Todd LZ

Q: Indexing problems on Mavericks

The indexing feature on my MacBook Air (2010 - updated to Mavericks) does seem to stop.  It shows about 15% complete after two days.  Any ideas?

MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 8, 2013 6:38 PM

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Q: Indexing problems on Mavericks

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  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Nov 8, 2013 6:46 PM in response to Todd LZ
    Level 10 (123,652 points)
    Apple Music
    Nov 8, 2013 6:46 PM in response to Todd LZ

    Might be a permissions issue >  Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

  • by Drew Reece,Solvedanswer

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Nov 8, 2013 7:00 PM in response to Todd LZ
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 8, 2013 7:00 PM in response to Todd LZ

    In case it is a permissions issue like Carolyn Samit said, you may want to reboot to recovery mode & repair disk permissions. That way you don't waste time waiting for Spotlight to index a disk with the same permission errors.

     

    Boot into recovery mode via cmd + R at startup.

    Select Disk Utility & then highlight the disk & run the repair permissions task.

    Some messages are normal when repairing permissions…

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US

     

    You may also verify & repair the disk if you want to do so when running from recovery mode.

     

    It's wise to have a full backup before you try repairng your disks, just in case.

     

    Also you may want to check the energy saver preferences in System Preferences & leave it plugged in to mains power, just in case it is going to sleep & stops the indexing

  • by samhaque,

    samhaque samhaque Nov 11, 2013 6:57 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 11, 2013 6:57 PM in response to Drew Reece

    My Mavericks isnt indexing all  the files. I always use spotlight to run apps and it doesnt find any apps. It only does once I run an app by double clicking the app file.

     

    Will this solve my problem?

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Nov 11, 2013 7:12 PM in response to samhaque
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 11, 2013 7:12 PM in response to samhaque

    Repairing permissions will cause the files & folders to have the permissions that the software installers dictated, so it should put the system into a 'good state'.

    Repairing the disk will also clean up any disk catalog errors and minor damage.

     

    Hopefully with the disk in this cleaner state Spotlight can index properly. These are Apple's built in repair tools, so it shouldn't make matters worse, however just take a backup first.

     

    I'd also reset the PRAM whilst you are doing maintenance.

    https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

  • by samhaque,

    samhaque samhaque Nov 11, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 11, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Just did it, seems to have solved the problem. Indexing right now. But already any app comes up when I start typing in Spotlight. Thanks!

  • by samhaque,

    samhaque samhaque Nov 11, 2013 9:12 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 11, 2013 9:12 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Ak, nope. Spotlight still can't bring up Droplr or Dropbox and many other apps. Indexing is done.

     

    I can't find any other thread with this same problem. I guess its not a common one, or most people don't use Spotlight to run apps much.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Nov 12, 2013 8:56 AM in response to samhaque
    Level 5 (7,746 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 12, 2013 8:56 AM in response to samhaque

    I do use Spotlight to open apps.

    I can't see the same behaviour though.

     

    I think this is veering away from the original issue & since this one is solved you won't get much help.

    Make a new issue & see if anyone can help.

  • by merfi,

    merfi merfi Mar 12, 2014 6:18 AM in response to Todd LZ
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2014 6:18 AM in response to Todd LZ

    Hey thanks for the hint. Although all of the suggested tips didn't work atlease in my case and I had to do:

     

    1. enable the sudo in mavericks way (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH14281)

     

    2. In terminal: sudo launchctl load

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

     

    and it did work and my mavericks is started indexing by it's own.

     

    Thanks guys!