Couchcowboy

Q: Spotlight crashes and re-indexes over and over

I am re-posting about a problem I have been dealing with for several days now. I had MISTAKENLY posted that I had the problem solved, only to have it return in about three days. While I can turn off Spotlight and do my work using EasyFind, it is greatly disrupting my ability to be efficient. Mr. Eric and Mr. Linc have been helping a great deal and I hope they will forgive my stupidity for thinking I had resolved the Spotlight issues. Below is a brief summary of my situation and what I've tried. My original post can be found here.

I have a seven year old computer that has been my work computer. Like me, it was getting a little slow and old and I wanted to move my work to my newer three year old computer, partially out of fear that the older computer might die a sudden death. I had had an occasionally crash of Finder on my newer computer, but nothing all that frequent, and no other issues. Spotlight worked like a champ. Then I mistakenly used Migration Assistant to migrate my work account to the newer computer. In a matter of a few days, Spotlight began to freeze, requiring Activity Monitor to close it. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that Spotlight was indexing over and over. It would work briefly in between indexing, but would start all over again after only a short period of use. I have tried about everything I could find on the internet to get it to work including moving my 500Gb of data in my work account to the "Shared" user account, deleting the work account, which seemed to have triggered all the problems, re-creating the account and starting over. It seemed to work for about three days, then Spotlight started freezing again and then once again started re-indexing over and over and I had to turn it off once again. I have posted crash logs as recommended by Linc Davis on this link and on Pastebin.

I don't want to waste anyone's time so I'll try to list the steps I've taken:

1) Moved my Hard drive into Privacy settings and back out to cause re-indexing

2) Deleted Sophos Anti-virus software

3) Deleted Flip4Mac

4) Deleted the Spotlight-V100 file and rebooted into Safe Mode as recommended by Linc here.

5) Restarted Spotlight using Terminal commands

6) Moved data to Shared account, deleted work account, again deleted Spotlight-V100, booted in safe mode, then rebooted

7) Recreated work user account, moved data back. Worked for about three days, then started freezing, then re-indexing

8) Deleted Wacom tablet software that I had mistakenly tried to install to get my Wacom tablet to work with newer computer (I forgot to put that step on my earlier post)

9) detached all peripherals (an extra monitor, a printer and a scanner). Only my mouse, keyboard and wireless trackpad are in use.

10) Using Onyx, rebuilt permissions, deleted all caches

11) Deleted Spotlight.prefs

12) Again deleted Spotlight-V100 folder, which I've done multiple times

13) Rebooted in Safe mode, which I've done multiple times

14) Stopped all auto login apps

15) Deleted some duplicate files in different user accounts

16) Moved my suspect account home folder into Privacy setting in Spotlight prefs, started using another admin user account for a while, only to have Spotlight lock up in it, with Console giving similar info such as "XPC connection was invalidated". Going back in to my work user account (with it's home folder still in Privacy), Spotlight began indexing again. I again moved my Hard Drive into Privacy setting in Spotlight to shut it off so I could try to get some work done.

I have never had anything like this happen in the twenty years I've used Macs. I am deflated at this point and would appreciate any additional suggestions. I fear I'm going to have to re-install my OS and that would take days to get everything set back up. Even that is not my biggest fear. My big fear in re-installing the OS is that it might not solve the problem, since I've read in various places of others trying that option only to have the same Spotlight issue re-appear.

I have to be out of town starting Monday next week and won't be at my computer but will be here today and Sunday to try any suggestions. I'll be monitoring the forum on my iPhone while away and will try any and all options upon my return Saturday.

If you've read all the way to this point, I thank you for your patience!

Posted on Jul 16, 2016 1:06 PM

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Q: Spotlight crashes and re-indexes over and over

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  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Aug 2, 2016 9:05 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 2, 2016 9:05 AM in response to Couchcowboy

    I've not had any responses from above post, so I am updating it to see if anyone can possibly help. Since the above post, I gave up and re-installed El Capitan. That didn't improve Spotlight re-indexing for very long, so I completely wiped my computer, re-installed El Capitan again (which I must say was a major challenge since no matter what I did, changing DNS servers, etc,  "Restore" would NOT work, indicating days to install; I finally had to make an El Capitan install USB thumb drive to get it to function). I initially downloaded only App Store apps as well as DropBox and 1Password, since they contained my password information and password backups. I had re-connected my external LED display and connected one of my backup hard drives (which was a brand new 3TB WD drive) and dragged it's icon into "Privacy" settings in Spotlight, thinking that perhaps I was overwhelming Spotlight with 750GB of files and folders. I had created two additional user accounts and moved only about 50GB of data back to my computer when Spotlight began to freeze again, requiring Activity Monitor to shut it down. This was just like my previous problems with Spotlight had started. I again tried deleting the Spotlight V-100 file, zapping my NVRAM, unplugging the computer, etc, to no avail. So I once again wiped my hard drive and again re-installed El Capitan. Right now I have NOTHING but the operating system on my computer and whatever apps come with El Capitan. The only data added to my computer is what downloaded from iCloud, namely my Safari bookmarks and contacts. I haven't even re-set up my email. There are no peripherals connected except my keyboard, mouse and bluetooth trackpad. I have left Console running while I used Safari and tried Spotlight. There are some errors that come up, but I really don't know how significant they are, but didn't start getting "Spotlight[571]: XPC connection was invalidated"until I added my two additional user accounts (the [571] only appeared when I copied and pasted the line from Console). I'm not sure if the XPC thing is important or not, but when I research it online, people seem to think it is??? No one actually says what it means that I can find. I get a line "XPC connection invalidated" each time I type a letter into Spotlight. I also checked my older iMac and our MacBook Air, both running latest version of El Capitan, and they also get the same line when using Spotlight, so it makes me wonder if it only means it's not searching other users accounts or something and isn't necessarily indicative of problems with Spotlight. Spotlight has not frozen or re-indexed at this point, but hasn't had heavy use either. I should add that it seems most everything else has always worked fine other than Spotlight. I have had a few times where Finder would glitch up (Finder windows would be clear, see through, almost invisible shells requiring Finder restart) back before I completely re-installed OS X, but everything else seemed to work fine. Unfortunately, without Spotlight, I'm almost crippled and have lost a month of productivity. I have thousands of files tagged and can't use those tags without Spotlight!

     

    So, if anyone can look at my logs and/or tell me how to proceed on this barebones, late 2012, 27inch iMac that has had minimal use, I would be very grateful to say the least. Do I need to proceed with moving my data back? Do I need to downgrade to Yosemite? Use different search software such as Fox Trot or DevonThink (I've read that Spotlight isn't good for large volumes, especially external drives)? Buy a new computer and take a sledge hammer to the one I have?  Linc? Eric? Are you guys around?

  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Aug 2, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 2, 2016 10:30 AM in response to Couchcowboy

    I have to make a correction to last post.

    I stated that I hadn't had a Spotlight crash. By that, I meant I haven't had Spotlight actually lock up and become non-functioning, requiring shutting it down with Activity Monitor. I just looked at my logs again in Console and found that SpotlightNetHelper [611] had crashed yesterday not long after I had re-installed El Capitan. That was BEFORE I had created the two additional user accounts. Nothing on computer but the OS and no peripherals attached. Will be happy to post the log here or to Pastebin if anyone will look at it.