Spotlight Library Indexing Workaround

It's been established that Spotlight doesn't index files in the /Library folder. I have files in the home/Library/Application Support/<an application I use> folder I'd like indexed. I do research and this program (which keeps track of PDFs and other files for me) stores the master copies here. I'd like them indexed and to appear by default.
I can think of two ways to get around this:
1) Write a Spotlight plugin using Xcode to include these files.
2) I think there is a way to "fool" the application I'm using itself into thinking it's putting files here, but to actually put in a pointer in the file system to a folder where the files could actually reside and, be indexed.
Does either of these alternatives sound feasible? Thanks.

No., Spotlight does index everything; however, it won't report the results from certain places like /Library/ and "home"/Library/Preferences/, and where you want to search. The easiest way around these is to create a SmartSearch for where you want to look. Open the home/Library/Application Support folder, enter something in the search field, and you'll note that "home" changes to "Applicatioin Support". Save it. Then, you can call it within a Finder find window (CMD+F). Note, some people claim that you can change the folder by using CMD+F, but it doesn't work here. You might also search these forums for spotlight, which reveals http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1243619 among others.

Similar Messages

Should Spotlight be indexing non-image files inside my iPhoto '11 Library?

The title says all. I've noticed that certain Spotlight searches sometimes turn up obscure files inside file bundles, such as inside my iPhoto library:
This doesn't seem normal. How can it be fixed?

That is generally true: when I want to find something that I know to be inside an application bundle I use EasyFind (and even with that it is necessary to explicitly tell it to look inside bundles). But I just checked using the search for phrase of "PhotoFaces" which is a sub-sub-folder and collection of files inside the iPhoto Library, and Spotlight found it with no problem whatsoever. I presume that whatever magic the programmers did to allow Spotlight's indexer to get photo files just works for everything in the iPhoto Library.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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

Spotlight trouble indexing mail in Lion

Having a terrible time with Spotlight perpetually indexing mail.
system log shows
Jul 11 17:01:26 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: [Assigning new unique identifiers to all messages]
Jul 11 17:01:26: --- last message repeated 249 times ---
and of course All messages shows every one of those.
also plenty of messages like
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unterminated mailbox: [email protected].
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unexpected characters at end of address: :;>
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unterminated mailbox: [email protected].
Jul 11 17:03:02 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Unexpected characters at end of address: :;>
Jul 11 17:03:04 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Missing parameter value: NAME
Jul 11 17:03:04 xxxxx com.apple.mdworker.lsb.0[2660]: %Missing parameter value: FILENAME
-- those seem to be ridiculous errors for Spotlight -- if it can't figure out how to parse some of the info, it should ignore that info.
This continues until the disk cache gets totally overloaded, and the machine slows down.
Only help is to reboot.
I have tried turning off spotlight indexing to delete the spotlight cache (and used Cocktail to delete the Spotlight index)
That was no help.
Also rebuilt all of the mailboxes within the Mail program.
Then turned indexing off and back on.
Still no help.
Just tried deleting a couple of old mailbox entries in ~/Library/Mail
There was an old Unix mailbox there from an early version of OS X, and another one that I could not identify, and should have been deleted long ago.
I know I can turn off the indexing for mail, but that is one area where I would like to keep it.
I haven't tried a reboot since the latest deletes, but seeing the same messages flowing in the logs does not give me much hope.
It may be possible that 1 or 2 bad emails are causing all the trouble, but I am at a loss to find them.
Have 18 different accounts that are active ( I do web work so have webmaster, and other accounts on a number of servers).
Those are a mix of IMAP and POP.
INBOX total is usually kept around 100 emails - almost never goes above 200 unless I am away for an extended time.
Most mail ends up in folders ON MY MAC.
Largest of those has about 1500 messages.
Do not have extra folders on the servers with any of the IMAP accounts.
It is about time I archive some of the older messages, and that may help, but it will take me a while to get to that, and then flush the messages.
Problem occurred after update to Lion.
Did not seem to have the problem with Snow Leopard
Anyone have any other ideas?

I thought I had posted a follow up to this posting, but I guess not.
Soooo, here it is.
The problem was not with Apple Mail.app as it seemed, but actually with Mailsmith.app.
I use it for a number of mail accounts that I want to handle separately from my other mail accounts.
Within that application there is a Spotlight helper/worker
-- /Applications/Mailsmith.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/MailsmithImporter.mdimporter/ --
That is what was causing the problem for me.
Some users remove that section from the application, or do as I did -
Set the folders for Mailsmith mail for privacy in Spotlight.
Note: also set any backups of the Mailsmith mail for privacy also.
I filed a bug report with Mailsmith, but it is still open.
There appear to be a lot of issues with their Spotlight helper through the various versions of OS and Mailsmith.
see their discussion groups -
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/mailsmith-talk/spotlight$ 20indexing
The problem may be with certain emails, attachments, or addresses, don't know.
I am happy excluding that mail from Spotlight, and now my logs don't overflow and crash, the machine goes into deep sleep, and runs much cooler.

