Trying to disable spotlight on firewire drives...

I have tried throught the Terminal as well as privacy prefs to disable a couple backup firewire drives from indexing. However every time I restart spotlight tries to index again. It seems to forget the settings. Anyone with a similar experience that has a solution for me?
Thanks for the help.

Download a copy of Spotless. From the app. you can disable indexing for the drives (make sure they are on when doing so). Afterward, open your System Preference panel for Spotlight and add the drives or drives' partitions into the privacy pane. That ought to stop Spotlight from indexing the drives.

Similar Messages

Disable spotlight for External Drives

I have 5 macs, and several USB and Firewire drives. Most of these external drives are plugged into different machines from time to time. None sit permanantly in any machine (because most of my machines are laptops).
I'd like to prevent Spotlight from indexing my External drives.
I know I can (after plugging in a EXT drive), use the privacy function in the Spotlight Preferences. But with a dozen or so external drives (HDD and Thumb) on 5 machines, that's too much work each time I plug a drive into a machine.
I read that the existence of a ".metadata_never_index" file prevents Spotlight indexing. I assume this works, but it's hard to tell for sure, because the moment I plug a drive in, my machine seems to start indexing faster than I can create this file. So I wind up with a .Spotlight-V100 directory. I was hoping that OSX would delete this for me after I set Privacy or add the ".metadata_never_index" file. But it does not. It may be that I have to delete it manually (probably because Privacy is a COMPUTER setting (not on HDD setting).
QUESTIONS:
Does the ".metadata_never_index" file supported by OSX (Mavericks and MtnLion).
Can I delete the .Spotlight-V100 directory in my EXT Drives, without the risk of causing a problem?
If I put a ".metadata_never_index" file in /Volume, will it effectively prevent indexing on any mounted drive, without affecting the Macintosh HD indexing?
Is there an non-invisible equivilent to ".metadata_never_index" (so it's more obvious when indexing is turned off).

Glad you found that helpful.
The Privacy listing for a given external only disappears when the external isn't attached; it reappears when it is attached so either a local record of "Don't Index" is only shown as necessary or, more likely, that record is on the external and is read as part of the mounting process when it's connected. While the process of putting each external on each Mac's Privacy list is a pain, it should only be necessary to do it once. Whether the Don't Index flag is Mac specific, so that Mac 1 doesn't want that external indexed but Mac 2 does, is another question.
I do think the Don't Index flag or file is separate from the partition's logical name because, when I erase the partition in preparation for a new backup clone, I don't change the name of the partition, and the name of the device to be cloned doesn't change either. Rather, it may simply be a Spotlight related file that gets erased along with everything else.
Fortunately, I don't have to worry about Spotlight; apart from the Privacy listing, I have all of the Search Results options unchecked, so there's very little to index on the boot partition. Spotlight can't be turned off altogether though because it interacts with the App Store regarding purchases and downloads. For finding things, I use EasyFind, which, while not able to find content in documents, looks inside of everything else, including Packages and hidden System files, and does it on demand without having to index anything. Another advantage of that is, by not tinkering with OS files, including those associated with Spotlight under the hood, when a new OS changes how things work, there's less risk of a deeply hidden self inflicted bug.

Disabling Spotlight on Secondary Drive in Leopard For Free

How to do this without buying third-party software? Is it possible? I've searched these forums and only found that you need to buy a $13 software.
I need to disable Spotlight on my scratch disk.

Go into System Preferences -> Spotlight and click on the Privacy tab. Add the second disk in there, and Spotlight won't index it.

Trying to move film project between external firewire drives HELP!

i have a film project that i've been working on and all of the media files and the project file are on one external firewire drive. I want to move the film project to a different, smaller and more transportable firewire drive, however, when i use the media manager to make a copy of the project on the second external drive, when i try to open the new project, it uses only approximate outpoints of the clips in the sequence and all my editting work is pretty much lost. is there a way to preserve my editted outpoints? please help! thanks, jkkjnz

the clips all have names. 01_01 until 01_85 or so and 02_01 until 02_52 or so. when the cop of the project is finishing up, a series of error messages appear which say "an unknown error occured while trying to reconnect clip 02_12 [for example] to the copied file". Then, when i try to reconnect the media from the new project, it says specifically for some clips, "02_09 does not have enough media content to reconnect clip in Sequence 1" and then after a list of similar messages, it says "one or more files did not have enough media to reconnect some clips. some edited clip items have had their outpoints adjusted." grrrr...

