metadata.mdwrite.plist issue?

Question

Level 4

1,303 points

metadata.mdwrite.plist issue?

Howdy,

I ran EtreCheck earlier just to check out it's features and found the following:

Hardware Information:

Mac Pro - model: MacPro5,1

2 3.06 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon CPUs: 12 cores

64 GB RAM

Video Information:

ATI Radeon HD 5770 - VRAM: 1024 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.8.4 (12E55) - Uptime: 0 days 10:23

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.metadata.mdwrite.plist

Top Processes by Memory:

590 MB mds

524 MB WebProcess

328 MB Safari

I took a lot of stuff out of the report that is not relevant but i was wondering about the items marked in red. As EtreCheck was made to be used with this forum i'm hoping someone here has experience with the app and could shed some light on it.

com.apple.metadata.mdwrite.plist - From what i can tell this is where OS X stores metadata but i can't find anything else. Could this launch agent fail have anything to do with spotlight sometimes losing it's ability to do math (2384*3884 for example), a feature i use often

The processes marked in red are not an issue so i'm wondering why they are marked in red. Just because they use more than 500MB of RAM?

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 12-Core 3.06, 64GB RAM, SSD & 12TB

Posted on Jun 25, 2013 12:16 AM

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Answer 1

res1233

Level 1

9 points

Jun 25, 2013 1:17 AM in response to jayv.

mdwrite appears to be an XPCService for spotlight. Judging by its name and a little research, I believe mdwrite is responsible for actually writing spotlight's metadata to spotlight's database. If it failed, it could be a permissions problem. If spotlight is working correctly, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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Answer 2

jayv. Author

Level 4

1,303 points

Jun 25, 2013 2:09 AM in response to res1233

Spotlight is not always working correctly though. Do you know if i can delete this file, will OS X re-create a new one? Permissions are in order.

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Answer 3

res1233

Level 1

9 points

Jun 25, 2013 2:33 AM in response to jayv.

I just did a test and no, it doesn't get recreated. If spotlight isn't working correctly, the simplest fix would be to reinstall OS X.

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Answer 4

jayv. Author

Level 4

1,303 points

Jun 25, 2013 2:38 AM in response to res1233

Thanks for the feedback res1233. Though reinstalling the OS is usually considered the simplest fix, it is often not. It is, however, the most invastive and one of the most time consuming.

I'll need a lot more info on the file, what controls it, what communicates to and from it and what the implications of deleting it are and what can cause it to malfunction. Then i need a decent amount of possible solutions. Once all fails, and the situation requires it, then maybe a reinstall.

Personally, a reinstall is always a last resort.

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Answer 5

res1233

Level 1

9 points

Jun 25, 2013 2:47 AM in response to jayv.

Truth be told, reinstalling is usually painless these days. OS X does a good job of leaving files intact, although if you personally made changes to system directories, they will be undone (apps generally never do, although you will have to reinstall xcode's command-line tools). No software reinstalling is usually necessary.

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