The OSX/Apple support thread

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moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Wednesday 13th July 2016
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Wonder if someone can help.

A short while ago my time machine back up stopped working - I got a warning message that it failed to back up and would try again a bit later. Currently using a Seagate external HD for my time machine back ups and its been working fine for the past 4 years or so.

I had assumed that the drive was failing so bought a new drive to replace it, but the issue persisted. Searching the internet it appeared that it can be an issue with time machine getting corrupted and it appears crashing halfway through the back up was a common problem. I tried a number of fixes but couldn't get it working again. Time machine would go to back up and would take ages to start, when it did it would back up really slowly and then crash part way through.

The log would show files that made it fail on processing so I happily deleted them as I found them non essential files, old emails, images etc. Probably now is its now claiming essential recent work is causing an issue - and I dont know if this is true or whether time machine just just throwing issues regardless.

Thats when I noticed that my iMacs HDD was also working away almost continuously - I tracked this down to Spotlight, seemingly endlessly indexing. It would index my drive and then once complete index it again, and again ... you get the idea. Some further searching indicated that a corrupted spotlight can cause issues with time machine. I have gone through a few fixes which I found via google but still cant get spotlight to stop endlessly indexing.

So does anyone have any ideas on how I could either fix my TM or spotlight - I strongly suspect both issues are inter related.

Thanks

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Thursday 14th July 2016
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Backup the important stuff asap on to a good drive, several drives if you have them. DVD as well.

On el capitan here and the spotlight in system preferences has a load of stuff it can search, they are all tick boxes. Not sure what the outcome is if you disable them all.

There is a program called Etrecheck that I run when I have mucked it up (as is usually the case) to see what is amis when I think the puter has a mind of its own. No expert but it seems to highlight issues. Checks all the stuff that loads on startup etc. and what is running in the background. Use at your own risk though it just seems to generate a report. Seen it mentioned on a few apple forums.

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Thursday 14th July 2016
quotequote all
jmorgan said:
Backup the important stuff asap on to a good drive, several drives if you have them. DVD as well.

On el capitan here and the spotlight in system preferences has a load of stuff it can search, they are all tick boxes. Not sure what the outcome is if you disable them all.

There is a program called Etrecheck that I run when I have mucked it up (as is usually the case) to see what is amis when I think the puter has a mind of its own. No expert but it seems to highlight issues. Checks all the stuff that loads on startup etc. and what is running in the background. Use at your own risk though it just seems to generate a report. Seen it mentioned on a few apple forums.
Thanks for the reply!

Should have said I am on Lion (Don't intend on updating as it would cause software conflicts). I have deselected my HD from spotlight for the moment to stop it from endlessly indexing. But obviously means spotlight then doesn't work when I need to perform as search.

Will give this Etrecheck a wizz and see what it throws up.

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
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So Etrecheck didn't show anything - clean bill of health, from what I can see. Ran Onyk and did a full clean a still get the same issue.

Spotlight endlessly indexes, over and over and in the process is using up 10gb worth of ram! I can obviously turn it off but then I cant search for anything.

Cannot seem to find a single fix for this and seems to be an issue that Apple have ignored for years based on what I have read on the Apple forums.

Tonsko

6,299 posts

215 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Presume you've seen (and tried!) this?

http://guidovanoorschot.nl/how-to-fix-spotlight-wh...

[quote]
Spotlight keeps indexing – the fix

If you execute the following command in your Terminal (Applications/Utilities) Spotlight should stop indexing (N.B. make sure you copy it exactly.):

sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100/*
Re-index Spotlight

The above command deletes your current corrupted index. Now execute the following command to force a re-index of Spotlight for one-time(If it gives you a -400 error, rebooting and trying again should work). After running the command, Spotlight should start re-indexing within a minute.

sudo mdutil -i on -E /
Please note: It might seem that the problem hasn’t been solved, but the second command tells Spotlight to do a real, proper reindex. If everything is okay, it doesn’t reindex indefinitely now, but should be done in a couple of hours.

This is not a permanent solution, as the problem happened to me twice in the last eight months. So if your Spotlight keeps indexing too, please do let me know it it worked for you, and if you have any other solutions or know the root cause of this problem.

[/quote]

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Tonsko said:
Presume you've seen (and tried!) this?

http://guidovanoorschot.nl/how-to-fix-spotlight-wh...

[quote]
Spotlight keeps indexing – the fix

If you execute the following command in your Terminal (Applications/Utilities) Spotlight should stop indexing (N.B. make sure you copy it exactly.):

sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100/*
Re-index Spotlight

The above command deletes your current corrupted index. Now execute the following command to force a re-index of Spotlight for one-time(If it gives you a -400 error, rebooting and trying again should work). After running the command, Spotlight should start re-indexing within a minute.

sudo mdutil -i on -E /
Please note: It might seem that the problem hasn’t been solved, but the second command tells Spotlight to do a real, proper reindex. If everything is okay, it doesn’t reindex indefinitely now, but should be done in a couple of hours.