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.

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 forever indexing

Can anyone indicate how I can get spotlight to index properly? I've tried suggestions such as:
Placing HD in Privacy and then removing.
Using mdutil to stop and restart indexing.
Cursing.
Here is an example of the system log:
Sep 6 08:10:25 birds-imac.home mds[35]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in bool preIterate_FSI(SISearchCtx_FSI *):Throttling inefficient file system query
Sep 6 08:10:27 birds-imac.home mds[35]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in virtual bool SISearchCtx_FSI::performSearch(struct PartialQueryResults *):Retried searchfs 4 times
Sep 6 08:42:20 birds-imac.home mds[35]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in bool preIterate_FSI(SISearchCtx_FSI *):Throttling inefficient file system query
Sep 6 08:42:28 birds-imac.home mds[35]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in bool preIterate_FSI(SISearchCtx_FSI *):Throttling inefficient file system query
Sep 6 08:42:33 birds-imac.home mds[35]: (/)(Warning) IndexQuery in virtual bool SISearchCtx_FSI::performSearch(struct PartialQueryResults *):Retried searchfs 4 times
I don't know what else to try.
Thanks,
Traj

Birds-iMac:~ traj$ sudo opensnoop -n mdworker
Password:
UID    PID COMM          FD PATH
   89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/dtracehelper
501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/dtracehelper
   89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/.CFUserTextEncoding
   89   2110 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/.CFUserTextEncoding
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /usr/share/sandbox/mdworker-bundle.sb
   89   2110 mdworker       5 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//sandbox-cache.db
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework
501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/.CFUserTextEncoding
501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support
501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdworker
501   2111 mdworker       3 /dev/autofs_nowait
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/.CFUserTextEncoding
501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
501   2111 mdworker       4 /.vol/16777219/29166387/mdworker/..namedfork/rsrc
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles/mdworker-bundle.sb
501   2111 mdworker       4 /usr/share/sandbox/mdworker-bundle.sb
501   2111 mdworker       5 /var/folders/z2/mf6zt6m16cb_ztb6pmxmtn7m0000gn/C//sandbox-cache.db
501   2111 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/English.lproj
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/Base.lproj
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Resources/schema.plist
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /usr/share/icu/icudt49l.dat
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/en.lproj
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/Base.lproj
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/schema.xml
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/schema.strings
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
   89   2110 mdworker       5 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mds.lock
   89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsObject.db_
   89   2110 mdworker       7 /private/var/db/mds/system/mdsObject.db
   89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsDirectory.db_
   89   2110 mdworker       7 /private/var/db/mds/system/mdsDirectory.db
   89   2110 mdworker       6 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsObject.db
   89   2110 mdworker       6 /System/Library/Security
   89   2110 mdworker      -1 /var/empty/Library/Security
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000b400002s/C//mds/mdsDirectory.db
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /System/Library/Keychains/EVRoots.plist
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /etc/localtime
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
   89   2110 mdworker       4 /Library/Spotlight/GBSpotlightImporter.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/GBSpotlightImp orter
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/version.plist
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/_CodeSignature/Co deEntitlements
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English .lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English .lproj/English.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lp roj/English.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
501   2111 mdworker       5 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/MacOS/Archives
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.revocation.plist
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/tr.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/uk.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/zh_CN.lpro j
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/zh_TW.lpro j
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/version.plist
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeE ntitlements
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Dutch.lpro j
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Dutch.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Dutch.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/English.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /English.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/French.lpr oj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/French.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /French.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/German.lpr oj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/German.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /German.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Italian.lp roj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Italian.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Italian.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Japanese.l proj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Japanese.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Japanese.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Spanish.lp roj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/Spanish.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /Spanish.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/ar.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/ar.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /ar.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/ca.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/ca.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/Base.lproj /ca.lproj
501   2111 mdworker       4 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/cs.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1 /Users/traj/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter/Contents/Resources/English.lp roj/cs.lproj
501   2111 mdworker      -1

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".

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]

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.

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.

Spotlight is indexing but what? And why does it want access to the web?

I can see Spotlight is indexing, it spends several hours a day doing this, every day.
Where can i find more details like previous OS X versions? Which drive, how much time left etc.
Console was no help, any suggestions welcome.
Also, with "Spotlight Suggestions" and "Bing Web Searches" disabled in the Spotlight Search Results references, why is the process "Spotlight Web Content" still trying to access the web several times a day? I am not using Spotlight when this happens nor am i trying to preview any files that have web content in them. Most commonly it tries to connect to static.amazon.com on the http port.

In System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, if you have "Bookmarks and History" checked, then the "Spotlight Web Content" background process will crawl any web page that you recently visited to index its keywords. Uncheck that to turn it off.

Spotlight Library Indexing Workaround

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