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Level 5

5,997 points

TIP - Spotlight is working again ...

Hi ALL,

After struggling for nearly a week after the latest update 10.7.5 I found the solution to "SPOTLIGHT INDEXING" and backing-up with TimeMachine.

In my earlier posted topic(s) I recommended to disable Spotlight temporally until Apple came up with a solution.

After a deep search on the Internet I found yesterday a Spotlight index issue solution from may 2012.

What could I louse? So, I gave it a try.

And viola, after 18 hours Spotlight finished indexing.

Making a back-up now is not a problem anymore when Spotlight is enabled.

TimeMachine finished the job in 9 minutes.

Read this web side and pas the 2 commands into Terminal ...

I hat to do it 2 times until it worked ...

http://guidovanoorschot.nl/how-to-fix-spotlight-when-it-keeps-indexing-n-mac-os- x-lion/

Good luck ...

Dimaxum

Late 2009 24, Mac OS X (10.7), iMac G4/1250 MHz-80GB HD-768Mb RAM iBook G3/600MHz 20GB-HD-64

Posted on Sep 30, 2012 1:49 AM

35 replies

Oct 2, 2012 12:16 PM in response to lauhub

THANK YOU!

I was able to run a timemachine backup to be on a save way today. I unloaded ...mds.plist and backup was running fine.

Bug Report has been sent to Apple, of course.

KGBRE

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2012 1:05 PM in response to sleepystu

I have the same problem. I'm performing my first backup since reintalling the OS.

I'm not sure I want to mess with code in Terminal, but I did try something else.

I went to Spotlight in System Preferences, and un checked all the categories.

It's working much faster than before - but still not fast enough. I should be through with this back up by tomorrow though. (it had told me it could be another 50 days.)

Oct 2, 2012 1:41 PM in response to KGBRE

unchecking categories in Spotlight preferences affects the RESULTS of your search, not the index process itself. It's really easy to enter just this one command to STOP spotlight and to speed up your backup:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

KGBRE

Level 1

9 points

Oct 2, 2012 6:10 PM in response to stocky2605

So, when I open Terminal, do I put the code on a new line and then hit return ? Then, to turn Spotlight back on, what should I do, and when?

Thanks, I don't want to screw things up and need to take this thing back into one of the NYC stores!

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Oct 2, 2012 11:01 PM in response to KGBRE

KGBRE wrote:

So, when I open Terminal, do I put the code on a new line and then hit return ? Then, to turn Spotlight back on, what should I do, and when?

What I do, since I'm not a programmer type, is copy and paste the line from here into Terminal, and then hit Return.

Handy tip: If you ever need to repeat a line you've already typed, press the up arrow key in Terminal and it will cycle through the last few commands you entered. So when you entered "off" for something earlier you can simply hit up arrow to get that line again and edit it to say "on". Now both the on and off commands are remembered by Terminal if you up arrow.

Oct 3, 2012 12:28 AM in response to Dimaxum

Same problem.

Time Machine backups to NAS hang since upgrade to 10.5.7.

Dragging all local disks to privacy in Spotlight, and out again as suggested on some forums, result in indexing hang, estimated time: 5 days, etc. Time Machine still not working.

Stopped Spotlight properly with commands in terminal. Time Machine backups complete as normal - up to 1GB / min transfer speeds, etc.

Re-enabled Spotlight; Time Machine hangs, also Spotlight unable to do a fresh re-index -currently promising "About 6 months remaining".

http://osxdaily.com/2011/12/10/disable-or-enable-spotlight-in-mac-os-x-lion/ for clear instructions

I thought I really wanted Time Machine to work, but am *really* inconvenienced without Spotlight. My advice is before you kill spotlight and force it to re-index, get another backup solution, like Carbon Copy Cloner and use that until Apple sort this out.

Submitted bug report. 😠

Model Identifier: iMac8,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Ah, it reminds me of the bad old days with Windows (for 15 years, until I came over to the dark side). What happened to, "it just works"?

LD150

Level 10

89,865 points

Oct 3, 2012 1:37 AM in response to mucsist

mucsist wrote:

why not simply upgrade to mountain lion?

Having been stung once with 10.7.5 and had to revert back after days of so-called workarounds, why would I use almost half my internet monthly allowance on a download and maybe get stung again. Not sure I can get ML til it's available on hard media so maybe that's never?

Oct 3, 2012 3:14 PM in response to GeoffreyS56

The problem with long index times is different from the problem with recurring reindexing.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4322106

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4271843

Possible work around on page 5 of the first thread.

MyFizzy

Level 1

4 points

Oct 3, 2012 11:20 PM in response to Dimaxum

This is devastating 😟

Dimaxum Author

Level 5

5,997 points

Oct 4, 2012 6:46 AM in response to MyFizzy

Hi MyFizzy,

Wat do you mean with that ...?

Dimaxum

MyFizzy wrote:

This is devastating 😟

MyFizzy

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2012 1:39 PM in response to Dimaxum

I relay heavily on Spotlight to locate files, emails, etc, on a daily basis. I deleted my index file in the hopes that 10.7.5 would re-index my HD. Spotlight is telling me that it will finish indexing in 5 days. And my computer has been on for 2 days straight already!

So yeah, it's devastating 😟

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Oct 4, 2012 5:57 PM in response to MyFizzy

There is now a new OS X Lion 10.7.5 Supplemental Update that seems to say it solves this. Downloading now...

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Oct 4, 2012 5:57 PM in response to lauhub

There is now a new OS X Lion 10.7.5 Supplemental Update that seems to say it solves this. Downloading now...

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1599

MyFizzy

Level 1

4 points

Oct 4, 2012 10:49 PM in response to Network 23

Confirmed.

This Supplemental Update fixed the Spotligh slow indexing problem. 🙂

Indexed my 250 GB HD (190 used), in approx. 40 minutes.

Macbook Air

1.8 GHz, Core i7

OSX 10.7.5

Oct 5, 2012 7:13 AM in response to mucsist

mucsist wrote:

why not simply upgrade to mountain lion?

Mmmmm...for me is becasue I have a 2007 MacPro1,1 ("only" DualCore 2.66Ghz + 9GB of ram) and Mountain Lion is not installabile on these oldest machine.

TIP - Spotlight is working again ...