Finder or Spotlight Searching SMB folders

That was my mistake. Copied html instead of plan text 😉 . I've known bdaqua for awhile. Great problem solver.

I'd run etrecheck on the server. The proprietary stuff gets filtered.

-- Download etrecheck.  Click on the download link at the bottom of the screen.

http://etrecheck.com/

-- Run etrecheck.   The first five runs are free.

-- Using EtreCheck by etresoft, the author

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-11591

How to post etrecheck findings:

1) click on "Share report"

2) click on "Copy report"

3) Paste the information into an ASC forum reply.

Well, that's how etrecheck posting worked the last time I check. The author is upgrading etrecheck all the time.

R

Debbie, good clue "mds Can't init <private> -- too many objects for MDSTaskRegistry", Spotlight is running out of storage space, no idea if it's a built in limit or short of RAM or Disk space, or both, next time it happens check Activity Monitor...

http://www.rawinfopages.com/mac/content/mdworker-and-mds-osx-problems-solved-speed-your-mac

problem could be related to the share. You could try another sharing protocol. Like NFS. Apple provides the NFS software but not a GUI for NFS. You can use NFS Manager.

https://www.bresink.com/osx/NFSManager.html

Set up the mount on the server. The would be your computer that you want to share a folder.

You need to access the share. I did a manual access.

Finder > Connect to server...

then I entered the nfs share as such. I set up my server with a fixed ip address.

nfs://192.168.0.55/Users/mac/Documents

showmount is a useful terminal command

mac $ showmount -e 192.168.0.55

Exports list on 192.168.0.55:

/Users/mac/Documents 192.168.0.0

on the left finder pane you will see the share:

Hi Debbie, Another great search tool...

Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.

Try this bizarre cure for Spotlight...

Sys Prefs>Spotlight, uncheck Bookmarks & History, rebuild Spotlight Index if needed then.

On one of the Macs doing the searching...

Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.

I'd try this then Delete .DS_Store files on the server...

https://care.qumulo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000515867-Faster-SMB-Browsing-with-Mac-OS-X-10-13-or-later

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208209

Did we get what versions of macOS are you running on the server and the clients?

I think you need to try other network protocols. afp first and then if afp gives you problems nfs.

interesting reading, how long will afp be around? [ I thought it had gone away. ]

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/285417/is-afp-slated-to-be-removed-from-future-versions-of-macos

I am not sure it is one share per se. the share that most often fails the search is the one that is searched most often.

This point to a race condition with accessing the files. Or some other i/o issue.

Can you have both NFS and normal apple file structure on the same drive ?

yes. These shares don't change the file structure. You should think of them as app that reads files and directories on the server and sends them to the client.

i was under the impression spotlight could not search an NFS share.

Oh, I hadn't heard of that. I did see problem references, but they were years ago. Helios claims there are limitations.

Here is an interesting web page.

https://www.helios.de/web/EN/news/AFP_vs_SMB-NFS.html

You may want to check out their fileserver:

https://www.helios.de/web/EN/solutions/webshare-connectivity.html

Another approach, would be to upgrade all you systems to mojave. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

R

AFP is really old and being phased out.

I thought is was gone already, but you are looking for something that works. My reading is that time machine uses AFP for it remote backup. Is a good endorsement. AFP only works with hps/hps+.

You want to get something that works. You could file a bug report with apple and wait. Another tech workers said to me one, "There is always another way".

Here are my recommendations:

-- schedule reboot of server in early morning.

-- try afp

-- try nfs

I worked on OSs a long time ago. a reboot is a re-building of the running OS from the ground up. All the internal buffers and connections get re-established. All software get reloaded. There were always a lot of strange bugs. A lot of timing bugs that were infrequent, but relied on a strange combination of events. a reboot can throw a monkey wrench into the comulative bug chains.

R

Well, now that sounds like a problem on the other end, or networking, any AV running on the SMB end?

Sorry about the link, looks to be new now...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hmmm, looks the same...

findanyfile

Did you uncheck Bookmarks & History yet?

The rebuild needs to be done on the Mac(s) doing the searching, but it may or may not need rebuilding after unchecking Bookmarks & History on each Mac doing the searching.

spotlight could have gone crazy in a loop of sometime allocation space for something. 😱 But??? Restarting the client doesn't help. Server fails. Client goes crazy filling up space.

re-boot has been the standard computer fix since the dawn of computers. What is does is clean house. Everything is freshly cleaned. You need to look at the logs on the server around the time of failure.

R