How do I disable Spotlight indexing to prevent system files from filling disk space on my Mac?

My system is a MacM3 power book with 1terabyte SSD and 18Gig of dynamic memory. The system files on my SSD (system disk) have expanded to about 25% of the disk storage space! When i examine usage, the bulk of it is spotlight indexes. As the disk nears full, the user response is extremely laggy while spotlight (process corespotlightd and storage managementservices) is updating indexes. It requires many pauses to type a paragraph like this. Once spotlight is through creating indexes things settle down and I can use the machine again until an index update begins. I've tried the "fixes" of deleting the index files, re-booting etc, but the indexes come back and fill the disk again. I have moved all I care to the iCloud. I am reluctant to move more as I frequently work in areas with no cell coverage and do need data to work on.

Things were OK until the MacOS 26 & it's updates started. I'd like to get back to where things were pre-MacOS26

An indexing system that uses this high a fraction of the disk space is not a very credible solution.

How do I turn spotlight off as much as possible until Apple gets it s**t together and fixes spotlight?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Spotlight indexing is causing system files to fill disk space. System thrashing as disk approaching capacity How do i disable spotlight?

MacBook Air (M3, 2024)

Posted on Dec 3, 2025 3:54 PM

Top-ranking reply

JNoel54

Level 2

202 points

Posted on Dec 6, 2025 6:59 AM

This has been an ongoing issue for a lot of users. If you look in ~/Library/Metadata/CoreSpotlight/, you will see several folders that can increase in size to over 40 GB - usually the first two if you view the contents by size. This has been documented in many other posts. Escalated Apple service recommended - for me with my M4 iMac - deleting these large folders and that works for a while but they continue to increase in size. Some people think it is related to using Pages. I use Pages a lot and can confirm that thought.

I read that disabling Spotlight in Settings/Spotlight helps, tried it and I'm not having issues and stopped regularly deleting folders in the above referenced location. You can also disable Spotlight's indexing of Pages in this same location.

I try to search for previous posts when I am looking for information because a lot of excellent thinking has already gone on in this forum on similar problems. It is not always the easiest thing to check to see if a current question has already been answered. I have been writing about this issue here for a long time and still see current questions. Hope this helps. For reference, the first thing Apple support had me do is reload the OS and it didn't help.

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18 replies

JNoel54

Level 2

202 points

Dec 6, 2025 10:32 AM in response to neuroanatomist

In my case, the drive space filling up was directly related to the folders increasing in size. As the folder sizes increased, my available drive space diminished. Deleting those folders immediately restored available drive space.

e2ipiminus1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 6, 2025 5:29 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

I cannot delete any of the files toad hall suggested here is the error message disk utility gives me

[Edited by Moderator]

Dec 6, 2025 7:15 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

e2ipiminus1 wrote:

The problem is with the behavior of corespotlightd when the disk is nearly full. You are clearly NOT testing that. Fill your disk so that here is only about 5 gig left.

It is recommended to always keep at least 15% free on all drives, and preferably 20% for the system drive.

The problem is that the disk is FULL. You should never let it go until you have only 5GB free. Your mac needs disk space for the OS to work properly. You are risking data loss, and that is on you.

We are users like you. I don't think any of us is going to fill our disks to an unsafe level in order to the testing you are asking for. Just keep enough space free keep your Mac safe and performant.

How do I disable Spotlight indexing to prevent system files from filling disk space on my Mac?