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Spotlight for System 10.5 Reindexing Issue

P

Penny Burnet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 6, 2008
15
0
Jackson, MS
I am having an issue with finding a file (actually multiple files) on an external hard drive that is connected via network.

I have tried reindexing the hard drive via spotlight privacy (adding, rebooting, deleting, rebooting) and this did not work.

I have tried taking out the com.apple.spotlight.plist out of the users/library/pref and rebooting and this did not work either.

Are there any suggestions other than these two that someone may enlighten me with.
:eek:
 
Penny Burnet said:
I am having an issue with finding a file (actually multiple files) on an external hard drive that is connected via network.

I have tried reindexing the hard drive via spotlight privacy (adding, rebooting, deleting, rebooting) and this did not work.

I have tried taking out the com.apple.spotlight.plist out of the users/library/pref and rebooting and this did not work either.

Are there any suggestions other than these two that someone may enlighten me with.
:eek:
Click to expand...

What kind of files are you trying to find?

If they are system files like the ones in /System/... and /Library/..., spotlight will not find them.

You can try re-indexing the disk like you did before, but use the Terminal application first to remove the existing index on your external disk as such:

sudo rm /Volumes/nameofyourdisk/.Spotlight-V100 (hit a return).

Substitute the actual name of your external drive for "nameofyourdisk" in the above command line.
 
Files I was searching for

I was looking for a folder on the external hard drive.
I can physically see the folder when I go to the hard drive but spotlight could not find the folder.
I also was looking for a file in the same matter and spotlight could not find the file.
I am using System 10.5 and the external hard drive is not connected directly to my computer but it is on a network.

Thanks,
Penny

This is what happened in Terminal:

Last login: Tue May 6 09:33:28 on console
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

I have no password set on my computer

Password:
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$
and would not go any further.
 
Penny Burnet said:
I was looking for a folder on the external hard drive.
I can physically see the folder when I go to the hard drive but spotlight could not find the folder.
I also was looking for a file in the same matter and spotlight could not find the file.
I am using System 10.5 and the external hard drive is not connected directly to my computer but it is on a network.

Thanks,
Penny

This is what happened in Terminal:

Last login: Tue May 6 09:33:28 on console
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

I have no password set on my computer

Password:
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$
and would not go any further.
Click to expand...


You can set your Password by typing...

sudo -s (return)

If you had no password it will prompt you to set one. Once set, you can type...

exit (or a control-d)

which will put you back to your own user. I would set the password to be the same as your admin password, but that is your choice.
 
Terminal

I cannot get the terminal to accept the "no password".

I have since found out that this Macintosh was owned by another person and all we did was create a new user. No one knows what the password is for terminal for this computer. Can we do anything or do we need to reload the system?

Since we are having problems with Leopard (Spotlight reindexing) can we load Tiger and go backwards or do we have to reformat the hard drive and reload the system and all the programs?
:confused:
 
Penny Burnet said:
I cannot get the terminal to accept the "no password".

I have since found out that this Macintosh was owned by another person and all we did was create a new user. No one knows what the password is for terminal for this computer. Can we do anything or do we need to reload the system?

Since we are having problems with Leopard (Spotlight reindexing) can we load Tiger and go backwards or do we have to reformat the hard drive and reload the system and all the programs?
:confused:
Click to expand...

You can reset the original Admin user password using the OS X install discs.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274
Look at the section called: Resetting the original administrator account password

-Kevin
 
SYSTEM 10.5.2 Spotlight

I have tried all the above. I reset the password on my computer as well and now I am getting the following message on terminal:

Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard: No such file or directory
rm: drive: No such file or directory
rm: 4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/Hard Drive 4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/Hard: No such file or directory
rm: Drive: No such file or directory
rm: 4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm/Volumes/Hard Drive 4/.Spotlight-V100
sudo: rm/Volumes/Hard: command not found
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/HardDrive4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/HardDrive4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$


It appears that it cannot find the external hard drive (via network). Are there any other suggestions?



