How to stop OS X from writing Spotlight and Trash files to memory cards and USB sticks?

Question

When plugging a USB stick into a Mac, OS X creates a number of hidden files on the stick, including a Spotlight index and Trash folder.

Example from the terminal for a USB stick "Untitled":

$ ls -a /Volumes/Untitled
.Spotlight-V100
.Trashes
._.Trashes
.disk
.fseventsd

It even does this on the xD memory card for my camera, so after having copied my pictures and deleted them from the card, the card is still full.

Is it possible to turn this off for USB and memory cards, so OS X either writes these files to the primary disk or doesn't write them at all?

Answer 1

As I know you have 2 choices :

1. TinkerTool (free)

1. BlueHarvest (commercial)

Answer 2

Another way to deal with (just the) spotlight files, is to add that volume to your Spotlight exclude list. Plug the device in, and go to the Spotlight prefpane in System Preferences. Select the Privacy tab. Now drag that volume from your desktop up into the privacy list.. or use the + button at the bottom to add it. No more spotlight indexing will happen on that volume.

Answer 3

For just a particular mounted volume - like a flash drive called yourUSBstick in this example - these commands will remove existing cruft, stop Spotlight indexing now and in the future, stop the related fsevents logging, and disable the Trash feature.

mdutil -i off /Volumes/yourUSBstick
cd /Volumes/yourUSBstick
rm -rf .{,_.}{fseventsd,Spotlight-V*,Trashes}
mkdir .fseventsd
touch .fseventsd/no_log .metadata_never_index .Trashes
cd -

Other unfamiliar stuff you may still see you probably want to keep, like Apple double "._*" files and other Apple DS cruft relating to icons and window placement.

Answer 4

To keep Spotlight from indexing non system volumes, add /Volumes to the Privacy list in System Preferences > Spotlight.

/Volumes is the point in the file system where all non-system disks are mounted by default.

Answer 5

I use the MacOS Terminal command line to list and delete all these files and folders before ejecting the device from the desktop. For some files, you may have to sudo the /bin/rm command.

Answer 6

1. Insert the USB drive.
2. Navigate to Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities and open Terminal.

3. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command, replacing path_to_volume with the real path:

   sudo mdutil -i off /path_to_volume

4. Press return.

5. If prompted for a password, type your admin password, then press return. You will receive the response:
   

   /path_to_volume/: Indexing disabled for volume. in Mac OS X 10.4 or

   /path_to_volume: Indexing disabled. under Mac OS X 10.5 or later.

   Spotlight will immediately cease to index the specified volume.

6. If you are using Mac OS X 10.5 or later, skip to step 9.

7. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command, again substituting the correct path:

   sudo mdutil -E /path_to_volume and press return

8. If prompted for a password, type your admin password, then press return. You will receive the response:

   /path_to_volume/: Volume index removed.

9. At the Terminal prompt, type exit then press return.
10. Quit Terminal.

Thanks to thexlab.com, their troubleshooting Mac OS X e-books, and their website for the detailed explanation of why other methods sort of work.

Answer 7

An easy way to stop my car audio trying to read hidden Mac OS files is to remove them in Windows OS. Simply copy your MP3 music to the USB stick from iTunes. Swap the stick into Windows OS and select view hidden files from folder options. This will then allow you to delete every single hidden file that your trusty Mac placed on your USB stick including those pesky .trashes files. Finally a use for Windows OS!

Answer 8

it can't work.

no way to resolve this problem.