Spotlight won't index one of my external SSD's

[danseq]

2018 MBP
10.13.6

I have a Samsung EVO SSD 2T drive in an enclosure. Journaled HFS+
Spotlight is not showing any files on that drive in my searches.

I have done the usual procedures:

Add/Remove the drive in Spotlight privacy prefs. Doesn't work. When I exit that procedure, spotlight briefly does an index, but it only lasts for a few seconds, clearly not enough to index a 2TB drive with over 1 million files on it.

sudo mdutil -E

also indicates that the drive is being indexed.

....But it's not.

I have 3 other external SSDs and spotlight sees them just fine.

Ran Disk Warrior. All good. Drive shows up in finder and I can do anything else with it. Just no spotlight results.

Any ideas???...kind of driving me crazy because other apps like Logic Pro depend on Spotlight to accomplish certain things.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

The only thing I can think of immediately, is to verify both the partition map (GUID) and file system (Mac OS Extended Journaled) types.

You could try the following commands:

To force indexing of all drives:
sudo mdutil -E /

To force indexing of you external - replace External with the name of your SSD:
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/External/

You can also use the info here, which includes deleting the Spotlight index file itself:
Terminal commands for improving/fixing Spotlight & Indexing volume

***As always, make sure you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data, as data loss can occur when using Terminal commands improperly.

Hope that helps,

C

 

[honestone]

Besides the excellent suggestions by Cory, maybe try another thing: switch the port a recognized SSD is connected to, connecting it to the port the 2 TB EVO SSD is plugged into, and connect the 2 TB Samsung EVO SSD to the port the other one was connected to.

 

[danseq]

Thanks guys. I've tried all the terminal commands, including deleting the spotlight index per the article linked to. Nothing seems to work. I've also deleted the cache via Onyx.

I've tried putting the drive in another housing via a different USB protocol.

No difference.

When I use the handy utility "find any file", and search for hidden files on the drive in question, there is a folder on the top level called .Spotlight-V100, which is, I assume where the spotlight app communicates to and from regarding that drive. There are a zillion files and folders nested in there, and I have this feeling somewhere there's a bad document or line of code or something, but this is getting in over my head.

I wonder however, if deleting this .Spotlight-V100 folder would cause it to rebuild? or would it just cause more problems?

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

The commands below should work:

If you just use the / in the commands above, it will affect only the startup drive. You would need to add the path and name of the external drive:

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/External
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/External/.Spotlight*
sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/External
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/External

If the external drive has a space in its name, then you have to add a \ and a space in the name:

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/External\ Drive
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/External\ Drive/.Spotlight*
sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/External\ Drive
sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/External\ Drive

See if that helps,

C

 

[danseq]

Right, as per the article I already completed that 4-step procedure... Rather than take chances on typos, I always just drag the folder or drive directly into the terminal window.

But this just didn't change anything.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, agreed, it is much easier to simply drag the volume into the Terminal window.

You verified it is GUID and Mac OS Extended (Journaled)/HFS+, correct?

C

 

[danseq]

Yes, verified. But... somehow in trying to run these commands a second time, I have managed to wipe my drive inadvertently. I must have done something wrong.

Going to restore from Time Machine.

Interestingly, If I drag a file now onto this empty drive. Spotlight is finding it.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Ooof...glad you have a backup.

Keep us posted,

C

 

[honestone]

I am certainly no expert with this, and especially since I use the excellent freeware program EasyFind instead of Spotlight. Additionally, I have no idea what Spotlight's indexing of a drive does, nor what its advantages/disadvantages are (I have Spotlight turned off from indexing any of my drives (all SSDs)). and I don't use any software that depends on Spotlight). But it seems the directory for the drive might have got "hosed". If after you restore everything from your Time Machine backup everything seems to work fine, that directory theory could be valid.

On my internal drives on both of my Macs (SSDs, in my case), I use both Onyx and TechTool Pro to perform disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs. Within TechTool Pro is a task to rebuild a volume, and I use it every week when I perform the tasks I just mentioned (along with doing a SuperDuper! backup).

I did see, though, that you have the excellent program Disk Warrior, and it said the drive was fine. So maybe the directory was fine. When you ran Disk Warrior, did you let rebuild the directory? (Fortunately that SSD is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the Scheme is GUID Partition Map, as I have heard that Disk Warrior has some issues with APFS formatted drives).

I hope things work out fine for you. And of course we are so fortunate to have Mr. Cory Cooper helping out.

 

[danseq]

The reason for Spotlight is that Logic Pro and some of its plugins require Spotlight to locate file resources being used, otherwise there are endless file-location prompts when saving and recalling.

And yes, Disk Warrior is not yet able to repair Apple's newer format. I am sure they are hard at work getting a new version for that...probably have been waiting for Mojave to release it, so it's probably imminent.

I also have TTP, but I have always found Disk Warrior to be a better tool for basic directory repair, except for the above. I may use it more often now though, now that I'm on a MBP and cannot use GUID for the boot drive.

Ok, I have restored the contents of my drive via Time Machine.
And..Spotlight is now working!

I can only surmise that that series of 4 terminal commands worked. Or...that wiping the drive the way I did was responsible (I'm not sure how that happened, except that it must have been as a result of the terminal commands not done correctly). This is why I always keep 3 backups

As weirdly as this has been solved, I thank you both!