This didn't work either:
Here's a Tiger hint about enabling it:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...50430233117572
I am assuming that it is talking about Tiger Only.
This is the message I received when trying this option:
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -i
mdutil: option requires an argument -- i
Usage: mdutil -pEsa -i (on|off) volume ...
Utility to manage Spotlight indexes.
-p Publish metadata.
-i (on|off) Turn indexing on or off.
-E Erase and rebuild index.
-s Print indexing status.
-a Apply command to all volumes.
-v Display verbose information.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -i
mdutil: option requires an argument -- i
Usage: mdutil -pEsa -i (on|off) volume ...
Utility to manage Spotlight indexes.
-p Publish metadata.
-i (on|off) Turn indexing on or off.
-E Erase and rebuild index.
-s Print indexing status.
-a Apply command to all volumes.
-v Display verbose information.

Am I doing something wrong?????
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Penny Burnet said:
I have tried all the above. I reset the password on my computer as well and now I am getting the following message on terminal:

Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard: No such file or directory
rm: drive: No such file or directory
rm: 4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/Hard Drive 4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/Hard: No such file or directory
rm: Drive: No such file or directory
rm: 4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm/Volumes/Hard Drive 4/.Spotlight-V100
sudo: rm/Volumes/Hard: command not found
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/HardDrive4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/HardDrive4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$


It appears that it cannot find the external hard drive (via network). Are there any other suggestions?



This didn't work either:
Here's a Tiger hint about enabling it:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...50430233117572
I am assuming that it is talking about Tiger Only.
This is the message I received when trying this option:
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -i
mdutil: option requires an argument -- i
Usage: mdutil -pEsa -i (on|off) volume ...
Utility to manage Spotlight indexes.
-p Publish metadata.
-i (on|off) Turn indexing on or off.
-E Erase and rebuild index.
-s Print indexing status.
-a Apply command to all volumes.
-v Display verbose information.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -s
Error: invalid path `/Volumes/ldm'.
bash-3.2# mdutil /Volumes/ldm -i
mdutil: option requires an argument -- i
Usage: mdutil -pEsa -i (on|off) volume ...
Utility to manage Spotlight indexes.
-p Publish metadata.
-i (on|off) Turn indexing on or off.
-E Erase and rebuild index.
-s Print indexing status.
-a Apply command to all volumes.
-v Display verbose information.

Am I doing something wrong?????
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

It's not your password that's the problem, its the command string you used. You can't use spaces in unix without using a backslash:

Your command:

sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

Should be:

sudo rm /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100

Notice the backslashes before the spaces. You need that in Unix.
 
HELP!!! Spotlight

This is what happened when I used this instruction. Any other suggestions?
:confused:

Last login: Fri May 16 09:41:34 on ttys000
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard\drive\4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/harddrive4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$




merl1n said:
It's not your password that's the problem, its the command string you used. You can't use spaces in unix without using a backslash:

Your command:

sudo rm /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100

Should be:

sudo rm /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100

Notice the backslashes before the spaces. You need that in Unix.
Click to expand...
 
Penny Burnet said:
This is what happened when I used this instruction. Any other suggestions?
:confused:

Last login: Fri May 16 09:41:34 on ttys000
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard\drive\4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/harddrive4/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$
Click to expand...


Again, your command string is wrong. Look at the command string I gave you. There is a space after each backslash (\<space> as in /hard\ drive\ 4).

That's why you are getting the errors.
 
This worked now what

Thank you so much Merlin, I have never used terminal before!!:rolleyes:

I tried the suggestion and this is what I got:

Last login: Mon May 19 09:08:00 on console
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: is a directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$

After doing this the directory did show up.
I added the drive again in the System Preferences, Spotlight, Privacy.
Then I restarted my computer.
Then I (-) the hard drive from Privacy.
Then I restarted my computer.
Then I did a search for a recent file and it still did not find the recent file so I am assuming that Spotlight did not reindex the drive.

Any other suggestions?
:eek:
 
Penny Burnet said:
Thank you so much Merlin, I have never used terminal before!!:rolleyes:

I tried the suggestion and this is what I got:

Last login: Mon May 19 09:08:00 on console
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: is a directory
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$

After doing this the directory did show up.
I added the drive again in the System Preferences, Spotlight, Privacy.
Then I restarted my computer.
Then I (-) the hard drive from Privacy.
Then I restarted my computer.
Then I did a search for a recent file and it still did not find the recent file so I am assuming that Spotlight did not reindex the drive.