This is not a permanent solution, as the problem happened to me twice in the last eight months. So if your Spotlight keeps indexing too, please do let me know it it worked for you, and if you have any other solutions or know the root cause of this problem.
Gave that a try a while ago - completely removed the spotlight index (both manually at first and then through the terminal) and the problem still persists. It indexes, completes the job then starts all over again. MDS is showing 150% CPU on the activity monitor! I have been wondering if this is interconnected with my time machine issues - but I cant prevent spotlight from indexing the time machine drive. I have been considering deleting my old time machine drive and starting again to see if that will help, but I got a new external HD for that very job and couldn't make a single time machine back up - it would always fail mid way.

Wondering if Spotlight is paired with time machine in some way and now that pairing has been broken neither will work properly. Tearing my hair out here - mac is chugging away, with most of the ram being used up by spotlight. External HD keeps booting up and shutting down causing the mac to also chug even harder.

Whats weird is that my Ram usage has gone through the roof - normally would float around 10gb free when working, but constantly sitting around 5gb even with most apps shut down.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Cannot help much but this has helped me clear up in my head what Time Machine does

http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

Tonsko

6,299 posts

215 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
I suggest reinstalling the OS. Get a trial version of CCC to clone your disk to the new external, then flatten the sucker and start fresh. Have you thought about El Cap? Lion will be out of support soon, if it isn't already.

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Tonsko said:
I suggest reinstalling the OS. Get a trial version of CCC to clone your disk to the new external, then flatten the sucker and start fresh. Have you thought about El Cap? Lion will be out of support soon, if it isn't already.
Macs already backed up to an external HD with CCC. If I reinstall the OS then migrate the clone to the Mac would that not just carry over the problem?

I have resisted upgrading past Lion as it means my copy of Adobe CS wont work - being cheap, I don't want to start paying out monthly for Adbobe CC.

The OH has upgraded her MBP at every chance and has encountered so many issues from it, and having just gone to El Capitan she now cant use Adobe CS, so we are trying to reverse her MBP as she cant do any work (time machine / back ups ... she knows nothing of these things despite me setting it all up for her)

Tonsko

6,299 posts

215 months

Wednesday 20th July 2016
quotequote all
Well, you then just copy back the folders that you need form the cloned drive. Bit of a faff, yes.

moustachebandit

1,269 posts

143 months

Thursday 21st July 2016
quotequote all
Just a thought -

My last proper time machine is in May. What if I copied over the spotlight files from then and replaced them with the ones now? Could that possibly resolve the issues.

Other idea is to rewind the Mac back to May, delete all the files from May and then add my current files from my clone so everything is up to date. I have done a massive clear down over the past month so don't want to have to redo all of that again. Just unsure on how easy it is to copy over all my emails as well?

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Tuesday 9th August 2016
quotequote all
^^^^^
Any joy


My question.
Just discovered that the iMac has a dual use audio out, 3.5mm on that is. Electrical AND optical. New amp is on its way with optical in, any experiences with this? Be finding out shortly if the amp is OK I suppose.

That or a better way to stream iTunes to the amp.

Podie

46,630 posts

275 months

Tuesday 9th August 2016
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Anyone know how to stop "Photos" from popping up every time you logon / switch user?

Tonsko

6,299 posts

215 months

Tuesday 9th August 2016
quotequote all
Podie said:
Anyone know how to stop "Photos" from popping up every time you logon / switch user?
Settings, Users, Login Items?

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Tuesday 9th August 2016
quotequote all
Not forgetting to click on he lock first to unlock it of the changes will not take. If indeed that is the fix.

Tonsko

6,299 posts

215 months

Tuesday 9th August 2016
quotequote all
jmorgan said:
Not forgetting to click on he lock first to unlock it of the changes will not take. If indeed that is the fix.
Yes, this. thumbup

IanA2

2,763 posts

162 months

Saturday 13th August 2016
quotequote all
I don't know if this is of any help to anyone:

https://www.apple.com/uk/support/macbookpro-videoi...

My MBP was taken in and fixed without quibble.

As I had put in an SSD and maxed the memory, I'm really pleased as I now have a fast (almost) new machine when I had thought I had yet another door stop smile

Skodaku

1,805 posts

219 months

Saturday 10th September 2016
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My venerable, circa 2006, MacBook Pro 15” has just ceased to work. Hard drive was running hot and starting to get noisy. All I get now, on switch on, is Apple symbol, rotating segments, then white screen. That's all. It's all backed up to an external 500GB hard drive via Time Machine.

Think it's time to purchase an iMac as I no longer need a laptop and MBP will only handle iOS 10.6.8.

If I buy a new iMac, can I just set up Time Machine using the existing hard drive and recover it all, or...........? Will this route overwrite the iOS on the new iMac...which is not desirable?

Comments gratefully received.

Leithen

10,882 posts

267 months

Sunday 11th September 2016
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Skodaku said:
If I buy a new iMac, can I just set up Time Machine using the existing hard drive and recover it all, or...........? Will this route overwrite the iOS on the new iMac...which is not desirable?

Comments gratefully received.
Migration assistant should handle it fine.

Skodaku

1,805 posts

219 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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Leithen said:
Migration assistant should handle it fine.
Thank you. Now recall using it when the MacBook Pro replaced the old eMac...which still works just fine, if slowly.