How to stop indexing on MacBook Pro

[dtwri]

Hopefully someone can give me some insight on how to correct this issue that I am having.

I am trying to stop MacOS from indexing everything that my computer downloads. Particularly, I am looking to stop having photos from my Gmail account being indexed/downloaded into Finder. I am assuming that this is happening because I have my Gmail account set up through "mail".

Does anyone know how to turn this feature off? I think it's taking up extra space on my hard drive that doesn't necessarily need to be on there. Any information you could provide would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[GGJstudios]

I think it's taking up extra space on my hard drive that doesn't necessarily need to be on there.

You misunderstand the purpose of indexing. Be aware that indexing is only for making Spotlight searches more efficient, and doesn't consume much space. There's really no need to turn it off. You can choose which files/folders/drives you want indexed.

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

 

[Fishrrman]

I've never liked the idea (or function) of Spotlight, and I -DISABLE IT- on all my Macs as soon as I set them up.

Some terminal commands that may be of use to you:

Disable spotlight from indexing:
sudo mdutil -a -i off

I believe the following command will stop indexing of all volumes (if you don't kill Spotlight outright):
sudo defaults write /.Spotlight-V100/VolumeConfiguration Exclusions -array "/Volumes"

I also remove the Spotlight icon from the menu bar:
sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

So.... how do I "search" when I need to?
I prefer to use both "EasyFind" and "Find Any File".

Both are small, free apps that do what I need...