Any other suggestions?
:eek:
Click to expand...
You need the -r switch after the rm command - this tells it to delete not only the directory, but also all the stuff inside it. This is why you got the "is a directory" message.

Revised command string:
Code: 
sudo rm -r /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
You need the -r switch after the rm command - this tells it to delete not only the directory, but also all the stuff inside it. This is why you got the "is a directory" message.

Revised command string:
Code: 
sudo rm -r /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Click to expand...

DOH!

I forgot it was a directory and not just a file. Thanks wrldwzrd89.
 
Thank You GUYS!!!

Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm -r /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: Permission denied
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$


This is a new situation. Permission denied. Are there permissions on the external hard drive that I need to have changed? :D

I also want to make sure that the information will not be deleted from the hard drive!!!!!
 
Penny Burnet said:
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm -r /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: Permission denied
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$


This is a new situation. Permission denied. Are there permissions on the external hard drive that I need to have changed? :D

I also want to make sure that the information will not be deleted from the hard drive!!!!!
Click to expand...

Oops, we left out another flag in your command. You need to add an "f" for force. Here is the new command string:

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
 
Will I Loose External Hard Drive Information?

Merlin,
Thank you for helping me so much. I have heard people in the industry say that they have lost all the information on an external drive that they plugged onto there computers that are running Leopard. I just want to make sure that this sting command will not wipe out my external hard drive. I don't mean to sound ignorant but I am when it comes to terminal! Can you explain to me how terminal works? What I understand this program to do is to rewrite part of the system. Is this true?
Thanks again for all of you that are helping me!
Penny
:apple:

This is what happened when I typed in the string command that you sent.
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm -rf /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: Permission denied
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$
 
Penny Burnet said:
Merlin,
Thank you for helping me so much. I have heard people in the industry say that they have lost all the information on an external drive that they plugged onto there computers that are running Leopard. I just want to make sure that this sting command will not wipe out my external hard drive. I don't mean to sound ignorant but I am when it comes to terminal! Can you explain to me how terminal works? What I understand this program to do is to rewrite part of the system. Is this true?
Thanks again for all of you that are helping me!
Penny
:apple:
Click to expand...
That command will only delete the Spotlight directory, not everything on your hard drive.

Terminal is a way of accessing the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X. This can be useful if the Finder won't let you do what you are trying to do - which seems to be the case for you. The Terminal doesn't rewrite the system per se - instead, it is more like an optional part of Mac OS X that exposes you to the full power of the UNIX environment that keeps everything working behind the scenes. It also has the potential to be dangerous, if you don't know what you are doing.

EDIT: Hmm, I see it still did not work. In that case, try this:
Code: 
ls -l /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
What do you get back? This may reveal the reason why the delete attempt is failing.
 
Penny Burnet said:
Merlin,
Thank you for helping me so much. I have heard people in the industry say that they have lost all the information on an external drive that they plugged onto there computers that are running Leopard. I just want to make sure that this sting command will not wipe out my external hard drive. I don't mean to sound ignorant but I am when it comes to terminal! Can you explain to me how terminal works? What I understand this program to do is to rewrite part of the system. Is this true?
Thanks again for all of you that are helping me!
Penny
:apple:

This is what happened when I typed in the string command that you sent.
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo rm -rf /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Password:
rm: /Volumes/hard drive 4/.Spotlight-V100: Permission denied
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$
Click to expand...

Ok, I know what the problem is. The .Spotlight-V100 directory has a special permission set (sticky bit) which prevents the directory itself from being deleted. To get around this do the following in Terminal (commands are in bold type):

sudo -s (it will prompt for your password and now you will be the root user)

cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100

ls -al

You should see output like this:

bash-3.2# ls -al
total 0
drw-------@ 3 root admin 102 Jan 8 07:06 .
drwxrwxr-t 37 root admin 1326 May 14 12:06 ..
drwx------ 5 root admin 170 Dec 15 17:24 Store-V1

now type (with a return key at the end):

rm -rf Store-V1
 
merl1n said:
Ok, I know what the problem is. The .Spotlight-V100 directory has a special permission set (sticky bit) which prevents the directory itself from being deleted. To get around this do the following in Terminal (commands are in bold type):

sudo -s (it will prompt for your password and now you will be the root user)

cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100

ls -al

You should see output like this:

bash-3.2# ls -al
total 0
drw-------@ 3 root admin 102 Jan 8 07:06 .
drwxrwxr-t 37 root admin 1326 May 14 12:06 ..
drwx------ 5 root admin 170 Dec 15 17:24 Store-V1

now type (with a return key at the end):

rm -rf Store-V1
Click to expand...