 

[honestone]

Thanks for the clarification. And smart you are making multiple backups. I make two SuperDuper! backups each week for each of my Macs to two external devices (Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs, with 3 partitions each: two of the APFS-formatted partitions are for the respective backups, and the third partition (formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the Scheme is GUID Partition Map) is for storing miscellaneous "stuff". Fortunately, TechTool Pro handles APFS-formatted volumes quite well.

One suggestion going forward: you might want to consider letting Disk Warrior "work on" that SSD (not sure about your other SSDs regarding the formatting). Just a thought, especially considering the success I have with Onyx and TechTool Pro with my internal SSDs (maybe I should use TechTool Pro on my external SSDs, just to make sure things are good (although I have no issues booting each Mac from its SuperDuper! backup, and I can access the files just fine on the third partition)).

In any event, glad it is resolved.

 

[danseq]

Well...for me DW is something I just run about once every week or two on all my drives I have about 12TB of data online spread across 5 different SSD drives + time machine, and I have to keep it healthy because I depend on it to make my living.

I've just found that I have fewer problems that way. It's just routine maintenance...I even run it on my Time Machine drives. They tend to degrade over time as I've seen according to the DW scans. But I am nervous that I can't run it on my Boot.

I had a bad experience with TTP about 10 years ago, and finally thought I'd give it another chance recently, but I really have only dabbled with it. I'll try using it to maintain my boot drive, at least until DW can do it.

 

[honestone]

I understand your concern about DW (Drive Genius also still does not work "nicely" with APFS formatted drives). I have thought about purchasing DW, but the lack of proper APFS support is a detriment.

I do not have no where near as an elaborate setup as yours, but using Onyx and Tech Tool Pro (along with daily disk cleanup, ie, keeping my Macs "lean, mean, and clean") has always served me well. Never had an issue with Tech Tool Pro, and it has been as reliable as ever.

If you plan on upgrading to Mojave, you might want to wait a bit in terms of purchasing Tech Tool Pro. They will have a Mojave-compatible version ready by December (that is when I will upgrade to Mojave). However, there have been times around this time of year where I have seen some special pricing on Tech Tool Pro. I also believe they have a "grade period" of so many days, where if you buy the latest version now (compatible with High Sierra), the upgrade to the Mojave-compatible version should be free. Check with the sales folks at Micromat about that.

 

[danseq]

Yes Onyx is great! My policy, because I rely on my machine to make my living, is that I upgrade to the newest operating system right about the time the *next* one is announced -- 1-2 years late to the party. I figure by then, most of the bugs that can be squashed, will have been

I don't see Mojave in my life for probably another year or so.

 

[honestone]

I could not agree more about Onyx! I have been using it for so, so long (along with Tech Tool Pro), and I would not be without it! In fact, it is one of my 6 critical applications that must have an update for a new Mac OS before I will upgrade (Titanium Software last week released a Mojave version. Last year, though, they had to go through 3 releases of the High Sierra version. Fortunately I don't need the Mojave version yet). But, as I am sure you know, Onyx cannot do any real "deep" maintenance and/or repairs, and that is where a product like Disk Warrior, Drive Genius, or Tech Tool Pro comes in handy. For me, Onyx and Tech Tool Pro (along with my own cleanup efforts, and of course SuperDuper!) make a fantastic pair.

I understand what you are saying about a new Mac OS. I definitely do not upgrade immediately, and actually it is fortunate that Micromat does not have a version of Tech Tool Pro compatible with a new OS until December, as by that time, a ".2" version of the Mac OS typically has been released. That's the way it's been for the last 2 years with Sierra and High Sierra, and this year it should be the same.

In actuality, except for maybe a speed increase (and for Security updates), there is really nothing in Mojave for me. The huge flaw in High Sierra was the lack of APFS support for Fusion Drives, and supposedly Mojave corrects that (I don't like Fusion Drives, preferring to have a "pure" SSD). So folks with Fusion Drives do have an important reason to upgrade.

I will upgrade anyway once Micromat releases the Mojave-compatible version of Tech Tool Pro in December, and I will do a clean, fresh installation of OS 10.14.2 (most likely that version by that time). But for "easing" your mind, Tech Tool Pro does work flawlessly with High Sierra and all my SSDs. By the way, after our posts yesterday, I did run Tech Tool Pro to check out both of my external SSDs, and as expected, everything came out fine.

 

[honestone]

Need to let you know about 2 "caveats" with Tech Tool Pro and High Sierra. When High Sierra was released, it was not possible to run the Surface Scan task for analyzing one's internal drive (HDD or SSD) from the eDrive. It is now necessary to run it from an external volume. I can do that, as I make my backups with SuperDuper!, and such backups are bootable. Not sure how ,one would do that with a Time Machine backup.

The other thing is that the Volume Rebuild task must now be run from the eDrive (or from an external volume), for rebuilding one's internal drive. What I do mis after I launch Tech Tool Pro, I then restart m y respective Mac from the eDrive, and run all my tasks from there (except, of course, Surface Scan, which I don't run very often). I guess to save a step, after I boot up my Mac, and after running Onyx, I can then restart my Mac from the eDrive.