Pause or stop spotlight indexing

1.  Jan 13, 2010 .

   m85476585

   macrumors 65816 .

   Feb 26, 2008

   #1

   Is there any way to pause or stop the spotlight that happens after rebooting? It annoying that it keeps me from using Spotlight until it was done, and recently I was trying to use EyeTV as a DRV, and the video kept freezing, I suspect due to spotlight in the background. It is very frustrating to not be able to fully use my computer for some time after rebooting.
   
   I tried "sudo mdutil -i off" and it didn't seem to have any effect, although I didn't stop the mds process after trying it. I did try killing mds before entering that command, and it just came back after a few seconds.

    

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2.  Jan 14, 2010 .

   Patrick J

   macrumors 65816 .

   

   Mar 12, 2009

   Oporto, Portugal

   #2

   MY spotlight doesn't re index every time i restart
   
   Have you ever let run a full cycle=

    

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3.  Jan 14, 2010 .

   m85476585

   thread starter macrumors 65816 .

   Feb 26, 2008

   #3

   It's not every time. I haven't figured out exactly when it runs, but it seems to be after not rebooting for a while. I always let it run because I haven't found a way to stop it.

    

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4.  Jan 14, 2010 .

   r0k

   macrumors 68040 .

   

   Mar 3, 2008

   Detroit

   #4

   My spotlight indexing only runs rarely. If I have a kernel panic reboot or I force a reboot it runs. If software update causes a reboot, I don't think it runs. I never notice it because I don't use it that often. I've found the right combination of shortcuts in my dock so that I probably only use spotlight a couple of times a week now. Spotlight is one of my favorite OS X things. If I want to run any app, all I need to know are a handful of consecutive letters in the name of the app and it comes up almost instantly. Spotlight and quick view are two of my favorite things in OS X. There are only a handful of files quickview doesn't know how to open and I'm never faced with waiting for pages or openoffice.org to load up just to read the contents of an email attachment. On my windows boxes, I always shut off indexing because it is useless. I would never consider shutting off Spotlight indexing because it saves me time every time I use it.

    

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5.  Jan 14, 2010 .

   m85476585

   thread starter macrumors 65816 .

   Feb 26, 2008

   #5

   This last time it started indexing after a KP. I don't like to keep too much stuff in my dock because it gets cluttered. Things like system preferences, activity monitor, or safari that I don't use all the time don't go in the dock.
   
   I don't want to turn off Spotlight completely, just temporarily. I agree that it is extremely useful, and I use it all the time, but it was making EyeTV playback freeze, and spotlight indexing is something that should run completely transparently in the background and never interfere with what I am trying to actively do.

    

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6.  Feb 25, 2010 .

   t4cgirl

   macrumors member .

   Feb 22, 2008

   #6

   When Spotlight decides it needs to possess your computer, it can be spectacularly frustrating to try to get it to stop. Really, the best way to "pause" Spotlight is to put all your drives in the Privacy box in the Spotlight control panel. Cumbersome but it does work and it's easy to undo.

    

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7.  May 10, 2011 .

   macjavaworld

   macrumors newbie .

   May 10, 2011

   #7

   How to Stop stoplight indexing or On
   
   on or off for whole volume, if you are using OSX 10.6
   
   $ sudo mdutil -a -i off
   
   $ sudo mdutil -a -i on
   
   it is not applicable for 10.5 or 10.4

    

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8.  Oct 7, 2012 .

   miha

   macrumors newbie .

   Sep 10, 2007

   Finland

   #8

   macjavaworld said: ↑

   on or off for whole volume, if you are using OSX 10.6
   
   $ sudo mdutil -a -i off
   
   $ sudo mdutil -a -i on
   
   it is not applicable for 10.5 or 10.4

   Thanks! Plugged my old FireWire-drive to take one extra backup and spotlight said that indexing takes 9 days! After disabled indexing with:
   
   ' sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/FW800 '
   
   backup continues much faster
   
   Br,
   -miha

    

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