Why spotlight index almost 100% of the time?

[00christian00]

I noticed that even while browsing the spotlight service continuosly index something.
Is it trying to index even the browser cache?
Shouldn't it start indexing only if I download something or create/modify some document?
I know it's spotlight moving the hd,because if I kill the mds process it stop crunching the hd for a while.

 

[borcanm]

If you want you can make spotlight to stop the indexing.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

This behavior can be caused by several conditions, not specific to Spotlight.

Possible Cause #1: Your main/boot hard drive has file system damage, and needs repair.
Possible Cause #2: Your main/boot hard drive has bad blocks.
Possible Cause #3: You recently connected a new external storage device, which Spotlight is indexing.
Possible Cause #4: You recently added/removed a folder from Spotlight's privacy settings, which forces a re-index.

 

[00christian00]

I think I've solved it.I've blocked spotlight from accessing every system folder.
This way now I can rarely see it doing anything except when there is actually something to index.
Before I suspect was indexing anything it could,including browser cache,application temp files,VMware Fusion disk(this is the first thing I blocked and helped a lot).

The more I use my Mac and the more I see it is all except "it just works",like advertised.Quite the opposite,It need to tweak almost everything.

 

[crazzyeddie]

I discovered a very simple fix to this problem. My Spotlight was continually indexing my FAT32/NTFS partitions, so as soon as I set them to not index, my problem was solved.

Apple should probably do this by default...

 

[GGJstudios]

I think I've solved it.I've blocked spotlight from accessing every system folder.

Spotlight doesn't index System or Library folders. It won't search those folders.

 

[00christian00]

I am 100% sure it does index library,because when I blocked it,a pop up come out saying that it would have prevented indexing of some application.Maybe it won't look for the whole folder,but surely in certain parts.
I just blocked everything to be safe,maybe the same result could be achieved in a nicer way,but I don't care.

EDIT
Another horrible bug I just found few minutes ago,when you type something in the spotlight menu in top right and then click on some result,the search still continue for long time(maybe forever) until you return there and remove the search text.

 

[GGJstudios]

I am 100% sure it does index library....

Spotlight not searching entire drive?

 

[00christian00]

A picture is worth thousand words ....


It may not index everything,but it sure does index something or it wouldn't ask this.

 

[GGJstudios]

A picture is worth thousand words ....
View attachment 198672

It may not index everything,but it sure does index something or it wouldn't ask this.

Not true. It automatically asks that whenever you add ANY folder to the privacy list, even if it's a folder that it wouldn't have indexed or searched anyway.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

It does index the system and library folders but only searches them if you ask it to. You have to search via finder, no the menubar icon, and add "system files" to the search options.

 

[GGJstudios]

It does index the system and library folders but only searches them if you ask it to. You have to search via finder, no the menubar icon, and add "system files" to the search options.

True. Finder will search system files but Spotlight won't, as the link I provided indicates.

 

[00christian00]

Not true. It automatically asks that whenever you add ANY folder to the privacy list, even if it's a folder that it wouldn't have indexed or searched anyway.

No,it doesn't.I just done it few hours ago so I am sure of this.
Just try and see for yourself.

 

[GGJstudios]

No,it doesn't.I just done it few hours ago so I am sure of this.
Just try and see for yourself.

Actually, I just dragged the following folders into the Spotlight Privacy window, with no pop-up message at all:

/Applications
/Library
/System
/Users/username/Library
/Users/username/Documents
/Users/Shared/Music
/Users/Shared/Pictures
/Users​

 

[00christian00]

Are you on Leopard or Snow Leopard?Mine is Snow Leopard and it does Pop up it.If you are also on SL it's really strange.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

True. Finder will search system files but Spotlight won't, as the link I provided indicates.

Finder searches via spotlight. Its the same thing just a different usage. It still uses the same indexes and everything. If not my "prefpane" search would have taken longer than the 2 seconds it did.