Application Spotlight quit unexpectedly

Hi

Have you tried repairing permissions

Run Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities)
Select name of startup disk e.g. Macintosh HD
Click Repair Disk Permissions

With Leopard, Disk Utility takes a very long time to complete the repairing (some have reported up to half an hour). Ignore the SUID messages, nothing to worry about.

Anything at http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/multipleappsquit.html helpful?

Steve

Hi, oddly enough I am getting the same issue.

At startup, I can get to the login screen. After logging in the computer just waits and sometimes I will get "Spotlight Quit Unexpectedly" and the computer continues to just wait. However, it won't let me Ignore, Report or Relaunch as whenever I click it doesn't respond. I am able to bring up the Force-Quit window, but nothing is there.

I have tried booting in to Safe Mode, but it also won't let me start up into the OS, as it waits after login.

I am at a loss, right now I'm just restoring the whole hard drive and seeing if that fixes it -- hopefully Time Machine will do what it's supposed to do.

From everything I've read, if you can find a way to disable Spotlight, it might work. I wasn't able to even in Single-user command mode because it's read-only. Otherwise, I'm still not sure what the problem is. I've run disk utility repairs and to no avail. I'm still not convinced that it's all Spotlight's fault. But I wasn't able to disable it to check.

Welcome to Mac 😀

If you have applications quitting unexpectedly here are some steps to try out, before you re-instal mac os x.

1. Open a finder window and go to:
home folder(the small house with you user name)/library/prefrences/
2. find the "com.apple.spotligth.plist" and drag that file to your desktop,
3. log out and in again. Did it work?
4. Throw away the "com.apple.spotligth.plist"

Mac killed my PC

I also get this problem. I bought my macbook and within 5 minutes it had started to get pop ups saying The application Spotlight quit unexpectedly every 10 seconds.
I have updated software to see if it would solve the problem; it didn't.
This isn't the only problem, I am also unable to use any programs except for safari and system preferences (although not all of the variables work) and I keep on trying to re-install programmes using the installation discs but the disc won't run.
I am a new mac user so I don't even know how to start to solve this issue! Help!!!

I am also getting this same problem on my little sisters computer, which is 2000 miles away... does anyone have any suggestions? I am getting a screen with just the wallpaper and the dock, but no menubar up top or desktop icons. Safe mode, same thing.

HELP! I'm having this issue all of a sudden. I installed the latest software update trio of QuickTime/iTunes/FrontRow and now can't get past this error message of "spotlight quit unexpectedly" when trying to startup, just loops no matter what button I click on dialog. I've booted off DVD and did repairs, but still won't work. I REALLY don't want to have to do a fresh install, as I've spent many hours installing/activating Adobe products etc. on this. What's happening, how can it be remedied????? Apple where are you?

Just got off the phone with Apple Support. The only apparent remedy is to "Archive & Install" again from the Leopard DVD. What a tremendous waste of my time I've just entered into by committing to that software update...

"i too have this problem...brand new macbook, first time mac user..i thought this is why i bought a mac....noone of these error messages"

None of these error messages?

Lower expectations will likely improve your end-user experience.

Here are a two suggestions:

(1) Expect errors from time to time. They happen. Nothing's perfect. But I think over time you will experience much greater stability and far fewer problems.

(2) Be careful not to be an early adopter. Remember that any X.0 software is not always ready for prime time. Apple has notorious issues for this, especially in OS releases. Let someone else beta test, no matter how cool the new features seem to be.

(3) Patience. Remember that this new OS is radically different than what you are used to. Given a few months and some experience, you'll be a pro in no time.

(4) Apple discussion forums should be a source of information for you, but not the source. Make them #2 or #3. There's a lot of good information here, but some real garbage too.

This Terminal command will restore most Macs, after damage from a bug in the recent Software Updates:

update dyld_sharedcache -force -debug -root "/Volumes/Macintosh HD"

To get to Terminal:

* Insert the Leopard Install DVD into your drive (OR see alternate methods below...)

* Start up (boot) from the DVD by holding down the 'c' key as you Restart or power up

* Wait for the first dialog to appear, then choose English (or your language)

* Wait for the Menu Bar to appear at the top of the screen (ignore the Install dialog)

* Pull down the Utilities menu and choose Terminal

Now check the name of your hard drive by typing:

ls /Volumes

and press the Return key. The standard name will display as Macintosh\ HD unless you changed it.

As you enter the "update dyld_sharedcache ..." command above, type your own hard drive's name after the -root part. It's easiest to omit the backslash which proceeds any spaces, and instead enclose the entire drive name in double-quotes.

Double-check your spelling, then press the Return key to start the repair. If you typed correctly, lots of messages will display; they'll stop scrolling when it's complete. (A quick short message would indicate an error, so try again in that case, or supply details here in a Reply to this message.)

Next, from the Terminal menu on the top Menu Bar, choose Quit Terminal. Then from the Installer menu, Quit Installer (do NOT continue with the installation dialogs -- you're done).

Finally, choose Restart from the pop-up window, or choose Startup Disk and then select your hard drive when the cursor changes back to an arrow. Things should be back to normal when Mac OS X restarts.

