Spotlight does not stop indexing

I need help: Just started the brand new MacPro 2x 2.66. The long desired spotlight (I run osx 1.3.9 before) does not work. Spotlight never stop to index. It runs and runs. If I add the hard drive to privacy in the system preferences it stops, but as soon as I get it back it just continues to index. So I've never been able to use Spotlight. Another harddrive in the machine (one without just data, no system) is swiftly indexed. But as soon as I have the main HD open for indexing, Spotlight continues to index for ever.
The harddrive causing the prooblem has previously been used in another computer under 1.3.9
Any ideas for fixing this would be much appreciated.
MacPro 2x 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello,
I'm seeing the same kind of problem. Here are the symptoms:
-Some or all data from a Mac previously running 10.3, is migrated to a Mac using 10.4. The Migration Assistant is used.
-Spotlight will continuously re-index, stop for a brief period, and repeat, either by itself, or when a search is attempted.
-Erasing the indices with mdutil -E, running fsck, fixing permissions and stopping/starting Spotlight doesn't resolve the problem.
-Excluding the migrated user directory will stop the madness. I.e., other users and shared directories like Applications, are searchable, and Spotlight will stop the continuous re-indexing.
-Recreating the user directory from scratch, and then copying in data from a backup, may once again start the madness.
The big question is, what, exactly, causes the indexing cycle?
The client affected by the problem is very disappointed, and had cause to wonder "how is this any better than Vista? I would have been better off with a Windows PC". I really need to resolve this, but I'm not sure of the best way to get Apple Tech involved with this bug.
Many Macs   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Similar Messages

  • Spotlight does not complete indexing

    About 2 months ago I noticed two unusual things on my wife's MBP (see specs below). The first was that the spotlight kept indexing and it did not end regardless of how much time I allowed it to run. On the other hand, time machine backups would start when the external Time Machine HD was connected but it would stall before completing the backup to the point that I would have to cancel the backup completely.  I noticed these two conditions basically at the same time, and at first I thought they were unrelated.
    Regarding the spotlight indexing I tried several remedies I found on different forums, but none worked for my particular problem.
    Tried several times to rebuild the index by adding and then removing the Macintosh HD into System Preferences/Spotight/Privacy/ panel.
    Repaired disk using the [Disk Utility on] install disk.  No problems were found.  Also repaired permissions just in case, but no luck either.
    Tried resetting the PRAM.
    Tried resetting the home folder permissions and ACLs via reset password utility on the OSX Install disk.
    Tried to index the HD from another user account (which had also Administrator privileges).
    Using the Console and the Activity Monitor I noticed that when the indexing started, I would see the mds, mdworker and mdworker32 processes running.   Also I would see disk activity and if I clicked on the spotlight icon I would see that the time remaining to complete the index would decrease.  However, at some point both mdworker processes would halt (disappear from the activity monitor), and then the mds process CPU usage would jump to 98% or more.  At this point the spotlight indexing time remaining would start to rise gradually.  I remember seeing indexing completion times as high as 52 hours.  The only way to get out of this was to exclude the Macintosh HD from the spotlight and then reboot the machine.  I am aware that this would also delete whatever progress was made with the index file and that future attempts would need to rebuild the index from scratch.
    After making several attempts to rebuild the index and having the same result, I though that there was a maybe corrupted file or folder that would be causing the problem.
    In an attempt to isolate the problem, I made the following:
    First I had the Macintosh HD excluded from the spotlight search and rebooted the machine.
    I added all the folders under Macintosh HD (e.g. Applications, Library, System, Users, etc.). After adding the folders, I then removed Macintosh HD.  This would have the same effect as adding the Macintosh HD excluded, but with the flexibility of being able to build the index by adding folders one by one until the problem showed up again.
    I started removing folders from the Spotlight privacy panel until the problem arose.  I noticed the problem had occured when the mds process would reach 98% or more AND the mdworker processes had disappeared from the Activity Monitor.
    Once I found the folder where the problem was (in my case was the Users folder), then I would add all the folders under the Users folder and repeat the process again.
    After several iterations, I found that the folder causing the problem was ~/Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backup/<UDID>; where <UDID> corresponds the my wife's iPhone's UDID number as seen on iTunes.  By excluding the <UDID> folder the spotlight would run without problems.  If I added this folder, then the problem would reappear.
    Turns out that the folders that is causing the problem is the backup folder for my wife’s iPhone.  I don’t mind this folder being indexed, however I also discovered that the Time Machine problem I mentioned earlier would be resolved by excluding this same folder from the TM backups; and THIS concerns me.
    I though the problem was a corrupt backup folder so in an attempt to solve this I deleted the backup from iTunes and made a full phone backup.  Unfortunately this did not solve my problem.  I am still not able to include the iPhone backup folder as part of either spotlight or TM.
    Any help on this matter is greatly appreciated.
    MacBook Pro 13in. Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz (mid 2010)
    4GB RAM
    OSX 10.6.8
    iTunes 11.4
    iPhone 5 (model MD641LL/A), iOS 6.1.4

