Spotlight in Time Machine

Question

Level 1

14 points

Spotlight in Time Machine

I have problems using Spotlight to locate items in my Time Machine backups.
It is always solved by going to the timeline and finding the searched-for program, document, image, email or whatever. Using Spotlight seems to not search my Time Machine backups. Is this misuse of the program or a lack in Spotlight's usability?
Any replies will be appreciated.

Mac mini '08, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Apr 15, 2011 6:45 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 15, 2011 6:55 AM in response to pasha25

Hello p:

Go to system preferences>spotlight>privacy and see if Time Machine is excluded (I think that is the default). Indexing the Time Machine backup files is, IMHO, a waste of time.

Barry

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Answer 2

kisuke3

Level 3

914 points

Apr 15, 2011 7:17 AM in response to pasha25

How is your time machine setup?

Here's my 2cents

If its through Time capsule or external hard drive attached to an airport extreme base station or otherwise known as Airport Disk. Unless the drive is mounted, spotlight won't see any of those stuff

e.g
Time capsule: When you perform a back up, your computer connects and mounts to the TC volume and perform the back up. After backing up it normally unmounts itself once finished. It does not stay mounted.(I only speak from experience).

That being the case, spotlight wouldn't be able to search any items saved on the back ups since its not connected.

My suggestion
1. If its a TC disk > connect to its disk > Mount the sparesebundle and try spotlight
2. If its an external HDD connected to the mac via USB, that's a different story. It should find those items, maybe you just need to index it

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Answer 3

pasha25 Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 15, 2011 7:38 AM in response to kisuke3

Time Machine is not listed in Spotlight>Preferences. Adding, then deleting the hard drive in Privacy makes Spotlight index the hard drive.The Time Machine is USB-connected.

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Answer 4

kisuke3

Level 3

914 points

Apr 15, 2011 7:54 AM in response to pasha25

it wont be in the spotlight preferences. What you needed to add or drag in the spotlight preferences was the time machine back up itself

in your case the "backups.backupsdb" folder.

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Answer 5

pasha25 Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 15, 2011 3:31 PM in response to kisuke3

Unknown Error appears when I drag the backups to the Privacy box. Search Results doesn't appear to have "+". I dragged the Time Machine icon (selected from my mac). Perhaps, what I am asking is how does one index Time Machine?
Any help will be appreciated.

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Answer 6

pasha25 Author

Level 1

14 points

Apr 21, 2011 2:03 PM in response to pasha25

I should add:

Privacy List Error/the item could not be added or removed because of an unknown error

This message is displayed when I try to add backups.backupsdb to the Spotlight>Privacy pane. I have run Verify Disk as well as Repair Disk, to no avail.

Any help will be appreciated.

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Answer 7

pasha25 Author

Level 1

14 points

May 11, 2011 2:08 PM in response to pasha25

Contacted Apple Support; after trying things for 14 days, I erased the Backups and made a new Backup. That worked, much like using Spotlight in the hard drive. Alas, on the 15th day, Apple Support contacted me with Terminal commands which may also have worked.

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Answer 8

May 14, 2011 1:52 PM in response to pasha25

I am having exact the same problems (on this Spotlight / Time Machine thing) as you are having. But I'm not willing to delete my backup and make a new one.

Could you please post those terminal commands that Apple Support gave you in this topic?

Koen

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Answer 9

pasha25 Author

Level 1

14 points

May 14, 2011 1:59 PM in response to Koen van Dijken

sudo mdutil -as > indexvolume.txt

[Return, Password]

sudo mdutil -E -a

[Return, Password]

The above will index Time Machine.

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Answer 10

May 14, 2011 2:40 PM in response to pasha25

Seems to work!

Thanks

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