What does indexing macbook pro mean

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac If you get unexpected results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help. Before rebuilding the Spotlight index Follow the steps for when Spotlight returns unexpected results. If you're having difficulty finding items in the Mail app, follow the steps to rebuild Mailboxes in Mail. Click the Privacy tab. It has two tabs; select the Privacy tab. Click the plus button under the list of locations that are not to be indexed by Spotlight.

Do not select any of its sub-folders. Select the entire drive and then click Choose. Confirm that you want to add the drive to the no-index list for Spotlight. You can find a variety of hints for manipulating the Spotlight index files, overcoming some of Spotlight's default limitations, and for using the Spotlight-specific Terminal commands by searching the Mac OS X Hints site for spotlight.

Additional information about Spotlight can be found by reviewing the documents listed in the Related links section of this FAQ. Rebuilding Spotlight indices There are two approaches to rebuilding the Spotlight indices on a given volume: Via Privacy:.

Press Return. You will receive a confirmation message based on the version of Mac OS X you are using:. Mac OS X. If prompted for a Password , type your Admin password, then press Return. Spotlight will immediately cease to index the specified volume. If you are using Mac OS X Did you find this FAQ helpful? Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.

To speed up a Spotlight search, it creates an index of everything on all connected drives, because that's faster than actually searching every file every time. Because you just installed the OS, everything is new. It only takes a lot of time to build the original index; after it's done the updates will only take a few seconds. I also find tha tthe time estimates can be way off. You might look at it again in an hour and by then might only say "3 hours" or even less.

Jan 30, PM. Jan 22, PM. It could be from a backup from Time Machine, installation of a new HDD or input of a large quantity of new data. May 27, AM. May 27, PM in response to harrysmccann In response to harrysmccann.