Firewire drives won't mount on any port, tried different drives, cables

None of my 6 Firewire drives will mount today. Tried one at a time, FW 800, 400, jack on the front, the back, nothing. Tried different cables, restarting, unplugging everything, zapping the PRAM, turning on the drive first, still nothing. Drives work on a different computer. I'm all out of ideas! Thanks.

Hi dragonfly921, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Shut it down, remove all power, and remove all peripherals & the PRAM battery.
Let sit for a few minutes/hours, then reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939
Plug everything back in, put the PRAM Battery back in, start it up.
My G5 will no longer mount any external hard drive...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11893237&#11893237

Cannot disable spotlight - endlessly indexing

Hello all,
I cannot disable spotlight - it is endlessly indexing. I have dropped the main drive into Provacy under Spotlight. I have dropped my other 3 drives there as well. I have taken them out and reurned them many times - no change. I repaired disk permissions many times - no change. I downloaded and installed the 10.6.8 Combo update - no change. It keeps indexing and says: Indexing _____________'s Mac Pro. And the estimated time is not there - just that barber pole. And I believe it is affecting my applications - I am having major problems with Avid's Pro Tools 9.0.6.
Is there anything else that I can try? I do own Spotless but I stopped using it over a year ago - it didn't seem to do anything more than what I could do using the Privacy option. It it possible that Spotless might be able to do something that I cannot?
Any ideas would be welcome.

Maybe some file is corrupt in such a way to hang up spotlight. Is it possible for you to run with just your boot drive with the other 3 drives physically removed from the machine? See if it loops that way. If so something may be going on with the boot drive. If not, start adding the removed drives back one-by-one until it gets caught in the loop again.
If this method works at least you can narrow it down to a specific drive. Of course that won't tell you what the problem is on that drive but you at least have a single drive to concentrate on as opposed to 4 of them.
Since you already tried adding these drives to privacy I am not going to suggest the mdutil command to erase the indices (-E) or flag for no indices (-i). I don't think it will change anything and of course won't resolve why it is looping.
Also note that this problem is not unique. Look at the right side of this page for More Like This.
Related articles:
Turning Off Spotlight
The X Lab: Spotlight Tips

Firewire drive startup problems

Gang,
There's been a lot of talk regarding issues with Firewire drives and Leopard. I've tried reading through these posts in an effort to solve a problem I've been having. I haven't found any posts that match what I've been experiencing; however, I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere.
All right, here's what's happening. I've been using a Neptune external firewire drive from OWC for the past couple of years. I've experienced flawless operation until last week when I upgraded to Leopard. Things were OK for a few days, but now this particular drive hangs upon startup -- I get the spinning beachball. When I turn this drive on, everything stops: the finder, and programs I try to open, etc. Sometimes it shows up on the desktop, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it shows up in Disk Utility, sometimes it does not. Once I turn the drive off, the Finder regains its composure and continues along its merry way.
Any attempts to repair the drive using Disk Utility (when it shows up) have been unsuccessful, because the program freezes before too long. I've also tried the "unplug your machine for 15 minutes" trick, but this doesn't resolve the problems either. Doing this allows the drive to show up on the desktop, but it still hangs after a few moments.
From what I can tell, the FW drive is attempting to do something, I just don't know what. I hear lots of crunching going on inside the enclosure. I don't think it's a Spotlight issue, because there is no dot inside the spotlight icon.
Anyone have any suggestions? Am I just not being patient enough?

