Ever present mds

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Level 1

74 points

Ever present mds

Since the upgrade to Snow Leopard, it seems that mds daemon is persistently running, non-stop. Overall, Spotlight seems to have become significantly slower than it used to be, every once in awhile "forgetting" about things, or just pausing for a pretty long time (a minute or even more), while searching for things.

Just now I wanted to launch Server Admin, which is in "Server" folder under Applications. I usually just tap Ctrl-Space to open Spotlight search field and type "server" and it would pop up first thing. After the upgrade, it's not always happening. Sometimes it just doesn't find it at all - that is, the spinning gear in the search field disappears, but no Server Admin found, even after I repeat the same thing again, so I have to launch it by going to the Applications folder.

"mds" daemon seems to always run and take about 10-15% of CPU time, only stopping at times. Today I've randomly checked for its activity, and out of a dozen of times I've always found it at the top of process list, sorted by CPU usage, in Activity Monitor.

On two occasions it started re-indexing the whole hard drive from scratch after a reboot.

I've tried to disable indexing - "mdutil -i off /", erase the existing index - "mdutil -E /", then enable it back again - "mdutil -i on /", to no avail - the behavior does not change.

Is anyone else experiencing similar issues?

MacBook Pro 15", 3.06GHz, 4GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 16, 2009 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Sep 16, 2009 4:45 PM in response to Farlander

Check your logs (the Console app, in your Applications/Utilities folder). Filter for mds
If you don't find anything, try mdworker and/or mdhelper

It may be choking on a particular file, or have a missing mdimporter.

You might have directory damage: try a +*Verify Disk+* (not permissions) via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).

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Answer 2

Farlander Author

Level 1

74 points

Sep 20, 2009 7:46 PM in response to Pondini

Thanks for the advice. I, however, seem to have found what the issue is: it seems that there's a bug in mds, as it keeps indexing a volume, for which indexing is disabled. The volume in question, in this particular case, is /Volumes/BOOTCAMP - the Bootcamp volume where my Windows 7 is installed. mdutil -s -a shows that the indexing is disabled, yet fs_usage shows that mds process keeps reading files from it (that's the only volume where I have .dll files, for example, which mds keeps reading).

The mds seems to be reindexing the volume all the time. The only way to stop that is to "eject" the BOOTCAMP volume.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,668 points

Sep 20, 2009 7:50 PM in response to Farlander

Try removing it from the Privacy list and then add it back. I seem to remember this being a fix for that. However, I may have it backwards.

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Answer 4

Farlander Author

Level 1

74 points

Sep 20, 2009 7:55 PM in response to Barney-15E

Hmmm... I didn't think about that. I disabled the indexing using the "mdutil -i off /Volumes/BOOTCAMP" command. It does show the indexing is disabled, yet mds keeps reading it...

Anyway, I've added the /Volumes/BOOTCAMP to the Privacy section of the Spotlight Preferences - will update if that helped. Thanks for the advice! 🙂

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Answer 5

Oct 2, 2009 3:01 AM in response to Farlander

This is my issue. In my logs, I’m seeing a lot of this:

Oct 2 15:51:11 XXXXXXX /System/Library/Frameworks/PubSub.framework/Versions/A/Resources/PubSubAgent.ap p/Contents/MacOS/PubSubAgent[339]: MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/vh/vhErUKQ E9KrbMfZiA78Jk++TI/-Caches-//mds

The application changes a bit, but a lot of the errors relate to the attempt to create a user DB and failing. Don’t know what it’s doing. It but it seems to be driving MDS crazy, and thus, my CPU. Any thoughts?

thanks,
chris

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Answer 6

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Oct 2, 2009 8:09 AM in response to Christopher Allbritton

Christopher Allbritton wrote:
This is my issue. In my logs, I’m seeing a lot of this:

Oct 2 15:51:11 XXXXXXX /System/Library/Frameworks/PubSub.framework/Versions/A/Resources/PubSubAgent.ap p/Contents/MacOS/PubSubAgent[339]: MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/vh/vhErUKQ E9KrbMfZiA78Jk++TI/-Caches-//mds

The application changes a bit, but a lot of the errors relate to the attempt to create a user DB and failing. Don’t know what it’s doing. It but it seems to be driving MDS crazy, and thus, my CPU. Any thoughts?

