Spotlight and finder have stopped finding my files + Time Machine has stopped working as well.

Question

Level 1

4 points

Spotlight and finder have stopped finding my files + Time Machine has stopped working as well.

Hello everybody,

A couple weeks ago I noticed my iMac initiated a indexing of my HD, and ever since, spotlight (and finder search cmd+f) have stopped finding some of my files, which is really enoying as I am now losing a lot of time looking for them manually. For example, see screenshot below:

Spotlight couldn't find Disk Utility (nothing is unchecked in spotlight prefs.), though it's there in my Apps folder.

Another example, using cmf+f this time.

I looked for "heures sacha baptista" and Finder could only find 2 files (right), but manually (left), I found 9; see below :

Coincidentally, ever since that re-indexing, my time machine has stopped working as well... Now, when I initiate a backup, it says "preparing" for about 5 seconds, then suddenly stops, and nothing is happening.

Please, does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Thanks a lot for your help and your time!

Imac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 6, 2015 2:09 AM

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Answer 1

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 6, 2015 2:42 AM in response to Sacha_Music

Steps to do first:

a. eject your TM disk, then disconnect it.

b. open SystemPreferences->Spotlight, click "privacy", add your startupdisk to the exclusions list, wait 10 seconds, then remove your startupdisk again: a complete new index will be made by Spotlight, this may take a few minutes.

c. connect your TM disk again.

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Answer 2

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2015 3:17 AM in response to Lexiepex

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

I have already tried adding my HD to the Spotlight exclusion list and removing it.. it took hours to re-index the whole thing, and didn't do the trick.

Any other ideas?

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Answer 3

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 6, 2015 3:47 AM in response to Sacha_Music

Do you have thrid party tools/apps running? Like Diskclean, cleanmymac, pro tools, and such...

In that case remove all entries (with the minus sign underneath) from SystemPreferences->Users&Groups->LoginItems and then restart.

Uninstall these "tools" (list all here first).

Later on, restart while holding CMD+R and "install OSX"

Lex

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Answer 4

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2015 4:21 AM in response to Lexiepex

No, nothing is running here...

I unfortunately can't re instal osx as I don't have the disk anymore.. I got that computer in 2008, from a friend and as form what I've read about the internet recovery, my OS doesn't allow it.

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Answer 5

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 6, 2015 5:13 AM in response to Sacha_Music

Ahh yes, my mistake, Leopard does not have a recovery partition.

Maybe you download and run Etrecheck, http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

and post the list it produces here.

Lex

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Answer 6

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2015 10:08 AM in response to Lexiepex

Thank you for your replies,

After forcing the mac to re-index everything like 5 times, it has finally worked... Spotlight seems to finally be able to find my files. However, it didn't help with my Time Machine problem, which seemed to be related to it. I am still not able to do a backup.

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Answer 7

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 6, 2015 10:17 AM in response to Sacha_Music

Would it be possible to post an etrecheck list?

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Answer 8

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 6, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Lexiepex

Sure, I'll work on that tomorrow.

Thanks again.

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Answer 9

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 9, 2015 12:40 AM in response to Lexiepex

Hi,

I have tried to get the EtreCheck program but it is not compatible with my os (10.5) ... The oldest one I could find on the internet is for 10.6...

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Answer 10

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 9, 2015 6:55 AM in response to Sacha_Music

My aplogies. Indeed Etrecheck has never been available on Leopard.

The developer does not see a possibility to test it even.

So we have to do without. Unless of course you are willing to upgrade to SnowLeopard (difficult to find, and you have to pay for it).

The thing to solve now is TimeMachine.

-- Connect the existing TM disk.

Start DiskUtility, Verify the disk, if necessary Repair the disk.

If irregularities are found, it would be better to stop the use of this disk for TM backups. Disconnect this disk.

-- Start with a new external harddisk (about 3 times the size if your startup disk would be great). You could name this TM2 for example.

Connect TM2 and Format (Erase) it with DiskUtility: Mac OS Extended (journaled).

Then Start TimeMachine Preferences, unlock if locked, select the new TM2 disk as backup disk. Then start a backup. The first (new) backup will take some time. Tell us if this works.

When all works as expected, you can decide what to do with the old disk.

Lex

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Answer 11

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 9, 2015 11:32 AM in response to Lexiepex

Hi,

I've already Verified the disk using DiskUtility, it said it was ok, but I "Repaired" it anyway... No problems found, and it didn't solve my problem.

But something happened today... I tried to do a backup (again) and since it's been more than 10 days since the last one, it decided to re-backup everything on the iMac... And then it said there was not enough space on the disk to do all that.

I then entered the disk only to discover that my previous backups were invisible there, but they were still on it as they were taking about 500Go of the disk's capacity.

Anyway... I gave up, re-formated the disk and started a new backup... but the problem is still there.. It "prepares" it for 3 seconds and stops...

Again, the disk seems fine. I have another partition on it and no problem there.

An ideas? I am starting to lose hope...

For the record, it's a 1.5T Western Digital disk... And I have had nothing but problems with it. I don't know if the brand ***** - or has started to suck... but never again! I also have a Lacie that I have been using since 2006; it's a 150Go external drive (yes, things were different back then... 150Go was awesome) and I have never ever had a single issue with it.. It still works like a charm.

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Answer 12

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 9, 2015 11:46 AM in response to Sacha_Music

Western Digital is a good brand. I never had any problems.

Make sure that you do never install any WesternDigital software that comes with it: that is counterproductive in a Mac. Uninstall it if you use that.

Can be helpful in Windows, although I do not install it in Windows either.

Personally I do not partition any TimeMachine disk (I use the 2TB WD disks), but I am not aware of any problems if you do.

Did you already verify and repair your startup disk?

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Answer 13

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 9, 2015 11:25 PM in response to Lexiepex

I've never installed anything WD related... Yes, the startup disk has been verified and it's apparently fine too.

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Answer 14

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,108 points

Nov 10, 2015 12:34 AM in response to Sacha_Music

I would not advise to use a 10 year old Lacie. You do not know what disk brand is in it (they do not produce disks themselves) and 10 year old is already a long life for a HDD....

Perhaps you could try a new disk instead of the WD, format it correctly (advise: 1 partition only), and see if that works with TM. If that works it is something with the WD disk or its USB2-USB3 compatibility ⚠. If it does not work, it may have another cause altogether in the system software....

Not clear at all to me.

Lex

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Answer 15

Sacha_Music Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2015 12:29 AM in response to Lexiepex

Thanks for your advise,

I will get a new disk and try again on it, but in the meantime, I'm still hoping I can make this one work..

New development today! I decided to exclude all the volumes of the computer for the backup and see what happens.. I then got a message saying that it can't do a backup as none of the volumes are selected. I then selected only a portion of my total data, but then, I got the same message. Then, I added all my volumes again, and the same message came up, saying none of the volumes were selected.

After restarting the session, I tried again and got this :

At least now TM sees there is a problem somewhere.

Could that maybe help you figure out a way to fix it?

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