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.

Similar Messages

  • Spotlight re-indexes with each startup

    Each time I startup my PowerBook, Spotlight spends a good 15-20 mins indexing. It does eventually stop and is then fully functional, but I wonder if anyone has experienced something similar and found a fix.

    I wish I was posting a solution rather than a "me too." I believe this happened after I went from 10.4.3 to 10.4.4, but my memory could be failing me. Either way, I also experience Spotlight re-indexing at each startup. It is somewhat annoying, but not overly so. Any help or insight would be appreciated.
    I did update to 10.4.5, and it still re-indexes at startup.

  • Spotlight ALWAYS Indexing

    Everytime I want to use Spotlight, it is in the middle of indexing and says there are anywhere from 3 to 13 hours to go! It indexes not only my hard drive but an external firewire drive, which I don't particularly need it to index. I looked in preferences for a way to at least prevent the indexing of the external drive but couldn't find many preferences at all except the order in which you want the results to appear and the ability to delete certain items from the findings. As it is, Spotlight is useless to me. Any suggestions?

    So far, it appears as though your solution worked well enough for me not to invest money in the shareware suggestion though admittedly not much time has passed. Since I really don't need to find anything on the external drive--or at leat rarely--since it is just a backup, this may be the better option. All I did was list the external drive under the Privacy tab and nothing else. It looks as though that alone took care of the problem. Thanks so much.

  • Mac Pro always indexing

    Is there a reason why my Mac Pro (running Lion 10.7.4) is always indexing the Macintosh HD? Even when it's completed indexing, the next day it'll be indexing it all over again. Has something corrupted that I need to flush out? I use Onyx, Drive Genius once a month or so as I use Logic heavily in the studio so am defragging etc.
    Ben