That's not one I've seen before. That's a system file; are the others also system files?

I'd start with a +*Repair Permissions+* on your internal HD, via Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder).

If that's no help, try a +*Verify Disk+* (not permissions). If that finds errors, you'll have to boot from your SL Install disc and use it's copy of DU to repair them. Post back if you need to do that but aren't sure how.

If that's no help, I'd be inclined to simply reinstall SL (and the 10.6.1 update if appropriate).

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Answer 7

Oct 17, 2009 5:31 AM in response to Farlander

I too am getting a lot of these. They vary, but, this is the very first one after boot. <name of my iMac>: loginwindow[48]: MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/Dz/DzpYZaewGVmVzc9Q-nXTuE +TI/-Caches-//mds

It doesn't really seem to be affecting performance, but, is a tad bothersome. I did a "clean" install of SL, then, copied over things that were needed to restore information, like mail, iPhoto libray, etc...

I have followed the suggestions about verifying permissions, verifying disk, all seems ok.

Is reinstalling really my only/best option?

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Answer 8

Oct 18, 2009 2:13 AM in response to piratemc74

I am also interested in this problem? as I have the same messages and have done all the other fixes suggested but not a reinstall:) I am just trying to clean up any errors, as I have a major problem with Microsoft Sync Services, and this message also comes attached to: FileSyncAgent.app and /library/smith micro/common/schedulemailer (what the heck is that!) and growlhelper, plus more...

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Answer 9

7Heads

Level 1

0 points

Nov 6, 2009 1:47 PM in response to Farlander

Hi all,
I've had similar problems, especially when running iWeb, mds spiked up to 130% cpu time and used 140 Mb of RAM. I've also had annoying hangs every 3-5 minutes. Simply adding my bootcamp-drive to the spotlight privacy list solved all that, it seems. I haven't had any hangs or mds-crazyness (running iWeb or not) for a week now.. fingers crossed.

Best regards,
Tim

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Answer 10

Nov 18, 2009 4:44 AM in response to 7Heads

I've tried every suggestion posted for this problem, to no avail. Here is my thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2206733

How do I file a bug report with Apple?

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Answer 11

Nov 30, 2009 7:21 AM in response to Mark Richman

Try this command in the Terminal, as listed here:
http://blog.expandrive.com/2007/06/24/is-mds-taking-over-your-cpu-on-os-x-try-sp otless/

sudo mdutil -avE

I've just done it and shall see if it keeps that mds from eating up all my available ram any more.

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Answer 12

Nov 30, 2009 7:30 AM in response to Ben Jammin'

I don't have a CPU or RAM problem with mds, just neverending console messages like this one:

MDS Error: unable to create user DBs in /var/folders/J6/J6UzEw jGneeaBy5QLvbPU++TI/-Caches-//mds

and it's always that same path too...just that /var/folders/J6/ tree.

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Answer 13

Jan 16, 2010 7:21 AM in response to Mark Richman

I have finally solved this issue for me. It was a combination Mail.app plugin and Tags.app. Both seem to use OpenMeta for their tagging issues, and it was causing a real problem for me — especially with so many thousands of email messages. So I uninstalled both Tags.app and the MailTags plugin from indev.ca. Then I deleted the openmeta folder in ~/Library/Application Support. Then I deleted the Spotlight importers for MailTags and OpenMeta in ~/Spotlight. (I had two versions of a MailTag importer. Probably a big problem there.)

I then reinstalled the latest SL compatible release of MailTags. Since then, all is has been quiet on the mds and mdworker front. They’re sitting there, minding their own business and not spiking or taking more than their share of CPU.

Hope this helps.

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