Hey i had the same problem with one of my external drives as well but it was a drive that i just got so i was able to have Lacie help me track down the problem. I am not sure if my problem was the same one you are having if you have had the drive for 2 years and use it allot it may just be getting ready to die but here is what they said so give this a try.
Make absolutely sure that the drive has a direct connection to the computer, and is the only external drive connected if you have more than one. Do not connect through a hub, or a port replicator, as those are things which could possibly be contributing to the problem. And, use ports on the rear of a desktop machine, as front ports are always hubbed. If you have any other external hard drives aside from this one, make absolutely sure they're disconnected, for troubleshooting.
The method for correcting corruption, which also is our next hardware troubleshooting step, involves repartitioning and erasing the drive in the Disk Utility. This is a process which does erase the drive entirely, including the corruption.
Disk Utility is accessed by opening the Macintosh HD, then the Applications folder, and then the Utilities folder. Within that, Disk Utility has an icon of a hard drive with a stethoscope on it.
- Highlight the GB hardware line- in your case, the approximately 465GB disk line.
- Click the Partition tab which becomes available up top.
- There should be an Options button at the bottom. Click it, and on the following window, make sure that the dot is next to ‘Apple Partition.’ Click OK through the window.
- Volume Scheme must be changed from 'Current' to '1 Partition'.
- Format is ideal to leave default Mac OS Extended Journaling.
- Uncheck the option for ‘Install Mac OS 9 Drivers.’
- Change the volume name 'Untitled 1' to whatever you prefer, alpha numeric only, and it is very important to give it a name that is new to it.
- Hit the Options button at the bottom of the window, and make sure the dot is in Apple Partition, then click OK through.
- Hit the Partition button in the lower right. Then click the Partition button through the warning window that comes up.
- The process is finished, when you see the name you gave it, indented under the GB hardware line you highlighted at the beginning.
If complications occur during or shortly after the format, that's when we're leaning towards isolating a physical problem to the drive. I recommend changing USB cords, trying a different power supply, and if possible another computer, to see if it makes things better. If it completes, I advise copying some data to it manually, to make sure it works. If it does, you should be all set.
If you find that your computer does not properly dismount the drive when it goes to sleep, you might want to consider changing this setting so that the computer does not go to sleep when the drive is attached. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the drive that can be changed to affect the way the computer dismounts the drive when it enters sleep mode.

External Lacie firewire drive slow access

Around 3 or 4 weeks ago, for seemingly no reason, the 250gb external firewire Lacie d2 drive attached to my PB started running slowly.
To give a bit more detail and example: I run iTunes off the drive and it runs fine. BUT, on most occasions, when I doubleclick the drive icon to open it, I get the beachball of doom spinning away for at least 30-40 seconds before it opens the window - the music playing then cuts out while it's accessing. Not what I expect from a firewire drive. I also hear the little beep from the drive quite often when it's trying to access.
It's getting silly. Although it will quite happily play music on shuffle for the entire evening without cutting, as soon as I try and use the drive like you would any drive (ie. navigating through files and folders), it does the beachball for 30-40 seconds thing every couple of windows. It's made it virtually unusable for everyday working (in the way that I'm going to throw it out the window if it carries on).
I can't remember if it started happening after the 10.4.7 update... I didn't do anything different to cause it, so am perplexed. Haven't tried Lacie forums yet either.
Any ideas, people?

I've now read that adding external drives to the privacy window in spotlight is a bad move. Besides, I need to find stuff and shouldn't have to turn it off (I always thought that after the initial spotlight indexing at first installation, it would just update rather than re-index the whole drive, so it shouldn't be that slow anyways... right?)
So, I've run diskwarrior, and it's optimized. Still the problem persists. LaCie tell me I have to update the firmware, but I'm a bit worried at the risk this poses to the data on the drive (ie. a sh*tload of music among other stuff). I have nowhere to put the 100gb on the drive, as I'm running a PB with a 60gig internal.
Risks?

Two Kernel Panics, Spotlight dead, Firewire sketchy,

Today after I restarted the machine from the Quicktime 7.4 update I got the gray screen of death and restarted - got it again and restarted. Then Leopard dumped my two Firewire drives. I shut down and unplugged them adn then replugged after 5 minutes and they were there.
Then Spoylight wanted to rescan everything and it did. I left the machine alone for awhile and it finished. I tried to do a search in spotlight but got the beachball and the finder stopped responding - as did everything else.
I really think Leopard has some firewire issues. It seems like I have had problems every time I have to restart. It's always been a crap shoot as to what drives will mount or if the dock will show up or even the gray toolbar strip.
I am back on my Tiger install to test the drives.
Is it possible that Spotlights index file is corrupt an dcausing these problems? I hate to have to re-install, but if that's what I gotta do...

Hi J.P.,
Your panic log is definitely flagging the kernel extensions for the FireWire burner:"Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.QPSQueFire(1.4.4)@0x328f2000"so that is clearly the problem. The version shown (1.4.4) is the most current version. Unless the kernel extension itself has become corrupted, something in the security update may have rendered that driver incompatible with Mac OS X.
This is something you want to take up with Que before proceeding further. If they've had similar reports, they might release a new kernel extension. Otherwise, you're faced with trying to reinstall that kernel extension from an identical copy of Tiger or performing an Archive and Install.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

LaCie Ext Firewire drive issues... Strange voodoo...

