MacBook Spotlight taking forever to index

[AppleFanatic10]

Hi,

I booted up my macbook and it's taking forever to index, its hasn't taken this long before, what could be the problem? Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi,

I booted up my macbook and it's taking forever to index, its taken this long before, what could be the problem? Thanks.
Image

It can take a while (hours), so be patient and let it finish.

 

[thegreati]

Check your activity monitor.. be sure to quit any unused applications.

 

[GGJstudios]

Check your activity monitor.. be sure to quit any unused applications.

If you took the time to read the thread, you'd know that won't help, as obviously it's most likely finished indexing by now.

 

[thegreati]

Thank you for your opinion

 

[GGJstudios]

Thank you for your opinion

It's not opinion. The OP's post shows 80 minutes remaining to complete indexing. That was over 20 hours ago. You do the math.

 

[thegreati]

I am sorry that is so upsetting to you. I hope you can find a way to move on.

 

[GGJstudios]

I am sorry that is so upsetting to you. I hope you can find a way to move on.

It's not upsetting, but if you want to contribute something helpful, it's a good idea to actually read the threads that you post in.

 

[thegreati]

Your quote after quote of complaining is hardly helpful, friend. Let it go.

 

[pmau]

It might be

that you have installed third-party spotlight plugins, i.e. from Microsoft Office.

All plugins are trying to index files they might know about.

If one of these plugins is badly written, they crash and the indexing will start again and loop.

There are a few command line tools you could use to check wether this is the case:

a) List available plugins on your system

mdimport -L

b) Show the status of the indexing process:

mdutil -s -a -v

c) force clean rebuild of the index (after you posted the output of above commands)

mdutil -a -E

d) Check /var/log/system.log

you might look into that file to check for message of spotlight, or mds the importing daemon.

 

[NorthDakota91]

I think that 80 minutes to rebuild a Spotlight index on a normally used machine is quite normal (mine took about 2 hours after a full Time Machine restore) so I don't see the problem

As GGJstudios said, the indexing is surely finished by now, unless the OP post something else about it

 

[nkk1987]

what about if it takes months?

Hi,

It's been a while since anyone been responding to this thread, but I'm desperate and can't find anywhere else any solution..

My spotlight says it will take about 12 months to index. I'm sure that it's not normal.

Anyone has any idea?

Thanks,
Nir

 

[Mrbobb]

My spotlight says it will take about 12 months to index. I'm sure that it's not normal.

First off take a screen shot and post, we always need funny materials.

Severe connection with the NSA's database?

But seriously (if this is a serious post) run a diskutil diagnostic see if it helps.

 

[nkk1987]

First off take a screen shot and post, we always need funny materials.

got ya it's attached.

Why did you think that it's not a serious post?

and what should i do with the diskutil diagnostic tool? i'm kinda new for mac systems..

thanks

 

[mrsir2009]

got ya it's attached.

Why did you think that it's not a serious post?

and what should i do with the diskutil diagnostic tool? i'm kinda new for mac systems..

thanks

So um, how big is your hard drive?

 

[nkk1987]

are you serious? i do have a problem and it seems like no one takes it seriously. what's wrong?

anyway, it's 500G

 

[fosterius]

I'm having the same problem

I tried to reset the index by adding the hard drive to the privacy list and then removing it. It's been running all night (no sleep, just screen saver). Computer is an iMac with a 1TB HD running OS X 10.7.5.

 

[mrsir2009]

I tried to reset the index by adding the hard drive to the privacy list and then removing it. It's been running all night (no sleep, just screen saver). Computer is an iMac with a 1TB HD running OS X 10.7.5.

Is it impacting performance?

 

[nkk1987]

Is it impacting performance?

yes, it uses cpu, turns on my MBP fans and shortening my battery work time.

 

[fosterius]

Is it impacting performance?

Nope. I'm not convinced it's doing anything. mdworker is showing in the activity monitor but not creating any sort of demand for resources that I can notice.

 

[Philippe Carino]

I'm also having the same symptoms

I tried to reset the index by adding the hard drive to the privacy list and then removing it. It's been running all night (no sleep, just screen saver). Computer is an iMac with a 1TB HD running OS X 10.7.5.

------
Hi there.

I think I have similar symptoms: each time I turn on my MBP, Spotlight starts running and after several minutes (half an hour) says it will need several days / weeks to complete the indexing.
I bought this MBP 2 years ago and always worked fine before installing 10.7.5.
--
My Mac OSX version is 10.7.5.
My MBP: Processor 2.53 Ghz Interl Core i5 / Memory = 8Go - 1067mHZ - DDR3.
--
I have found many forums about a bug in version 10.7.5. with the same symptoms.

Unfortunately, no solution has been found so far.

I was hoping that installing Lion Mountain would solve this issue but after reading other forums it gives me evidence it does not.

Does somebody have a solution to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance for your kind help.

Cheers,

Philippe
---

 

[seveej]

I have found many forums about a bug in version 10.7.5. with the same symptoms.

Unfortunately, no solution has been found so far.

---

Yeah,

It's a well documented quirck/bug in 10.7.5 that spotlight may take ages to finish. I had it too (my ETA was 22 years at its worst).
It's seemingly sporadic (does not affect all users) so apple has yet to post a real fix (I guess even they don't know how come).

Anyway, the fix which has helped many users (myself included) is quite simple: open system preferences->spotlight
Add your disk(s) onto spotlight's privacy list (the list of places it does not index)
Close system preferences.
Open spotlight preferences and take your disk(s) off the privacy list
Close preferences.
Once this is done, spotlight should create a new index in "normal" time and spotlight should be back in order.

Hope this helps,

RGDS,

 

[Philippe Carino]

Yeah,

It's a well documented quirck/bug in 10.7.5 that spotlight may take ages to finish. I had it too (my ETA was 22 years at its worst).
It's seemingly sporadic (does not affect all users) so apple has yet to post a real fix (I guess even they don't know how come).

Anyway, the fix which has helped many users (myself included) is quite simple: open system preferences->spotlight
Add your disk(s) onto spotlight's privacy list (the list of places it does not index)
Close system preferences.
Open spotlight preferences and take your disk(s) off the privacy list
Close preferences.
Once this is done, spotlight should create a new index in "normal" time and spotlight should be back in order.

Hope this helps,

RGDS,

Thanks for your kindness.

I have just done it.

Kindly find hereafter what Spotlight has been displaying since I have done it:

--
1- Spotlight displays 6 days left at 12:50pm (Pacific time)
2- Spotlight displays 7 days left at 12:52pm (Pacific time)
3- Spotlight displays 8 days left at 12:57pm (Pacific time)
4- Spotlight displays 10 days left at 13:05pm (Pacific time)
--

I think this one will take quite a long time.

I will let it finish and keep you posted when it is completed.

Thanks in advance for your kind patience.

Cheers,

Philippe

 

[seveej]

Ouch.

Google around, try "10.7.5. spotlight slow"...

RGDS,

 

[w3rdn3rd]

So 10 hours indexing time is normal?

I should just wait it out? Leave my Mac on all night?