Spotlight behavior Intel Macs

[achimf]

I have a 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro from 2019 with an i9 processor and 64 GB of RAM. A machine that should be fast enough to handle any macOS task smoothly and efficiently.
Unfortunately, it seems that support for Intel Macs has been completely canceled. I’ve even experienced kernel panics lately—something that never happened before. This is, without a doubt, the worst macOS development I’ve ever had to endure. And I’ve been a Macintosh user for a very, very long time.
Many things no longer work at all. Spotlight, for example, completely cripples my system performance. The fan spins up, and many searches lead to nothing. The Spotlight index seems to be completely broken. Rebuilding the index doesn’t solve the problem, as the behavior doesn’t change.
Has anyone else experienced issues with macOS on Intel Macs? I fear we’re being forced to switch to M-series machines - shame on you, this is not sustainable. Not everyone is able to spend thousands of dollars on a new computer every few years.
Best regards!
Achim

 

[Bigwaff]

You do not mention which macOS version you have installed. I have this exact same MBP w/ exact same processor and memory configuration and Sequoia 15.7.7 runs real nice. No problems here.

 

[achimf]

Sorry, the message was moved from a different forum - containing OS Thaoe 26.5.xx threads.

By now I've updated to 26.5.2 and it seems it becomes even worse. I'm deleting and rebuild the indexes on Volume / root and Volume /Data/ (many times) but spotlight keeps on crashing more and more - Apple is either not able to fix this behaviour or they simply don't want to! And I'm definitely not the only one with this awful bug!
Spotlight is more than a simple nice to have, it's central and essential for a decent workflow.
Grrrrrrrr

 

[capamac]

I've got an M1 Air and I've intentionally kept it on Sequoia.

Spotlight has bugged me for years in that it runs for hours and hours at a low-ish level in the background (mds_stores). So I disallow Spolight from accessing my external HDD. In Spotlight preferences you can click "Search Privacy" and add drives you don't want Spotlight looking at. You can deny spotllight access to your boot drive. You'll lose Spotlight benefits, but also prevent mds_stores from going on and on forever.

 

[GMShadow]

Do an SMC reset, I've had to do that on my old 16" a few times when it starts getting stupid. Apple Link

You want the instructions for "Macs with the Apple T2 Security Chip"

That, and if you've had it for several years and only done updates it may be time to go ahead and restore the OS.

 

[Bigwaff]

That, and if you've had it for several years and only done updates it may be time to go ahead and restore the OS.

Why would you need to “restore the OS”? It is on a cryptographically sealed volume. Restore would only write the exact same cryptographically sealed volume, bit for bit, that is there now.

 

[GMShadow]

Why would you need to “restore the OS”? It is on a cryptographically sealed volume. Restore would only write the exact same cryptographically sealed volume, bit for bit, that is there now.

The OS is 'sealed' but all the extensions and other cruft that ties into it are not.

 

[Bigwaff]

The OS is 'sealed' but all the extensions and other cruft that ties into it are not.

But restoring the OS doesn’t touch any of those files. They on the Data volume, not the OS volume, unless you’ve reduced SIP, broken the cryptographic seal, and installed “extensions and other cruft” directly to the OS volume, which is rare since Big Sur.