Spotlight Indexing Disabled, Performance Improved | Generated by AI
Spotlight is permanently disabled. Here’s what happened:
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| mds_stores: 14 GB RAM | mds daemon: 471 MB (idle, 0% CPU) |
| mdworker: 18 processes eating CPU | 0 |
| Indexing all folders, all the time | Disabled on all volumes |
| Post-reboot: 15 min of CPU hell | Post-reboot: nothing |
What changed:
sudo mdutil -a -i off— indexing turned off on/,/System/Volumes/Data,/System/Volumes/Preboot- mds daemon is still alive (Apple locks that) but it’s idle at 471 MB and 0% CPU instead of 14 GB + 90% CPU
Cmd+Spacewill still launch apps from the existing index, but won’t search file contents or index new files
To re-enable if you ever want it back:
sudo mdutil -a -i on