    Hello,
    I'm seeing the same kind of problem. Here are the symptoms:
    -Some or all data from a Mac previously running 10.3, is migrated to a Mac using 10.4. The Migration Assistant is used.
    -Spotlight will continuously re-index, stop for a brief period, and repeat, either by itself, or when a search is attempted.
    -Erasing the indices with mdutil -E, running fsck, fixing permissions and stopping/starting Spotlight doesn't resolve the problem.
    -Excluding the migrated user directory will stop the madness. I.e., other users and shared directories like Applications, are searchable, and Spotlight will stop the continuous re-indexing.
    -Recreating the user directory from scratch, and then copying in data from a backup, may once again start the madness.
    The big question is, what, exactly, causes the indexing cycle?
    The client affected by the problem is very disappointed, and had cause to wonder "how is this any better than Vista? I would have been better off with a Windows PC". I really need to resolve this, but I'm not sure of the best way to get Apple Tech involved with this bug.
    Many Macs   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

  • Premiere pro CS6 will not stop indexing and conforming

    I am working on several projects with ease. But a project gives me problems. I have already imported several types of files and edit individual sequences.
    Now I add more recordings but premiere does not stop indexing these files. If I want to watch any clip in the source player starts premiere program to index the selected clip and the last imported files again. How to fix this?
    Regards miv

    I am working on several projects with ease. But a project gives me problems. I have already imported several types of files and edit individual sequences.
    Now I add more recordings but premiere does not stop indexing these files. If I want to watch any clip in the source player starts premiere program to index the selected clip and the last imported files again. How to fix this?
    Regards miv

  • Time capsule indexing does not stop

    I'm running OS 10.6.8 and Time Capsule V. 7.6.4 when trying to backup, indexing does not stop for hours. Have backup dating back to June 13, 2011 and up until now, all worked fine. What has gone astray and how can I fix it?

    7.6.4 is not the greatest.. IMHO you should take the firmware back to 7.6.1 at the latest.. and if your TC is Gen1-3 you can go back to 7.5.2
    None of the updates in 7.6 onwards are relevant to snow leopard. And it slows the system down.
    Your backups could have become corrupted.
    Do a Verify .. See A5 here. http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
    As the TC age the disk can get a bit slow.. if it is filled up it will be extremely slow.. if you use wireless it will be slow.
    Do an archive of the TC to a USB drive, if you need all the backups.. then wipe and do a one pass format of the TC disk.. and start a fresh clean TM backup.

  • Spotlight does not work with my Lacie d2 drive connected.