So this is kind of a mystery to me... and complicated... bear with me. I am running Mac OS 10.4.4 (Tiger) and I have a Bigger Disk LaCie Firewire 400/800 d2 drive. I ran a version of Tech Tool Pro that wasn't compatible with Tiger (I know - stupid). The result was a completely unrecognizable drive to the OS. Disk Utility wouldn't even initialize it at first. I had to start up from my Panther disc and run Disk utility there and zeroed the data on the drive after recovering the data.
Now everything seemed to be peachy however, every so often, usually when I am running an application that requires the drives attention whether it be Pro Tools, iTunes, Garageband - basically any app that needs to access the drive from time to time, forces the drive to not only freeze that application, but also freezes the Finder and makes it impossible for me to restart or do anything until I literally turn the drive off. The I get the usual device removal dialogue and everything returns to normal. Force Quit does not work in this case. I literally cannot get any application affected by the drives stalling to to Force Quit until I turn the thing off.
Then when I run Disk Utility or Disk Warrior (I wont let Tech Tool do anything now) it reports that there is nothing wrong with the drive. In addition, in the Disk Utility S.M.A.R.T. status it says that is "Not Supported" when I could have sworn that before I reinitialized the disc it would always say "Verified."
In order to perhaps help the problem I have diabled Hard Disk spindown as well as turned off Spotlight for that drive. I disabled spindown because it seemed that when the drive would go to spindown that it would freeze the Finder then too.
Could it be extreme fragmentation that is causing the problem? There are no weird clicks or mechanical sounds coming from the drive. The only thing that occurs is the blue light on the drive blinks continuously - when it does that and I get the beach ball of death I know I am screwed.
So sorry for the long post but if anyone could help me with this problem I figure they would have to have the whole story.
Unfortunately I am leaning towards the dying drive theory - it would be the third drive to die on me this year alone.
Any and all help is much appreciated.
Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Andrew
Firstly I don't believe the S.M.A.R.T. status will show anything other than "Not Supported" because FireWire drives are not supported - only internal drives.
Secondly your description makes me think there may be something wrong with the power supply (not exactly unheard of with LaCie drives). However I am not 100% sure - but it may still be worth checking out even if it is just to eliminate the possibility.
15" 1.25GHz/12" 1GHz PBs, 2xPPC Mac minis, 12" iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.7) Cube, 2xTAMs, iPod 4G & nano 2G, iPs, AEBS, AX

Will disabling Spotlight affect Final Cut Studio suite?

Many of my composer friends have disabled Spotlight which speeds up their machines supposedly.
They use Spotless2 & Find Any File as their cpu search utility.
I wanted to check to see if trying this would pose any problems in Final Cut Studio, etc.
Thanks,
Sherwood

Disabling Spotlight indexing of media/render drives would not adversely affect FCS at all, many folks do just that.

Why an I losing contact with Firewire drives and camera back?

One of my computers suddenly won't connect to a Phase One digital back via firewire.
Tried to plug in a external drive to check the port. No contact. (Tried various cables, etc.)
Tried camera on another computer. No contact. Tried firewire drives that had been running before on this same computer, and now it won't read these drives.
My PhaseOne dealer assures me that a digital back can't possible fry or disable a port. Still. there they are.
Took one of these drives to yet another computer that connects fine with yet another drive, tried the problem drive, and there was no connection. When I checked About This Mac there was a spinning wheel, as though it were looking for something.
Any thoughts, anyone? I don't want to test more drives if they are being damaged. And if they are, can they be recovered?
Many thanks
Sean Kernan