    Interestingly it's doing it again just after I Superduper'd my mobile FW audio drive back to my internal audio drive. Doing a search of mdworker - the majority of the lines are to do with my projects drive, not the Mac HD which it's currently Spotlight indexing. I've pasted two Full Report threads below. I'm not an expert at all about thisso before I go in and give you a load more, which of the information below can be discarded?
    ========
    mdworker(1822) deny file-write-owner /Users/******/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Notes/NotesV1.sto redata-wal (import fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:240000005F diag:0 uti:com.apple.notes.externalrecord plugin:/Library/Spotlight/Notes.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 4303412)
    Process:         mdworker [1822]
    Path:            /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
    Load Address:    0x102de7000
    Identifier:      mdworker
    Version:         ??? (???)
    Code Type:       x86_64 (Native)
    Parent Process:  launchd [166]
    Date/Time:       2012-10-08 12:07:56.878 +0100
    OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C54)
    Report Version:  8
    Thread 0:
    0   libsystem_kernel.dylib                  0x00007fff8cde296a fchown + 10
    1   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff8954d9a8 pagerOpenWal + 424
    2   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff894a0782 sqlite3PagerSharedLock + 1634
    3   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff8949fd92 sqlite3BtreeBeginTrans + 1730
    4   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff894954ac sqlite3InitOne + 300
    5   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff894952e6 sqlite3Init + 102
    6   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff89493f9b sqlite3Pragma + 17883
    7   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff8948469f yy_reduce + 58591
    8   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff89476134 sqlite3Parser + 260
    9   libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff894740f2 sqlite3RunParser + 418
    10  libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff89473814 sqlite3Prepare + 1316
    11  libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff89473233 sqlite3LockAndPrepare + 291
    12  libsqlite3.dylib                        0x00007fff894ed73f sqlite3_prepare_v2 + 31
    13  CoreData                                0x00007fff84035e70 -[NSSQLiteConnection prepareSQLStatement:] + 416
    14  CoreData                                0x00007fff840afc3e -[NSSQLiteConnection performIntegrityCheck] + 206
    15  CoreData                                0x00007fff840fd3b0 -[NSSQLiteConnection _configurePragmaOptions:] + 432
    16  CoreData                                0x00007fff84034258 -[NSSQLiteConnection connect] + 2216
    17  CoreData                                0x00007fff8403315b -[NSSQLCore _loadAndSetMetadata] + 155
    18  CoreData                                0x00007fff84032f3f -[NSSQLCore loadMetadata:] + 63
    19  CoreData                                0x00007fff8402aa0b -[NSPersistentStoreCoordinator addPersistentStoreWithType:configuration:URL:options:error:] + 1179
    20  Notes                                   0x000000010328c7ff __50+[NFPersistenceManager persistentStoreCoordinator]_block_invoke_0 + 1916
    21  libdispatch.dylib                       0x00007fff859b90b6 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
    22  libdispatch.dylib                       0x00007fff859b9041 dispatch_once_f + 50
    23  Notes                                   0x000000010328bf35 +[NFPersistenceManager persistentStoreCoordinator] + 203
    24  Notes                                   0x0000000103261a80 ImportNotesMetadata + 159
    25  mdworker                                0x0000000102dede4e
    26  mdworker                                0x0000000102dec863
    27  mdworker                                0x0000000102ded647
    28  mdworker                                0x0000000102df1404
    29  libsystem_c.dylib                       0x00007fff81b03742 _pthread_start + 327
    30  libsystem_c.dylib                       0x00007fff81af0181 thread_start + 13
    Binary Images:
           0x102de7000 -        0x102e40ff7  mdworker (707.3) <105316D8-F5DF-3079-96EF-0EF0986EB053> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
           0x103260000 -        0x103261fff  com.apple.Notes.mdimporter (1.1 - 99) <FBEB902F-2B6D-3E28-833C-2B0A76B7593A> /System/Library/Spotlight/Notes.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Notes
           0x103266000 -        0x1032a7ff7  com.apple.Notes.framework (1.1 - 99) <1AE41D51-4594-374F-BA37-DA377AC20495> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Notes.framework/Versions/A/Notes