    I, like many others, have been struggling with the case of Spotlight shannigans for some time since it stopped working smoothly on the release of 10.4.8, I think. Anyway no amount of privacy setting, re-indexing, SystemUI force quitting or crying seemed ti fix the problem. Then - in a trial and error experiment the likes of which I had never undertaken before - I found the culprit. Spotlight does not work when my Lacie d2 Extreme 200GB is connected. No matter if it is connected by USB, Firewire or Daisychained - as soon as the computer sees it is plugged in - Spotlight (and all other search functions) dies.
    Thinking it was simply a case of fixing something on the drive, I updated the firmware, completely deleted and repaired the disk and thought it would start afresh. Unfortunately this was not the case - so now I have to decide between having Spotlight working, or having my external drive connected.
    Does anyone have any ideas at all of what else I could try to do?

    Hi there - I've reformatted it twice, once as OSX Extended, and Once as OSX Extended Journalled. Neither really made much difference. As a quick work around, I managed to add it to the privacy list before the computer had a chance to index it - so far so good, but I can't search the drive. Better that than the alternative though! The only other weird thing was it did work straight out of the box with no problems for almost 3 years - it was just the move to the New iMac and an update or two that started the snafu.

  • In OS Yosemite the search function in Mail, Finder, Spotlight- does not work

    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
    2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
    16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB
    OS Yosemite,
    Finder versión 10.10.1
    Mail Versión 8.1 (1993)
    In OS Yosemite the search function in Mail, Finder, Spotlight… does not work. Messages or documents with the search criteria are there and one could find them manually, but the search function fails to find them. Following advice from Apple Support (728965377):
    1. I applied an Apple protocol for adware removal (Remove unwanted adware that displays pop-up ads and graphics on your Mac); I had none, because I had formally utilized a similar protocol that I had found in Internet, actually an app that implemented automatically Apple's adware removal protocol.
    2. I rebuild the post boxes in Mail (Mail (Yosemite): Reconstruir buzones); It took a while but it functioned properly
    3. I re-install the System (OS X Yosemite: Reinstalar OS X); It took about 4 hours but there was no problem whatsoever with the installation.
    Afterwards I searched for messages in Mail, and documents in Finder and Spotlight, without any difficulty. The search function in all of them was working properly. But the next time that I needed to search messages or documents, an hour later or so, the problem reappear and a couple of new issues occurred:
    1. in app RagTime 6.5.2 (Build 1821), www.ragtime.de, the menu bar disappears (it is invisible), when one performs certain operations, e. g., calculating a value with a formula, whether it is in a spreadsheet or some other component (text, drawing, etc.). After touching with the cursor the menu bar is visible again.
    2. after reading an e-mail in Mail or copying an address, this is seeing as a floating object in the finder and over every application. There is no logical way to get rid of the floating object and neither copying or deleting or cutting it. It is not a big issue but nonetheless bothersome.
    3. In Mail, messages with Flag or in VIP contacts cannot be seen in the appropriate folders, only in the Incoming mail folder, together with other messages. It seems to me, this issue is part of same search function problem.
    4. The preview function within Mail does not show the attached documents to a message, whether it is in the IN, OUT or Draft boxes.

    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 and start typing the name.
    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
              View ▹ Show Log List
    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
    Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try again to re-index Spotlight. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
    Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

  • Spotlight does not work with Thunderbird? mdimporter installed but no work

    Hello,
    additional to my Apple-Mail i still use Thunderbird for my old PC-Accounts and the old mails.
    Thunderbird runs quite well, but the Mac-OS Spotlight does not find anything within the Mails stored in Thunderbird.
    The mdimporter from Mozilla is installed,
    I made reboots, re-Index, Double-Clicks, added the thunderbird-Folder to the private and removed again and everything else i could find anywhere.
    Nothing works.
    Anybody here who might give me a useful hint?
    Kind regards
    Falk

    ok this is some extra piece of software which seems to create a separate index for Thunderbird emails outside of the database files which can then be searched by spotlight. I don't use it so can't comment on this directly. one obvious thing is that you'd have to include system files in your search before you see any results from the thunderbird folder because all this stuff lives inside your user Library. to include system files in a search start finder search using command+f, click on "kind" scroll and click on "other". in the resulting popup select 'system files' and change the settings to include them in the search.

