mac hard drive
    It will not make you use or install the bootcamp assistant
    It will not activate the Preference Pane for the default boot drive. You have to boot by pressing the ALT key to manually select your boot drive each tome you want to boot Windows.
    What you'll need
    An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
    A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
    One of the following:
    Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
    A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
    Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
    Download imagex.exe
    Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
    Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
    A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
    IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
    Step by Step guide
    Step 1: Get the install.wim file
    If you have a Windows ISO file:
    Mount the ISO
    If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
    If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
    If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
    Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
    If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
    IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
    Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
    On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
    Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
    Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
    diskpartType the following and hit enter to list your drives:
    list disk
    This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
    select disk #Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
    clean
    Create the boot parition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
    create partition primary size=350
    This will create a 350MB partition on your external driveFormat the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
    format fs=fat32 quick
    Set this partition to active by typing:
    active
    Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
    assign letter=b
    Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
    create partition primary
    Format the new partition in NTFS:
    format fs=ntfs quick
    Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
    assign letter=o
    Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
    exit
    Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
    Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
    Type the following and hit enter (remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step):
    imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
    This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external driveOnce done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
    o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
    If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide
    If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
    Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
    Plug in your external drive:
    If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
    If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
    Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
    On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
    The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
    Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
    Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
    Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
    Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter.

    Hi i'm trying to follow your guide, I installed windows 8 on bootcamp to do it planning to remove it after the operation is done, but i get stuck at part 3: every command i give to imagex i get a pop-up ftom windws asking how do I want to open this kind of file install.wim and imagex does nothing, what do i have to do to stop those pop-ups?

  • .DS_store won't let me move files from one external drive to another

    I am trying to move some music files from one external harddrive to another.  They are both connected to my mac mini.
    In the "from" harddrive I have a folder with a bunch of music files in it and it also has a new file in it called DS_store. When I open this folder and select all, it naturally selects all of my music files and this DS_store file.  When I try to drag all of this to the "destination" harddrive I open the folder that I want to drag them to which already has some music and it has the DS_store file too, it won't let me drag the files to it   It says something like there is already a DS_store file there.  So I tried deleting that file from each external drive and it just reappears.
    If I create an empty folder in the destination drive, I can drag all of the files to it.  The problem is I want the new files to be in the same folder with the older files.  
    In addition there are a few other ghost type files that have shown up too.
    Any suggestions would be welcome.  Thanks.

    If you're copying from a FAT-formatted volume, do as below.
    Back up all data.  
    Select the text on the line below by dragging across it. Don't include the blank space at the end of the line. Only the text should be highlighted.
    dot_clean -m
    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.  
    Launch the Terminal 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 Terminal in the page that opens.
    Now switch to the Finder and and select the icon of the FAT volume. Drag into the Terminal window. More text will be added to what you entered.
    Click in the Terminal window to activate it, then press return.
    The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear. Then quit Terminal and try the copy again.

  • 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.

  • I can't prevent Spotlight from returning results from emails and Safari

    Try as I might, I can't prevent Spotlight from returning results from emails and from Safari web browser history.
    I've toggled the two relevant boxes in the Spotlight system preferences, and rebuilt the index, but it still returns results from categories that I have deselected (like emails and webpages).
    The system preferences say "Only selected categories will appear in Spotlight search results". If only it were true!

    I think this could be a reason, your settings regarding indexing of mail messages didn't stick.
    I'm having other problems with security update 2008-005.
    It'd be interesting to know if OnyX is able to fix your problem again. Hopefully its doings survive the next update.

  • Steps to put itunes (50 gb) on external drive and delete from imac.  How would I update my ipods and ipad from the external drive if I do this

    I am planning to put itunes library on external hard drive. My Imac is running out of room and itunes is 50+ gb of music.
    What steps do I take to do this.  Also, if I do so, how do I update my ipods and my ipad 2.  I do back up my files with time machine.  This would be a completely separate new external hard drive.  Thanks in advance for any help.

    Two ways:
    1. After transferring to the external drive create an alias to the iTunes Music folder on the external drive.  Copy the alias into your Home folder.  Rename the alias to "iTunes Music."  Delete the alias from the external drive.
    2. In the iTunes preferences click on the Advanced icon in the toolbar.  You should see a field labeled, "iTunes Media Folder Location."  Click on the Change button and select the /iTunes Music/ folder on the external drive.

  • I am having trouble keeping the quality of my video when exporting to my external drive.  I change the kind to "original" but when I view the video from the external drive once exported, the sound and picture are distorted.

    I am having trouble keeping the quality of my video when exporting to my external hard drive.  I have tried to export from iphoto with changing kind to "original" but when I open the video from the external drive the quality is effected.  I have also tried copying the video to my desktop and then dragging and dropping onto the drive...same problem. Any suggestions?  I would like to save everything to my external drive so that I can delete all of iphoto library and then reimport to correct a few things.

    The file sizes are identical.  In the finder I did a search for all .mov files.  Then when they came up, I went through them and named each one so that they would be easier to find.  I am a new mac user and am used to windows.  I realized later that I should not have done this....with a mac files should be named within iphoto app...not finder....When I went to open the videos in iphoto, it wouldn't allow me.  I had to go into finder, copy to desktop and reimport into iphoto.  Then the videos worked again.  However, I had the problem with the poor video quality when copied to external drive before that.  Actually the first problem I had was when I copied to ext drive...videos were copying as an image...so I learned that you have to change "kind" to original before exporting....then that problem was solved...now they are videos, not images but not of a great quality.  Skips, sound and images are not in sync...etc...

  • How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

    I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
    Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
    Is it possible to move an iTunes library from one external drive to another, or am I stuck with my original choice until I buy a new machine? If I can move it, can one of you clever folks explain how it could be done?

    Paul Seymour1 wrote:
    However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
    Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
    It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
    The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
    Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

  • My computer recently crashed.  I had everything on an externa drive.  I'm trying to reload my music into itunes from my external drive.  I do not have an itunes library document for some reason.  How do I get my library back onto itunes?

    I'm trying to figure out how to access my music library from my external drive.  I do not have a media library document and believe that I would have to create one based on the music that is on my external drive.  Can someone help?

    If you're running Windows 8.1, this seems to be a common theme, or some variation there of at least. Myself, I can't even back-up on my iPhone 4S which has iOS 7.1.2 and I'm running iTunes 11.3.0.54 and have resorted to purchased the iTunes Match service to ensure that music on my primary desktop PC (which is paired to my iPhone) will be available on both the iPhone and my Windows 8.1 laptop. Regarding backing up of the iPhone, I'm thinking about going to a third party solution until either Apple and/or Microsoft can figure out why Windows 8.1 is having so many problems with the current version of iTunes (as of this writing 11.3.0.54).

  • Can I set up my Macbook Pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

    Rather than partition my internal drive for having to work with Windows & Office 2010 (specifically Access 2010) can I set up my macbook pro to boot to Win 7 from an external drive?

    No, not with Boot Camp. I've never even tried it with a VM (which I use) - I keep all the data on my internal drive. I'm not saying that it couldn't be done with a VM, I've just never tried it.
    Clinton

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