        0x7fff81aef000 -     0x7fff81bbbfe7  libsystem_c.dylib (825.25) <8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
        0x7fff84021000 -     0x7fff84256ff7  com.apple.CoreData (106.1 - 407.7) <24E0A6B4-9ECA-3D12-B26A-72B9DCF09768> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData
        0x7fff859b7000 -     0x7fff859ccff7  libdispatch.dylib (228.23) <D26996BF-FC57-39EB-8829-F63585561E09> /usr/lib/system/libdispatch.dylib
        0x7fff89469000 -     0x7fff89566fff  libsqlite3.dylib (138.1) <ADE9CB98-D77D-300C-A32A-556B7440769F> /usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib
        0x7fff8cdd0000 -     0x7fff8cdebff7  libsystem_kernel.dylib (2050.18.24) <C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
    =====
    ***and a second (from a non-OS-X HD)****
    mdworker(2011) deny file-write-data /Volumes/Projects/*******/*******/*******.logic/LgDoc/documentData (import fstype:hfs fsflag:4809000 flags:250000005E diag:0 uti:com.apple.logic.project plugin:/Logic Pro.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/LogicPro.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 467334)
    Process:         mdworker [2011]
    Path:            /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
    Load Address:    0x10556c000
    Identifier:      mdworker
    Version:         ??? (???)
    Code Type:       x86_64 (Native)
    Parent Process:  launchd [166]
    Date/Time:       2012-10-08 13:36:42.825 +0100
    OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C54)
    Report Version:  8
    Thread 0:
    0   libsystem_kernel.dylib                  0x00007fff8cde1fee __open + 10
    1   CarbonCore                              0x00007fff8550c400 FSMount::_openfork(char const*, unsigned char, unsigned int, unsigned short, _filesec*, int*, int*, FSOpenForkInfo*) + 738
    2   CarbonCore                              0x00007fff8550b9e3 FSMount::openforkcoreDefault(unsigned int, unsigned int, char const*, char const*, unsigned int, unsigned char, unsigned char, FSOpenForkInfo*, unsigned short, _filesec*, unsigned int, int*, unsigned int*) + 915
    3   CarbonCore                              0x00007fff8550b460 FSMount::openfork(unsigned int, unsigned int, char const*, char const*, unsigned int, unsigned char, unsigned char, FSOpenForkInfo*, unsigned short, _filesec*, unsigned int, int*, unsigned int*) + 688
    4   CarbonCore                              0x00007fff85509fa3 PBOpenForkSync + 494
    5   CarbonCore                              0x00007fff85509da0 FSOpenFork + 42
    6   MAFiles                                 0x0000000106fe40b0 CFileIO::Open(CFileRef const&, unsigned int) + 416
    7   MAFiles                                 0x0000000106fe415c CFileIO::OpenReadWrite(CFileRef const&, unsigned int) + 12
    8   LogicPro                                0x0000000105974e5d DiskSong::DiskSong(CFileRef const&) + 221
    9   LogicPro                                0x000000010597154d GetMetadataForFile + 285
    10  mdworker                                0x0000000105572e4e
    11  mdworker                                0x0000000105571863
    12  mdworker                                0x0000000105572647
    13  mdworker                                0x0000000105576404
    14  libsystem_c.dylib                       0x00007fff81b03742 _pthread_start + 327
    15  libsystem_c.dylib                       0x00007fff81af0181 thread_start + 13
    Binary Images:
           0x10556c000 -        0x1055c5ff7  mdworker (707.3) <105316D8-F5DF-3079-96EF-0EF0986EB053> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
           0x105970000 -        0x10597bff7  com.apple.MDImporter.LogicPro (9.1.7 - 1700.57) <3F8AC181-108F-A96C-83B8-6D25AB5F2C44> /Applications/Logic Pro.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/LogicPro.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/LogicPro
           0x106fd2000 -        0x10708dfe7  com.apple.music.apps.MAFiles (9.1.7 - 144.77) <79A435CF-6C06-4C2E-1190-DC1EA172CF68> /Applications/Logic Pro.app/Contents/Frameworks/MAFiles.framework/Versions/A/MAFiles
        0x7fff81aef000 -     0x7fff81bbbfe7  libsystem_c.dylib (825.25) <8CBCF9B9-EBB7-365E-A3FF-2F3850763C6B> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
        0x7fff854e9000 -     0x7fff85800ff7  com.apple.CoreServices.CarbonCore (1037.3 - 1037.3) <DF7CABCA-F2CB-345B-8EFF-F0F4E937B7FF> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CarbonC ore.framework/Versions/A/CarbonCore
        0x7fff8cdd0000 -     0x7fff8cdebff7  libsystem_kernel.dylib (2050.18.24) <C0535565-35D1-31A7-A744-63D9F10F12A4> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
    Or have I just gone and copied the wrong information?
    Thanks again,
    Ben