  • Unable to update when executed, table gets lock Execution does not stop Execution even for an hour

    Following is my Query unable to update when Executed table gets lock Execution does not stop even for an hour.
    update Employees 
          set Status = 'Close'
          where statusid IN (select statusid 
                                             from MyView 
                                              where DownloadedDate ='2014-07-27 00:00:00.000'
    here Employee contains 3,00,000 of records and Subquery return 1,50,000 Empid 
    i tried in various ways but not able to solve, statusid  column have no index on,  i tried using cursor but it does not work.
    plz let me know how to solve this Issue, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

    Hello,
    You should better post your question to a more related Forum, like Transact-SQL or SQL Server Database Engine; this Forum is for samples & community Projects.
    Have you checked the execution plan if indexes are used?
    You could update the data in chunks, e.g. 10.000 rows per execution. For this you have to add a TOP clause and a filter to update only those, who are not updated yet.
    update TOP (10000) Employees
    set Status = 'Close'
    where statusid IN
    (select statusid
    from MyView
    where DownloadedDate ='2014-07-27 00:00:00.000')
    AND Status <> 'Close'
    Olaf Helper
    [ Blog] [ Xing] [ MVP]

  • Unable to update, when executed table gets lock and Execution does not stop even for an hour.

    Following is my Query, which unables to update. When Executed, table gets lock and Execution does not stop even for an hour.
    update Employees 
          set Status = 'Close'
          where statusid IN (select statusid 
                                             from MyView 
                                              where DownloadedDate ='2014-07-27 00:00:00.000'
    here Employee contains 3,00,000 of records and Subquery return 1,50,000 Empid 
    i tried in various ways but not able to solve, statusid  column have no index on,  i tried using cursor but it does not work.
    plz let me know how to solve this Issue, Its very Important to get solve as all my further work depends on Updation
    , THANKS IN ADVANCE.

    See also your other thread with the same question:
    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/80243625-fc3b-4ee1-bce1-4adcdbc16c14/unable-to-update-when-executed-table-gets-lock-execution-does-not-stop-execution-even-for-an-hour?forum=sqlserversamples
    Olaf Helper
    [ Blog] [ Xing] [ MVP]

  • Searching in Mail AND Spotlight does not reveal BCC recipients

    Dear Folks:
    Searching in Mail does not reveal BCC recipients. I found a post pointing this out from 2006. There were no replies and you cannot reply if you try, it been "archived."
    Does that mean Mail simply does not search BCC's?
    What's really weird is Spotlight won't find them either.
    Am I doing something wrong or is there a gap in the app?
    Thanks!

    Yeah and even worse, Spotlight does not store Cc mail adresses, too.
    when you do an mdls on an emlx file there is only a recipients kmditem. the cc and bcc email adresses are not stored/indexes by spotlight. and can't be searched for!

  • I have a new Macbook pro, about 2 months old, and at times running video, the fans starts and does not stop. how do you get it to stop.

    I have a new Macbookbook, about 2 months old, and at times running video, the fans starts and does not stop. how do you get it to stop. Also i am thinking once the video is done  the fan should be slowing down and getting quiet on its own.

    Your fan(s) will run at high speed (i.e., loudly) while video is playing, and you can't get around that.
    If your fans are not slowing down within 2-4 minutes after CPU- and/or GPU-intensive usage ends, and the application that was showing the video is still running, Quit that application. (In fact, if you're accustomed to Windows, you may not realize that simply closing a Mac application's window does not quit the application. You still need to use the Quit command in the application-name menu. There will always be a bright dot beside or below the application icon in your Dock for each application that is open.) Quit the ones you aren't using, and see whether that allows the fans to slow down without restarting the machine. If that doesn't do the trick, reset the SMC:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  • I have my Calendar app syncing with iCloud.  Every time I open it it says, "Moving Calendars to Server Account..."  It runs and runs and does not stop.  As a result, I cannot access my calendars.  Please help.

