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10.5: Don't (?) Disable Spotlight during Time Machine backups
Authored by: drmacnut on Oct 28, '08 11:22:58PM

I have seen this problem twice on different Macs that I manage in our department. My guess is the Spotlight index of the backup was somehow damaged. My best solution so far has been to delete the TM backup sparseimage on the backup drive, reset TM (in Pref Pane) and do another complete backup. Since I have only seen this issue with Mac to Time Capsule backups, I have used direct-connect ethernet to run the new fresh backup, so it doesnʻt take forever to complete. Spotlight builds its database as the backup process, backupd, is running. And when you're done, you will not even notice Spotlight running while backups are being performed, nor will it slow them down. This is the normal (optimum) behaviour for TM and Spotlight together.

QUESTION: Is Spotlight not *required* by Time Machine in order for it to find files within the backup itself? Having no Spotlight index of the backup itself will nullify the utility of Time Machine right at its core, am I not right everyone?

Let's talk about this! There is a paucity of good information on the interaction of Spotlight and Time Machine it seems.

I think disabling Spotlight at the time backupd is running is like asking for trouble. Admittedly, having Spotlight try to either complete or create a new index at the same time as TM is trying to do a backup will cause both processes to seemingly never complete (quite honestly!) and a normally good running Mac can sometimes slow to a crawl. In your situation, there was obviously a problem and Spotlight was trying to get caught up again. But for you to stop Spotlight from running at all, I think, is probably dangerous.

I have also spent many hours pondering this issue and trying various fixes. At least I can say that without exception, resetting Time Machine, deleting the original backup sparseimage, and creating a brand new backup will solve the problem, and you will be back up and running again without a need for hacking, killing, or stamping upon Spotlight.



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10.5: Don't (?) Disable Spotlight during Time Machine backups
Authored by: PizzaCake on Aug 30, '09 08:40:21AM

I'd also like to know what effect disabling spotlight has when running backupd?



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