How to exclude some external volumes from Spotlight

I want to exclude my external backups (Carbon Copy Cloner 5) from Spotlight to avoid the common situation that I cannot eject the disk after the backup is done because the disk is "busy". Also faster.

I can exclude one volume from a two-volume disk in the usual way in Preferences Privacy. However the second volume gives me an error. For another disk, both volumes fail.

I used mdutil to get the following where disk 1 is in the Privacy list, but not sure how to proceed.

Michel-iMac:~ maintainer$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Backup\ 1\ -\ Data

/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/Backup 1 - Data:

Indexing and searching disabled.

Michel-iMac:~ maintainer$ mdutil -s /Volumes/Backup\ 3\ -\ Data

/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/Backup 3 - Data:

Error: unknown indexing state.

The '-i off' or '-E' options fail with the same error message.

Posted on Sep 5, 2021 11:21 AM

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4 replies

6x6

Level 6

19,245 points

Sep 5, 2021 12:34 PM in response to Bruce Michel

Would this article help: Change Spotlight preferences on Mac - Apple Support?

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,042 points

Sep 7, 2021 2:48 PM in response to Bruce Michel

Try showing the hidden files (cmd-shift-. ) and delete the .Spotlight-v100 folder from the volume that won't work.

It was only a single-volume external drive where I had a similar problem. Deleting the Spotlight folder allowed me to configure it for Spotlight. I would imagine you might have the same success. Also, that folder will get recreated even if you exclude it as that is where it stores the exclusion.

6x6

Level 6

19,245 points

Sep 7, 2021 9:08 AM in response to Bruce Michel

I don't see why not as you are only deleting the index. But from what you are telling me, you've already tried the -E option. I've been doing some light research and some people were able to reset Spotlight by deleting the content of the .Spotlight-V100 folder.

You could look at:

I'm not completely sure but I think from what I've read that those folders may also be on the external drives (besides the one on your main drive). It's a little murky and frankly a little bit out of my league, to be honest.

Bruce Michel Author

Level 1

124 points

Sep 6, 2021 5:50 PM in response to 6x6

No. The issue is that these steps within the Preference app do not work and result in mystifying messages.

Would it be wise to delete using mdutil?

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How to exclude some external volumes from Spotlight