What is the program "mds"?

MacOS 10.10

A program has been running for a couple of hours now. It consuming vast amount of CPU time (average 25 - 40%) and thrashing the disk drive. Looking at the CPU Activity monitor shows a program named "mds" that is running as root; it is the culprit that is so slowing down this system.

Does anyone know what "mds" is, what it does? And can I kill it with impunity?

Posted on May 19, 2015 3:28 PM

16 replies

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

May 19, 2015 10:16 PM in response to jimoe

I had already added the main hard drive and the backup drive to the Privacy list before I ran this.

I didn't suggest that. What were the results of Step 3?

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What is the program "mds"?

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