Can I 'quit' mds?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Can I 'quit' mds?

My macbook has recently been running with its fan on high every single time I open it up. I went searching today and realized that it was this process called mds that's taking up all my CPU. However, I'm not sure if this is something that I can go and just quit from my activity monitor or if I have to fix something else??

Anyone have any input?

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Mar 29, 2011 3:29 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Mar 29, 2011 4:10 PM in response to rappelo

'Mds' is the main process of Spotlight. If the process is always using a high percentage of CPU time, then there may be a problem with 'mds' or with the Spotlight index. It's safe to select 'mds' in the Activity Monitor list then use the Force Quit option to kill the process. It will restart on its own. If it's just a temporary problem then it may work properly thereafter. If not then you may need to do some work on Spotlight. Visit, The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on resolving issues with Spotlight.

Note that when Spotlight is reindexing because of added or deleted files, then 'mds' will take CPU time. That is normal. But eventually 'mds' should go idle.

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Answer 2

rappelo Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 29, 2011 5:43 PM in response to rappelo

That worked perfectly! Thanks for your help 🙂

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