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Spotlight Search crashes all the time in Leopard

celticpride678

celticpride678

Guest
Original poster
Almost every single day, Spotlight crashes and restarts. Why is this? How can this be fixed? I already tried a Re-index and that did not work.

System Information:

Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.7)

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: Since 10.5.8 was released, I am running 10.5.8.
 
similar things happen to me. I will usually start typing something and then in the middle of me typing f.ex "Terminal" Spotlight will reset in the menubar. I have yet to figure out why. It does not happen all the time.
 
allan.nyholm said:
similar things happen to me. I will usually start typing something and then in the middle of me typing f.ex "Terminal" Spotlight will reset in the menubar. I have yet to figure out why. It does not happen all the time.
Click to expand...

Yes. It is pretty weird. Does anyone have any ideas? It is happening more and more often. I can post a crash log tomorrow because my laptop is currently off. But still, any ideas?
 
Does anyone know what causes this problem yet? Spotlight has always behaved like this for me even on a fresh and fully patched install.
 
Jolly Jimmy said:
Does anyone know what causes this problem yet? Spotlight has always behaved like this for me even on a fresh and fully patched install.
Click to expand...

I have not, but it happened again today. I am trying to solve it now. Does anyone know if it is safe to remove the Spotlight.plist file from Users/Library/Preferences? Are there any other locations of this preference file? Thanks.
 
I suppose removing the .plist couldn't do any harm. I shall try when I need to reboot.

EDIT : It's been doing it all day, but now it's fine 😕
 
Jolly Jimmy said:
I suppose removing the .plist couldn't do any harm. I shall try when I need to reboot.

EDIT : It's been doing it all day, but now it's fine 😕
Click to expand...

I deleted the .plist of Spotlight and restarted. It looks like it is doing good so far, but I will continue to test it and post back later tonight.
 
Yep. It seems as though the .plist file was the issue. I just tested it for a few hours and seems to be good. Thanks for the help.
 
Hmmm , no luck 🙁

Althought I don't think it's happening as often now that I've reduced the search result categories.
 
Jolly Jimmy said:
Hmmm , no luck 🙁

Althought I don't think it's happening as often now that I've reduced the search result categories.
Click to expand...

It just happened to me again too. I am going to post this to Apple Support forums and see if I can get someone. I will post back any responses I get. Someone will solve this issue for us.

Here is the link if you want to monitor it from there: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2104824&stqc=true

EDIT:

I found this solution from Apple Support and am trying it now. One thing that you do need to do after those steps, is index the drive.

solution:
go to spotlight preferences uncheck every file type for spotlight to index

dragging the folder to the ignore list reports unknown error, skip dragging the
drive to the ignore list

go to terminal
sudo rm -fr /Volumes/your drive name/.spotlight-V100

and repeat command, after about 20 times in a row of repeating the comamnd
spotlight is now fixed

go to spotlight preferences and check on all file types again

theory:
continuous repeating use of the sudo rm -fr command causes spotlight index
to be deleted at just the right moment before the thread 12 crash
or the time between retries, and whatever was corrupt in the actual
/.spotlight-v100/ folder was erased, thus curing this problem.

or

continuous repeating of the sudo rm -fr command at the right moment
deletes a corrupted file which would of maybe been locked and maybe
that locked file was either not getting actually deleting, or spotlight
was crashing on that mysterious file in the /.spotlight-v100 directory
 
Since I have tried the above, I have had one crash. Still a bit disappointing, but I will continue testing.

Since upgrading to 10.5.8, I have noticed only 1 crash. I am going to try the Combo Updater a bit later today (once some files finish copying) and wonder if this will fix it for good?? Any other ideas before I do that?
 
I repaired permissions and then updated to 10.5.8 using the combo updater and haven't had a crash yet. I'll post if I get one.
 
ltldrummerboy said:
It might help. It doesn't hurt to try.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll try it after I download the Combo Updater. I'll report back after.

Steps:

1. Download Combo Updater for 10.5.8
2. Repair Permissions using built-in Mac OS X Disk Utility
3. Run the Combo Updater
4. Restart
5. See if Spotlight still crashes
6. Post back to tell if it still crashes😀
 
I have seen that somebody was able to fix it by replacing the memory in the system. It may not be the cause for you guys but I thought I'll let you know of one possible fix.
 
MikhailT said:
I have seen that somebody was able to fix it by replacing the memory in the system. It may not be the cause for you guys but I thought I'll let you know of one possible fix.
Click to expand...

I don't think that I am in the mood to replace the RAM in my notebook, at least not any time soon. I have updated using the combo updater and repaired permissions before the update. I am going to do it again right now and also a verify disk. I will post back if it crashes again.
 
celticpride678 said:
I don't think that I am in the mood to replace the RAM in my notebook, at least not any time soon. I have updated using the combo updater and repaired permissions before the update. I am going to do it again right now and also a verify disk. I will post back if it crashes again.
Click to expand...

Also i forgot to mention that I was getting the same problem in 10.5.7 but after upgrading to Snow Leopard beta builds, no more. Completely gone. It is possible you guys have a corrupted files somewhere that is messing up spotlight. A reinstall should work.
 
MikhailT said:
Also i forgot to mention that I was getting the same problem in 10.5.7 but after upgrading to Snow Leopard beta builds, no more. Completely gone. It is possible you guys have a corrupted files somewhere that is messing up spotlight. A reinstall should work.
Click to expand...

I already tried an Archive and Install. I am going to try this Combo Updater and post back soon if it crashes again. Thanks for your help.
 
Thanks for the help but, ever since following what ltldrummerboy told me to do (Repair Permissions from disk and then reinstall or install 10.5.8 using Combo updater), Spotlight has NOT crashed once in 5 days. I will post back an update in about a week and if it still has not crashed, this issue is solved.
 
celticpride678 said:
Thanks for the help but, ever since following what ltldrummerboy told me to do (Repair Permissions from disk and then reinstall or install 10.5.8 using Combo updater), Spotlight has NOT crashed once in 5 days. I will post back an update in about a week and if t still has not crashed, this issue is solved.
Click to expand...

Please do. My brand new MBA is having this prob right out of the box (after registration etc). I'll try what you did and see how it goes.
 
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