Alternate methods of entering the update dyld_sharedcache command include:

* If you previously added a Terminal icon to the Dock, just click on it. In this case, omit the -root part of the command.

* If you can't find the Leopard Install DVD, then start up in Single User mode by holding down the Command key (Open Apple, or cloverleaf-squiggle) along with the letter 's'. When the scrolling messages stop, follow the on-screen directions to check and mount your hard drive before continuing with the steps above.

If you report your results here, I'll check back and answer any questions.

Message was edited by: PrecisionTEQ

The recent QuickTime 7.4.5 Update may skip an essential step when it completes. This left my Mac in a state where Finder, and many other programs including Spotlight, would abort with an error.

The Update is supposed finish up by clearing an environment variable, DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING, in order to allow re-synchronizing the rest of OS X to the new software. According to the 'man' page documentation, "update dyld_sharedcache -- Updates dyld's shared cache."

In my case, though, the Quicktime update mistakenly left computer instructions to set this DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING variable again, each time the Mac starts up.

My fix above works around this problem, and If enough people report this same issue, Apple may offer another Update to ensure that the offending variable stays cleared. Otherwise I can post further details for a more permanent fix.

The recent QuickTime Update caused this bug by leaving the following environment variable set on my Leopard 10.5.2 Mac:

DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING

This variable is designed for temporary use during Software Update, and it should have been cleared at the end of the Update process, in order for Mac OS to sync with the updated software.

The problem is located in the preference file:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dyld.plist

which contains the key:

EnvironmentVariables = {
"DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING" = 1;
};

My fix, in the two previous posts above, is just a workaround for this bug, as the errant variable is still set.

The proper fix would likely be to set this variable to zero, or to delete the key. This could be done using a 'defaults write' command, but it would be best if Apple would address the problem and issue an official fix.

This is great - thanks so much! My Mac is back to a functional state thanks to your expertise : )

Question - when I run Software Update in the future, should I avoid any QuickTime updates (or any updates for a while)? I'm concerned about running into the same problem....

Or should I drink the Apple Kool-Aid, run all the updates, and apply the terminal command as described below if I run into an issue?


Thanks again!

You're welcome, taichistudent -

I should mention that, unless you're running as root or with Administrator privileges, you'll need to precede many of these Terminal commands with 'sudo' and type your password when prompted.

Glad to hear that the fix worked for you. It would be great if Apple would acknowledge and address issues like this, which may affect only a small number of customers.

Until then I'll continue to to drink all the Apple juice, since that's the only practical way to get the bug fixes / security updates.

However, first I'll wait a week or two before installing each update, to check for problem reports here at apple.com, and at other sites like macfixit which tend to highlight such issues. Will also search the Web in case reports turn up anywhere else.

Your questions bring up trade-offs which I'm still weighing. Should we manually download and apply individual updates; or allow Software Update to get and install them, either individually or in groups as released by Apple?

In some cases, allowing Software Update to install a group of updates might prevent the kind of damage reported by users in this thread. The idea is, if one of those updates mistakenly left a flag set, such as DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING, then another update in the same group might clear that flag and so solve the problem.

However, at least one post here reported the same bug after applying the " update trio of QuickTime/iTunes/FrontRow," so at least in this case, updating as a group failed to help.

All I can say for sure is that, to protect against this same bug after applying future updates, you could first boot from another volume (or in Single User mode) and check the DYLD NO_FIXPREBINDING flag via:

defaults read /Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dyld

and substituting the actual name of your hard drive as described in my first post here. If that flag is set to 1, it might be a good idea to clear it using 'defauts write' and then run the "update dyld_sharedcache ..." command, also detailed in my first message.

I'd be grateful if anyone can suggest how to effectively report issues like this to Apple.

OK, I think I'm going to strangle this thing.

I am a BRAND new mac user; I have had this computer for FOUR days; I seemed to have alredy broken it!!!

The same thing was happening to me, the "spotlight quit" problem. The big problem was, however, that I could not open Finder to do any of the suggested remedies.
I tried Firce Quit, that didn't work either. Before all i Had was the dashbord on the screen, NOTHING else, now i have NOTHING except the background. The ONLY way i can turn it off is by holding the button in the back. =[ It will not respond to anything else.

ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated. =D

iwillkickyou wrote:
OK, I think I'm going to strangle this thing.

I am a BRAND new mac user; I have had this computer for FOUR days; I seemed to have alredy broken it!!!

The same thing was happening to me, the "spotlight quit" problem. The big problem was, however, that I could not open Finder to do any of the suggested remedies.
I tried Firce Quit, that didn't work either. Before all i Had was the dashbord on the screen, NOTHING else, now i have NOTHING except the background. The ONLY way i can turn it off is by holding the button in the back. =[ It will not respond to anything else.

ANY suggestions are greatly appreciated. =D

Welcome to the Apple boards.
Is your Mac brand new? If so bring it in for service.
Was this problem always occurring or did you do something just before it began?
Most computer problems are caused by the very last thing we did to it.
You give no information about your OS or computer.