Addendum...

To exit from the root user in terminal, hit a (keys on your keyboard) control-d or just type exit at the bash prompt.

Then you can quit the Terminal app.
 
What I got through Terminal

These are the command lines from Terminal:
Last login: Wed May 21 08:01:38 on ttys000
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo -s
Password:
bash-3.2# cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
bash-3.2# ls -al
bash-3.2# exit

So I tried:
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ ls -al
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ sudo -s
bash-3.2# ls -al
bash-3.2# exit

Then I tried:
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ ls -l /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$

Then I exited and got:
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ logout

[Process completed]



Did this get rid of my information in Spotlight? What next??
Thanks!!!!
Penny
 
Penny Burnet said:
These are the command lines from Terminal:
Last login: Wed May 21 08:01:38 on ttys000
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ sudo -s
Password:
bash-3.2# cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
bash-3.2# ls -al
bash-3.2# exit

So I tried:
Arrow-Printers:~ Penny$ cd /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ ls -al
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ sudo -s
bash-3.2# ls -al
bash-3.2# exit

Then I tried:
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ ls -l /Volumes/hard\ drive\ 4/.Spotlight-V100
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$

Then I exited and got:
Arrow-Printers:.Spotlight-V100 Penny$ logout

[Process completed]



Did this get rid of my information in Spotlight? What next??
Thanks!!!!
Penny
Click to expand...
That should have gotten rid of the Spotlight info. Now, all you have to do is add/remove the drive from the Privacy options, to tell Spotlight it should reindex it.
 
Any other suggestions

I followed through and I am back to where I started from.

I added the Hard Drive 4 to Privacy and restarted my computer.
Then I deleted the Hard Drive 4 in Privacy and restarted.
It still did not reindex the Hard Drive 4.

I can find old files but no new files that have been added.

This only happened when we added Leopard to our Mac.
Spotlight worked fine and could find the External Hard Drive that is networked before adding Leopard (Using Tiger).

Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Penny
:(
 
Penny Burnet said:
I followed through and I am back to where I started from.

I added the Hard Drive 4 to Privacy and restarted my computer.
Then I deleted the Hard Drive 4 in Privacy and restarted.
It still did not reindex the Hard Drive 4.

I can find old files but no new files that have been added.

This only happened when we added Leopard to our Mac.
Spotlight worked fine and could find the External Hard Drive that is networked before adding Leopard (Using Tiger).

Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Penny
:(
Click to expand...

You didn't mention before that this was a networked drive or am I misunderstanding you?

I'm not sure this (spotlight indexing) is supported under Leopard if it is a networked drive but I searched Apple's knowledge base and I can't find anything that says it does or doesn't. It can be done with 10.5 Server Edition...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=ServerAdmin/10.5/en/c2fs35.html

...but I'm not sure about the 10.5 user edition.

Are you running 10.5.2? If not you should upgrade. As noted in this apple doc:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307053

That may help. I'm running out of answers at this point.
 
merl1n said:
You didn't mention before that this was a networked drive or am I misunderstanding you?

I'm not sure this (spotlight indexing) is supported under Leopard if it is a networked drive but I searched Apple's knowledge base and I can't find anything that says it does or doesn't. It can be done with 10.5 Server Edition...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=ServerAdmin/10.5/en/c2fs35.html

...but I'm not sure about the 10.5 user edition.

Are you running 10.5.2? If not you should upgrade. As noted in this apple doc:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307053

That may help. I'm running out of answers at this point.
Click to expand...

I can now confirm that under Leopard 10.5.2 Spotlight Indexing does not work on "networked disk drives" (remotely mounting a disk from another mac).

I tried it on one of my own and even used a 3rd party utility (TinkerTool system to enable the feature on the drive), but Spotlight refused to index it.
 
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