Spotlight Crashes

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Level 1

107 points

Spotlight Crashes

Spotlight suddenly started to crash after typing a few characters. I looked at the crash logs and the crash is always the same, see below. According to the crash report I seems to be related with QuickLook or Safari. I think the issue started after installing Safari 12.0 but I'm not completely sure. I tried all the usual tricks such as rebooting, forcing spotlight to reindex, to no avail. Any ideas?

This is the relevant part of the crash report:

Thread 2 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qos

0 libxpc.dylib 0x00007fff91e71504 _xpc_api_misuse + 75

1 libxpc.dylib 0x00007fff91e60b7f _xpc_connection_last_xref_cancel + 52

2 libxpc.dylib 0x00007fff91e60b22 -[OS_xpc_connection _xref_dispose] + 17

3 com.apple.SafariServices.framework 0x00007fff8216785f SSGetFullySimplifiedStringForURL + 746

4 com.apple.QuickLookUIFramework 0x00007fff81ea4940 -[QLPreviewSchemeHandler_http _calculatePreviewURL:previewData:previewProperties:previewType:] + 331

5 com.apple.QuickLookUIFramework 0x00007fff81e1e535 _QLPreviewItemGeneratorCopyPreviewUsingSchemeHandlerForURL + 158

6 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff82124568 _QLPreviewReplyCreatedWithURL + 861

7 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff8212ae0e _XPreviewReplyCreatedWithURL + 219

8 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff8212b27e QLPreviewReply_server + 80

9 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff91d33e0c mach_msg_server_once + 476

10 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff82121d7f _QLPreviewWaitForPreviewTypeIfNecessary + 2631

11 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff821211bc QLPreviewGetDisplayBundleID + 180

12 com.apple.QuickLookUIFramework 0x00007fff81eb5a6f __65-[QLPreviewDocument startLoadingWithForcedDisplayBundleID:hints:]_block_invoke + 99

13 com.apple.QuickLookFramework 0x00007fff8214efe4 QLTryCatchAndCrash(void () block_pointer) + 20

14 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff91be0524 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12

15 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff91bd78fc _dispatch_client_callout + 8

16 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff91be6196 _dispatch_queue_override_invoke + 743

17 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff91bd96b5 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 476

18 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff91bd948c _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 99

19 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00007fff91e265a2 _pthread_wqthread + 1299

20 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x00007fff91e2607d start_wqthread + 13

Posted on Sep 23, 2018 5:34 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

dandebee

Level 1

14 points

Oct 19, 2018 9:55 AM in response to Joan Lluch

Had the same problem - read on another forum to uncheck "Bookmarks & History" in your spotlight settings. Worked for me, but for sure a bug. Good luck

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Answer 2

Sep 28, 2018 8:26 AM in response to flashqc

Indeed, I remember installing Safari 12 just before it happened... According to other reports, the issue is the same for all and safari is the guilty one. Thank God, changing spotlight preferences by removing bookmarks and history fixed it. Thanks to whoever found this solution!

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Answer 3

Nov 3, 2018 12:24 PM in response to Joan Lluch

This issue seems to be so frequent that Tidbits even released an article giving the same temporary workaround for it as has been discussed in this discussion:

https://tidbits.com/2018/10/01/safari-12-crashes-spotlight-in-sierra-heres-the-f ix/

Apparently, alas, Apple is not exactly in a hurry to fix it and people who were waiting for for Fusion Drive support to switch to Mojave simply cannot use Spotlight to search within Safari bookmarks and history until they finally upgrade (which is not always up to them).

Given how many crashes this must register (one per Spotlight invocation) it seems crazy that there is no fix on the horizon.
Also, this shows how poorly architected Spotlight is if a single plugin can crash the whole search system, I would not be surprised if this was actually not exploitable as a security hole...

In any case, Apple, an actual fix would be more than welcome, that is, if you guys still cared.

Have a great day everyone.

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