Reindexing of External Samsung SSD's

There are two possibilities that I can think of at the moment.

First, there are hidden database files that Spotlight places on the drive containing various indexing data. It is possible that this has some flaw in it that causes the indexing process to hang or simply bail out.

The other is that there is a file or folder that contains something that is throwing Spotlight off. This could take a very long time to figure out and a macOS update could come along and fix it anyway.

If the first case is the issue, then you can try the following:

Copy and paste this command into terminal and press return

 sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2T

This will be followed by a request for your password. This is the password you use to log into your Mac. This should remove all its hidden database files and start rewriting them.

I am hoping this is the issue as the second case can be very laborious to determine or the next macOS update will fix it.

Have you tried putting that drive on the Privacy list in Spotlight settings, reboot, and then remove the drive from the Privacy list?

To verify that indexing is in fact on, in terminal execute the following command:

mdutil -s <path to the drive>

You can simply type the first part followed by a space and then just drag the icon of the problem drive/volume to the window.

If it does indicate that it is off then:

mdutil -i on <path to the drive>

Then repeat the first command to in sure it is on.

Now, you will need to wait awhile for indexing to complete. How long this will take depends on how much data is on the drive.

Let's just start with that for now.

BTW, how is the drive formatted?

If you don't feel comfortable using Terminal commands here's an easy way to reindex an external drive using Time Machine:

Method 1: Using System Settings (The Easy Way)

• Click the Apple menu () in the top-left corner of your screen.

• Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions).

• Click Spotlight (or Siri & Spotlight) in the sidebar.

• Scroll down and click Search Privacy (or Spotlight Privacy).

• Drag your external drive's icon from your desktop or Finder window and drop it into the privacy list, or click the plus (+) button and select the drive.

• Click Done.

• Select the external drive you just added in that same privacy list, then click the minus (–) button to remove it.

• Click Done and close System Settings.

Currently you do have Spotlight Indexing enabled on that external Samsung T7 SSD according to the second screenshot of your latest post.

As for why the first command still had a problem....

You removed the spaces after each backslash character "\" in the volume name. Notice the difference between the first screenshot and the second one in your most recent post. As @woodmeister50 mentioned in their first post with the instructions, it is best to drag & drop the volume from the Finder onto the open Terminal window so that the system populates the correct path to the drive volume you wish to fix (since file/folder/volume names with spaces are complicated when using the command line).

So begin by typing the following....making sure to leave at least one space after the " -s ":

mdutil  -s  

Then use the Finder to drag & drop the volume onto the open Terminal window. If the name of your external volume is "T7 SSD 2TB", then the command line will show the following (may or may not include a trailing slash "/"):

mdutil  -s  /Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2TB

Same applies to the second 'mdutil' command.

Addendum:

I think it's even easier in going thru the Time Machine menu in the Menu Bar.

• Select "Open Time Machine Settings" from the menu
• Click on the Options… button.
• In the next window click on the + sign and add the external drive you want reindexed. You can do multiple drives at the same time.
• Close System Settings.
• Open Time Machine Settings again, click on Options… button.
• Select the drive(s) you added earlier and click on the - button.
• Depending on how many files you have on the drive it may take some time to reindex.

One additional, have you tried Disk First Aid in Disk Utility on the drive and its volumes?

There could be some directory or file issue that may be causing Spotlight indexing to stall. That is something I have seen in the past.

You have an error in your command entries by not having a space between the drive path and the command options:

you have: mdutil -s/Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2TB

should be: mdutil -s /Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2TB

^space needed

same with:

you have: mdutil -i on/Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2TB

should be: mdutil -i on /Volumes/T7\ SSD\ 2TB

^space needed

I can understand Apple's broad "no command line policy" as there are some system related commands if not entered properly can create disasters. Even with higher level techs, they don't want a typo over the phone or even screen share remotely to cause a customer system crash.

As for these commands, as you see, an error will simply spit out a "sorry no can do".

Varoop13 wrote:

...

What’s odd is that the 2 folders I mentioned yesterday “Action Fx…” from the“Movies” folder and “Simba” from the “Pictures” folder show similar data as yours in the “More Info” category when those folders are on the main SSD window, but nothing when in their original folders.  Any explanation?

As I had brought up previously, the Finder uses the Spotlight data base to load the additional data. So, that is why you see the data on one drive and not the other. The internal has fully indexed but the external hasn't. Each drive will have its own Spotlight database.

Both the NEF, and JPEG files in the Green “Nikon folder (shown in yesterday’s attached screen shot) had similar information as yours. There were no TIFF files to check  in this folder. 

That seems to indicate that the drive is getting partially indexed. Spotlight uses different processes to collect different types of data. Some things get indexed (or not) based on the different processes and the are not necessarily in synch, i.e some can speed through files while others take time.

Guess nobody has any thoughts on the erase this drive and restore it from Time Machine back up idea I posted yesterday. Thanks, Charlie

At this point, I would make a guess that what may be causing the issue might have been backed up.

Now, based on your recent info, the file or folder hypothesis may be the culprit since it appears that the drive is getting partially indexed. I have seen this rarely happen over the years and seems that Spotlight rather than skip over a problem, it throws its hands up in the air and gives up. There may or may not be a very good reason for this behavior but certainly don't know it.

Now, as an aside, there are lots of media management tools available, free and paid that provide some powerful searching capabilities. I believe you mentioned having ON1 previously. If you are referring to the PhotoRAW product, it has a powerful search tool that loads any EXIF data that contains "tags" and scans images themselves for objects. However these are generic (church instead of St. John's Church as an example) unless you have specifically added your own tags.

As for free media tools, DigiKam Photo Manager and XnView MP are a couple I have used in the past. I have tried both but my personal preference was DigiKam Photo Manager.

Usually for external drives.....especially if multiple devices and macOS user accounts will be accessing that data.....you want to check the "Ignore Ownership" option in the "Get Info" properties window for that volume. Select the external volume in the Finder, then press Command + I (that is an uppercase "eye"), or select "File --> Get Info".

If you don’t have permission to use files on a Mac disk - Apple Support

This time you omitted the letter "m" from "mdutil".

The command line is very unforgiving. ;-)

Based on the total number of items you have shown, indexing should take some time, at least a few minutes but likely a bit longer, especially if there are basically text files involved like sidecar files that are sometimes added by photo software so you have non-destructive edits.

One thing to take a look, randomly select a photo in each of the different formats that the images are in (NEF for Nikon, JPEG, and TIFF) and do a Get Info on it in one of the top level folders (or in a subfolder if that is where actual images are kept. Does it display any exif data in the "More info" section?

Example, for my NEF files I get something like this:

If you don't get such information it indicates that the file was not indexed.

You can try this in each of the other folders as well. You don't need to do it for every file (obviously) but just a random sampling in each to see if anything has been indexed.

This could give an indication if at least a partial indexing was done.

If it quickly came back with an Indexing enabled instead of Indexing in progress and if you have a lot of files on that drive, it would indicate something is failing early in the process.

I had a somewhat similar issue that was being caused by something in my home folder. My case though was that Spotlight was going ballistic and after a fair amount of work I was able to narrow it down to a folder. However, when I got to that point, a macOS update came along and the issue was magically resolved. So, I never found out if it was a particular file or not.

Post a screenshot of a Get Info for that drive, perhaps there may be something obvious that will pop out.