Spotlight NOT Indexing External USB Drive - Indexing and Searching Disabled

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pachyx Author

Level 1

50 points

Spotlight NOT Indexing External USB Drive - Indexing and Searching Disabled

MacBook Pro Version 11.1

Have an external USB Drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Spotlight will NOT index it.

I have tried the System Preferences Spotlight "Privacy" Add and Remove several times - it does not work.

I am not a Terminal Expert but I was able to locate a few helpful instructions. These also did not work - see below. Even using sudo to turn indexing "on" I still get the message

myname@GEORGEs-MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/GM8TB2

/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/GM8TB2:

Indexing and searching disabled.

Normally this command would turn on indexing.

There must be some other, even higher level switch that controls indexing on an external drive - but I do not know what it is

Any suggestions will be helpful. Thank you.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Feb 15, 2021 5:42 AM

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Answer 1

pachyx Author

Level 1

50 points

Feb 15, 2021 2:58 PM in response to Barney-15E

I appreciate your response but Time Machine and startup drive have nothing to do with it.

The drive in questions is actually a 2TB HFS partition on an 8TB Western Digital External USB Drive.

So to answer

Was it ever used as a Time Machine drive or startup drive?

In the 4-5 years that I have had the WD 8TB drive the answer is - well I guess it could have been.

But now it is partitioned, formatted, erased as a 2TB partition.

I use it as a backup for my backups that I use to backup my time capsule.

The issue arose when I used Super Duper to copy another External 2TB USB Drive to the partition. BOTH the external 2TB USB Drive and the 2TB partition on the 8 TB WD Drive "LOST" all of the spotlight features.

There are no v100 files or anything close on either drive.

I used to be able to search via spotlight, now I can't.

It in NOT Super Duper, other partitions on the 8TB WD Drive have also lost spotlight functionality.

Many thanks.

Any other suggestions.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,246 points

Feb 15, 2021 3:45 PM in response to pachyx

I appreciate your response but Time Machine and startup drive have nothing to do with it.

If you know what does and does not cause the issue, I would think you could solve it yourself.

Restrictions on both startup drives and Time Machine drives may prevent it from writing the index.

There are no v100 files or anything close on either drive.

Sorry, that folder is hidden.

In Finder, type this shortcut: cmd-shift-. ← that's a period at end of command shortcut.

That will show hidden files and folders.

If there isn't a .Spotlight-V100 folder, that is why it won't search.

If the folder does exist, try deleting the folder, eject the drive, then remount it. Try enabling Spotlight on the drive.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,246 points

Feb 15, 2021 6:54 AM in response to pachyx

Was it ever used as a Time Machine drive or startup drive?

Does it contain a .Spotlight-V100 folder? If so, try deleting the folder, unmount the drive, then remount it and try to enable indexing.

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Spotlight NOT Indexing External USB Drive - Indexing and Searching Disabled

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