  • My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

    My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift upon start
    and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

    1. Start up in Safe Mode.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
    2. Empty Trash.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
    3. Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
        Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
        Select "Library" from the dropdown.
        Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
        Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
        Empty Trash. Restart.
    4. Delete old iOS Devices Backup.
        iTunes > Preferences > Devices
        Highlight the old Backups , press “Delete Backup” and then “OK”.
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       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

  • How I solved my Spotlight+ Mail indexing problem

    OK, so I thought I would post my solution to a stubborn indexing problem, for people who may have the same issue (and it does seem many people do).
    Problem: Spotlight index was unreliable. In particular, Spotlight was terrible at indexing mail. It could not find the messages by content that it would find by searching the "from" field, nor could it find those reliably. Unusable.
    What DID NOT work:
    -- adding and removing any folder whatsoever in the Privacy preferences of Spotlight. The index would rebuild, but with the same problems.
    -- doing this via terminal (e.g, using sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/MyHardDisk)
    -- using Onyx
    -- using Spotless
    -- simply reinstalling the system
    -- manually modifying the plist files inside the .spotlight folder to add and remove the folders that would not get indexed.
    What DID work:
    -- first, I reinstalled the system. That's not such a big deal. Upgrade up to 10.4.6
    -- then, I authorized the root user (that's probably not necessary) (this, you do by using Netinfo manager)
    -- Then, I deactivated the index (via terminal:
    sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/MyHardDisk
    -- now the tricky part. This concerns Mail, in particular.
    I have a very complex mail folder (tens of thousands of messages). I noticed that inside each mail folder, I had two things that were not supposed to be there
    1. a copy of each folder.mbox which was empty, but with the same name without the extension .mbox. This is probably something that was created while importing mail from Panther to Tiger, for what I can tell.
    2. Most importantly, a file named ".index.ready". This also, apparently, was an old legacy coming from Panther. I suspect this was the main problem for the lack of indexing in Mail.
    Ok, so... I deleted these folders and files. If you have a complex structure of subfolders, you can delete the files with an Unix command by first cd to your mail folder, and then use
    find . -name \.index.r* -ok rm {} \;
    which will ask you confirmation before deleting each file.
    It was faster to remove the empty subfolders by hand, as they all had different names.
    -- Ok, at this point, I erased entirely the .Spotlight-V100 directory which stays at the root of your computer. You can do it with a rmdir command from the terminal or, as I did, you can login as root (remember, we activated root), use a utility that allows you to see hidden files (e.g., Tinkertool), and move it manually to the trash folder.
    Then I emptied the trash. For superstition, I restarted, and let the index be built again (that took about 5 hours in my computer, for an HD with about 60 gb occupied on it).
    Now everything seems to work perfectly fine. I don't know whether this procedure can be shortened, but I do know that nothing else worked for me. I thought I would post it here as I spent sooo much time to solve this problem, and furthermore, I found that none of the suggested solutions would work.
    OK, your responsibility to do it, if you want to do it. Hope nobody needs to!
    Best to you all,
    l.
      Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lucabo! Using ideas from your post, I also (at least for now) solved my Mail indexing problem. One day (not even after an upgrade) Mail just quit finding messages by content, even when I had open a message with that content!
    What I did:
    -- In System Preferences, told Spotlight to index only Mail (I just use grep from a Terminal window for everything else!)
    -- Ensured Mail app wasn't running
    -- Backed up my Library/Mail folder to an external disk
    -- Turned off indexing via Terminal (after sudo sh), with
    mdutil -i off /Volumes/MyHardDisk
    -- Deleted old files in my mailboxes (inside the whatever.mbox folders):
    .index.ready
    mbox
    tableofcontents
    content_index
    It was clear that mbox, tableofcontents, and content_index were left over from a previous version of mail - they hadn't been accessed since I upgraded.
    Note that I didn't delete the whatever.mbox folders (just the plain mbox file inside)!
    -- Deleted (in Terminal) the .Spotlight-V100 in the root directory
    -- Restarted my Mac. The indexing started itself. Since I had it set up to index only Mail, it took about 3-ish hours to finish (I have 100s of 1000s of emails in thousands of folders).
    After the indexing finished, all the test searches that I tried worked. From now on I will always be suspicious if search doesn't find anything!
    Also, I just checked - using the Spotlight field on the menu bar now works better too. When the Mail search problem showed up, I tried using the Spotlight field and the Spotlight window, but they would just flash up a few items, remove the list, over and over, sometimes with the beachball, then finally settle to an empty list. Now the Spotlight field seems to work.
    I infer that the Spotlight index gets corrupted, and that the Spotlight code doesn't notice that it's reading junk from the index...
    BTW, about the same time that search quit working, some emails in my Inboxes got highlighted with a dark brown background color. Have no idea why. They aren't marked as Junk (the junk messages have the text in the usual lighter brown). But, when I select a message with the dark brown highlight, mark it as junk, then mark it as not junk, the dark brown highlight goes away. On some occasions, just quitting Mail and restarting makes the dark brown highlights go away - but not always. Sigh... at least it's not a show stopper, even if it is ugly!
    Thanks again, Lucabo, for your post!
      Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

  • Spotlight and indexing of other disk partitions

    Hi,
    I have the internal drive of my 12" PowerBook formatted into two partitions, a small maintenance partition that's running 10.4.8, and a main partition, that's running 10.5.2. While I don't have a problem with upgrading the maintenance partition to Leopard, after seeing this report, I'm wondering if it's not a good idea to have Tiger and Leopard installed on separate partitions of the same internal drive. This leads to my questions:
    Question 1:
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    Question 2:
    Is there any way that I can tell Spotlight on the maintenance partition to not index the main partition? I only boot into the maintenance partition to run tools to maintain the main partition, so I have no need for Spotlight when booted into the maintenance partition.
    Question 3:
    Even if I upgrade the maintenance partition to Leopard, is there any way that I can prevent each partition's installation from indexing the other?
    Thanks,
    Ken