    I have my Calendar app syncing with iCloud.  Every time I open it it says, "Moving Calendars to Server Account..."  It runs and runs and does not stop.  As a result, I cannot access my calendars.  Please help.

    I have the same problem, I tried the solution of Dr Cox but that didn't work as he said go to system preference then mail, contacts etc. but I don't have that.  Can someone help?
    Elaine

  • HP Officejet Pro 8500A: Initial Checking Printer Procedure does not stop

    I have a big problem.
    My printer does not stop to run the "Checking Printer" procedure.
    It tells me: "Open the print-carriage access door, clear the jam, and then touch OK to continue.
    Unfortunately there is no paper inside.
    Pressing OK, the printer continues the procedure and it NEVER stops.
    Switching OFF and ON the power does not help.
    But if you try to print the Auto Test Report it works. The printer prints the report without any problem!!!
    PLEASE HELP ME
    Andrea

    Hi there andrea_lugano,
    This article should cover the issue you are experiencing. Give the steps outlined a shot and let us know if it helps.
    Best of Luck!
    You can say thanks by clicking the Kudos Star in my post. If my post resolves your problem, please mark it as Accepted Solution so others can benefit too.

  • Spotlight does NOT find iPhoto keywords

    Hi,
    maybe you guys can help me.
    Spotlight does not find any of my iPhotos attached with keywords.
    My System is: Mac OS 10.4.4 and iPhoto 6 (5 did not work either).
    This is what I have tried so far:
    - repaired permissions more then once
    - rebuilt the spotlight database through the terminal
    - marked my iPhoto folder as privacy in the spotlight preferences and unmarked it
    - removed all keywords (1. try: marked all together; 2. try: marked all together and put them in a new empty list) , closed iPhoto, opened it and gave all an dummy keyword; removed the dummy keyword and assigned one-by-one for some iPhotos new keywords
    - archived the iPhoto database and let it built up by iPhoto again
    - ran the comboupdater of 10.4.4 again
    The last try I am thinking on is a "archive&install" of Tiger but maybe you have another idea???
    PS: Whats strange is that when I look at the processes while assigning keywords, the process 'mdimport' starts to work... but again, Spotlight does not find the iPhotos by keywords.

    I also had this happen to me several times. Once when I first moved to OS X 10.4 and again when I had to reload my computer. Each time I had archived my iPhoto library to a second drive, installed the OS on a clean formated drive and then copied the iPhoto Library back into my home directory.
    From that point, Spotlight would refuse to search for files via keywords. That is, until I updated the photo. By select each photo and changing somthing about the photo, wether editing the photo, changing its star rating to something else and back again, or even adding keywords to the photo, even putting a comment of a blank space in for each photo, doing anything to the photo that would update the xml file would cause that entry to get updated and in turn allow the photo to be searchable by keyword via Spotlight.
    There are scripts available that can actually put the iPhoto keywords into the photo file iteself. The one I am using also needs to have GraphicConverter installed. This way I can search either through iPhoto or Adobe Bridge for the Photos that I want to use.
    PPC G4 1.4GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.2)   1GB RAM, 120GB HD x2, SuperDrive, 128MB ATI Graphics Card

  • I needed to install a previously purchased CS6 versus on new computer. To do this, I had to download a version from CC. I will not be using CC. How do I activate Photoshop under my license so that it does not stop working when I am out of communication ra

    I needed to install a previously purchased CS6 versus on new computer. To do this, I had to download a version from CC. I will not be using CC. How do I activate Photoshop under my license so that it does not stop working when I am out of communication range a month from now?

    The CC version will not activate with your perpetual CS6 license. Download the version from here:
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-product-downloads.html
    Your number should work with this version.

Maybe you are looking for