Hi, John.
1. I presume in Finder Preferences, in the General tab, you've selected "CDs, DVDs, and iPods" under "Show on desktop." Otherwise, FireWire drives won't display on the desktop, but they should still appear in the Finder's Sidebar.
2. If you did not Eject the drive before you disconnected it or powered it off, its partition map may be corrupted. That could explain the symptoms you are seeing. Your FireWire-based digital camera back may be seen as a FireWire drive.
Disconnecting a removable storage device — FireWire drive, USB drive, etc. — without first ejecting it can result in the drive's partition map being corrupted. Before disconnecting such a device, one must first Eject it by either:
- Dragging its icon to the Trash.
- Control-clicking the drive's icon and selecting Eject from its contextual menu.
- In Disk Utility, selecting the device, then selecting Eject in the Disk Utility toolbar.
If there's data on the drive you wish to recover, see my "Data Recovery" FAQ. Once you recover the data you want to save, if any, you will need to repartition and reformat the drive.
3. Before you panic w.r.t. item 2 above, Here is some general troubleshooting advice w.r.t. FireWire devices that may help:(1) Review the AppleCare Knowledge Base document "What to do if your computer won't recognize a FireWire device".
(2) If this problem occurred after installing a recent Mac OS X Update, and you are also unable to mount CDs, DVDs, or disk images perform the steps in this Mac OS X Hints article.
(3) The following additional steps will often help resolve problems with FireWire devices, particularly hard drives:(a) Power-on the FireWire drive before starting up (booting) your Mac.
(b) Reset PRAM and NVRAM.
(c) Reset the PMU or SMU: Select the appropriate knowledge base item for your model of Mac from this KB search. Follow the instructions on resetting the PMU or SMU carefully!
(d) Try a different FireWire port. James Wiebe, CEO of WiebeTech, has published FireWire Port Failures in Host Computers and Peripheral Devices, a white paper providing backgroud information and technical analysis concerning the causes of failure for FireWire ports. This may provide additional diagnostic information.
(e) Check with the manufacturer of your FireWire drive or enclosure to see if any firware updates are available for such.(4) Hopefully, the partition map on the FireWire drive is not damaged. If it still refuses to mount, you may need to employ data recovery tools or services: see my "Data Recovery" FAQ.Note that some of the information above is from the "FireWire Problems" chapter of my book, Troubleshooting Mac® OS X.
PS: You've not provided any info about the computer in question, i.e. Mac model, installed RAM, installed version of Mac OS X, etc. That's always important to include in a post, and I suggest you add it to your profile: click "My Settings" in the upper-right section of the sidebar on the right side of this page.
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Can't properly open fcp6 project on firewire drive on another computer

I have a long and complex fcp6 project that I have been editing with fcp6 on my piwermac g5 quad running leopard. The media and render files are each split between my boot drive and a second internal drive. I copy both drives onto a partitioned FireWire drive and then plug it into my macpro 3.1. The names on the FireWire partitions are exactly the same as the powermac drive names. The project opens perfectly on the 8 core macpro from the FireWire drive and I am able to render and other things much faster . However, I am about to outgrow the 1TB FireWire drive, so I got a larger one. I duped both partitions onto the similarly partitioned and identically named new bigger firewire drive....but when I go to open the project half the media filess are disconnected and even after I manually reconnect all kinds of error messages come up and the project is totally unworkable. So, why does the first firewiure drive work perfect but not the cloned nee FireWire drive? I even put an extra internal drive in the macpro and cloned the original FireWire to it but it does the same thing as the new FireWire, totally unworkable. I don't understand why things work perfectly with first FireWire but not with any other internal or external drive. Any help would be tremendously appreciated.

The original fiteewire which does open on the mac pro was partitioned apple partition map. The new FireWire drive that doesn't open properly is also apm, but I've erased and partitioned i GUID. I've tried using both disk utilities and superduper for the cloning in the past. I'm doing the cloning onto the guid partitions right now and will let you know if it helps in the morning. At any rate I appreciate your help.

How do I use a firewire drive as my start up disk?

I have a 12" powerbook that I am trying to use with an external firewire drive as my start up disk. aI install 10.5 easyily but then when I try to start up from that drive it will not recognize the drive as a Start up disk. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong.

First, what Disk Utility tells you is correct, that SMART indicators aren't supported on an external drive. Nothing is wrong.
I might try this approach .... get SuperDuper at http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html, download it to your internal hard drive, then use it to copy your internal drive to your external drive. Make sure the option to make the external drive bootable is checked. When that's done, reboot holding the option key down, and choose the external drive to boot from. That should work with the firewire connection.

Blue screen of death when La Cie external firewire drive connected

I tested a LaCie external firewire drive on my iMac and it worked fine. I packed it up well and posted it to a friend who gets the blue screen of death when the LaCie is connected to her iMac. She's not even trying to boot from it.
My iMac is 9.1 and hers is 8.1. We are both running Snow Leopard. Was there some problem once upon a time with chipsets or am I mis-remembering?
TIA

Create an ISO (Encore) or folder on your hard drive (Encore or Premiere Elements) and then use the FREE http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download to write files or folders or ISO to disc for DVD or BluRay (send the author a PayPal donation if you like his program)
Imgburn will read the ACTUAL disc brand from the disc, which is not always the same as the box label (Memorex is notorious for buying "anything" and putting it inside a Memorex box)
When you write to disc with Imgburn, use the SLOWEST possible speed setting, so your burner has the best chance to create "good, well formed" laser burn holes... since no player is required to read a burned disc, having a "good" one from a high quality blank will help

Trying to disable spotlight on firewire drives...

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