    I want to make sure that I have each partition's installation set up so Spotlight won't corrupt or redo what the other partition's Spotlight has already done.
    You can't do that, which is why I ended up with the less than satisfactory solution I have. When you boot up Spotlight begins to run as part of the system activities. It then looks at every mounted drive. Each and every drive has an invisible Spotlight folder. In that folder are the instructions to Spotlight about whether the drive or any directories on the drive have been excluded from Spotlight, and also, if the drive is supposed to be indexed, then the indexes themselves are in that folder. Thus the command line instruction to turn Spotlight status on or off specifies the path to the particular drive. There is no way to "quarantine" the Tiger or Leopard Spotlight. Whichever version is running looks to see if any given drive is supposed to be indexed, and, if it is, indexes it. The two versions can read each others general instruction about whether or not something is supposed to BE indexed, but can't read each others actual indexes. So if the instruction is for indexing to be on, then the version of Spotlight running looks at the index, can't read the index from the other version, and so proceeds to create a new index.
    You can either have Spotlight on or off for a particular drive, that information will be read by both versions of Spotlight and acted on accordingly. Thus I booted in Leopard, ran the command line to turn the status off on my Tiger drive, preventing the drive from being indexed in Leopard, and edited the /etc/hostconfig file for Tiger to disable the Tiger Spotlight. When I booted in Tiger Spotlight didn't run AT ALL, so it didn't re-do the indexing for either the Tiger or Leopard drive. As far as I've been able to figure out this is the best solution, since I am generally booted in Leopard.
    If all I had done was to add the Tiger drive to the Leopard Privacy pane, when I booted in Tiger its Spotlight would run, consult the preference for its drive, see it wasn't supposed to index its own startup drive, look at the information on the Leopard drive, see that that drive was supposed to be indexed, be unable to read the index and create a new one. When I next booted into Leopard it would have to re-index its own drive because its index would have been over-written.
    Hope that makes a nasty situation clearer. I pondered the conundrum for some time before coming up with a solution. When I am booted in Tiger (which is rarely) I have to remember to use EasyFind when I want to find something, and when I am in Leopard a search of the Tiger drive is "brute force" only, but it can be searched.
    Francine
    Francine
    Schwieder

  • 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]

  • 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 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.

  • Get Spotlight to index a NAS disk?

    Is it possible to get Spotlight to index a NAS disk? (Or should it do this normally but it's not working properly?).
    I have a NAS disk permanently connected to my Mac (LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini) & every time I do a search on there it will churn away searching but not return any results.
    Actually it seems like it might be a bug because as well as not returning any results once I've closed the Finder window it will still continue churning away searching (I can hear the disk activity).
    It will continue until I reboot the computer.

    OK, the Terminal is a the way that you access UNIX shell commands (the Mac command line interface). Instead of clicking on things you have to type the actual command into the "prompt" hit return, and then the shell executes the command. So you go to the Utilities folder and double click Terminal to launch it. Exactly what you see when it finishes launching will depend on how you have configured it, so it won't be exactly what I see, but there will be some words of encouragement and then the prompt, where you will type things:
    Last login: Tue Mar 20 14:06:01 on ttyp1
    Welcome to Darwin!
    -bash:~francine$
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    sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/YOURDRIVENAME/
    You must make sure everything you type is exactly as given, thus you may want to simply copy and paste this:
    sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/
    and, making sure there is no space after that final "/" character, type the name of your drive exactly as it appears in Finder. If the name has any spaces in it be sure to surround it with quotes:
    sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/"MY FAT DRIVE"/
    Then hit the Return key. You will be asked for your admin password, and given a little lecture (this is only delivered the first time you use a sudo command). The password you type is not echoed to the screen in anyway whatsoever, so type very carefully and when you finish hit the Return key again. You'll then get the notice that indexing is enabled. Type the word exit, hit Return, and then quit Terminal.
    Francine
    Francine
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