Spotlight constantly indexing and Time Machine endlessly preparing backup

Question

Level 1

6 points

Spotlight constantly indexing and Time Machine endlessly preparing backup

Hi,

I have a Macbook Pro 5,5 and Mac OS X 10.8.4

Lately I noticed that Spotlight was pretty much constantly indexing, so I went to "System Preferences/Spotlight/Privacy" and I dragged my HD there to prevent Spotlight from indexing it. Then rebooted my laptop and removed my HD again, which caused my Spolight to start indexing again.

After a night of indexing, everything seemed to be working fine. Nevertheless, today Spotlight is once again constantly indexing my computer, and the bar just won't go beyond "Estimating Indexing Time". What could I do to solve this issue?

Related to this, I assume, is my inability to backup through Time Machine. I feel like Time Machine is waiting for Spotlight to complete its indexing in order to start its backup-job, is that correct?

Thanks for your help,
Sander

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jul 18, 2013 7:13 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 18, 2013 9:59 PM in response to sanderfo

If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

syslog -k Sender mdworker -o -k Sender mds | grep -v boxd | tail | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).

The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

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Answer 2

sanderfo Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 18, 2013 10:38 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for wanting to help me.
Here's the content of the TextEdit window:

Jul 18 19:34:56 Sander-Otten.local mds[42] <Error>: (Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"

--- last message repeated 2 times ---

Jul 18 19:53:01 Sander-Otten.local mds[42] <Error>: (Error) Backup: MDSBackupTask:0x0 Undispatched backup task:20497 resolved:0 cid:122647947148:-1 finished:-1

Jul 18 19:53:19 Sander-Otten.local mds[42] <Error>: (Warning) FMW: event:1 had an arg mismatch. ac:2 am:51

Jul 18 20:26:54 Sander-Otten.local mds[667] <Error>: (Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0

Jul 18 20:26:58 Sander-Otten.local mds[667] <Error>: (Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"

--- last message repeated 15 times ---

Jul 18 20:30:34 localhost mds[42] <Error>: (Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0

Jul 18 20:30:35 Sander-Otten.local mds[42] <Error>: (Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"

--- last message repeated 2 times ---

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 18, 2013 11:09 PM in response to sanderfo

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

mdutil -as | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).

A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

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Answer 4

sanderfo Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 18, 2013 11:33 PM in response to Linc Davis

/:

Indexing enabled.

/.MobileBackups:

No index.

/Volumes/MobileBackups:

Index is read-only.

/Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb:

Index is read-only.

/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive:

Indexing enabled.

/Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Backups.backupdb:

Indexing enabled.

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Answer 5

nbar

Level 5

7,019 points

Jul 19, 2013 12:39 AM in response to sanderfo

On your second concern regarding TM, info from Pondini's Time Machine Tutorial:

Backup is slow or seems "hung"

"if indexing in progress, backups will be very slow. It's often best to cancel the backup, and try again later when Spotlight is done."

I would cancel the backup, disable TM. Reset spotlight and then reindex volume (see below). After that, do the time machine backup.

From the terminal:

sudo mdutil -d / This will disable indexing completely on boot volume

sudo mdutil -i on / This will reinable

sudo mdutil -E / This will erase and rebuild your index

mdutil -s / This will print indexing status and confirm indexing is re-enabled

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 19, 2013 8:04 AM in response to sanderfo

Rebuild the Spotlight index. If you try to search now from the magnifying-glass icon in the top right corner of the display, a pulsing dot will appear in the icon. When the dot disappears, the indexing is complete.

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Answer 7

sanderfo Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 19, 2013 8:28 AM in response to Linc Davis

As I mentioned in my first post, I rebuilt the Spotlight index a short while ago. This was on the 13th of July.
After rebuilding everything seemed to be fine for a couple of days until yesterday, when the spotlight-bar appeared again, stating throughout the entire day and evening that it was busy "Estimating Indexing Time".

I left my compute on throughout the entire night while it performed its tasks of indexing my HD and updating my TM-backup. This morning it seems that TM managed to do a backup of approx. 7GB in around 7 hours.

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Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 19, 2013 8:44 AM in response to sanderfo

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

ls -n /.me* | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).

A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

Reply

Answer 9

sanderfo Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 19, 2013 8:51 AM in response to Linc Davis

What should I put instead of "me"? It now says:
ls: /.me*: No such file or directory

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Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 19, 2013 9:28 AM in response to sanderfo

That's normal.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, or by a peripheral device.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. Same problem?

After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

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Answer 11

Seebee1

Level 1

12 points

Apr 19, 2016 8:55 AM in response to Linc Davis

This was the output in my iMAC:

Apr 19 11:44:15 Carloss-iMac mds[18102] <Error>: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /

Apr 19 11:44:48 Carloss-iMac mdworker[18108] <Error>: (Error) Import: Couldn't recover plist from xattr com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_s3gdrowbinj4zp3ot7hrwc637a

--- last message repeated 3 times ---

Apr 19 11:44:50 Carloss-iMac mds[18113] <Error>: (Normal) FMW: FMW 0 0

Apr 19 11:44:50 Carloss-iMac mds[18113] <Error>: (Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"

--- last message repeated 3 times ---

Apr 19 11:44:51 Carloss-iMac mds[18113] <Error>: (Normal) DiskStore: Reindexing /.Spotlight-V100/Store-V2/BAA2D44A-84BB-4747-A073-301BA86D1AF2 because no basetime was found.

Apr 19 11:44:51 Carloss-iMac mds[18113] <Error>: (Warning) Server: No stores registered for metascope "kMDQueryScopeComputer"

--- last message repeated 1 time ---

Apr 19 11:44:51 Carloss-iMac mds[18113] <Error>: (Normal) DiskStore: Rebuilding index for /

Hope you may help in solving the problem.

Thanks

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