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I don't need spotlight on macOS 10.15 Catalina.

Referencing Can't locate /.Spotlight-V100 anywhere, spotlight has incomplete results even after index rebuild

Here's a picture of my spotlight thing, which was only visible when I paid the $10 for daisydisk

daisy disk When I double click down on this thing it has files like dbStr-2.map.data which is 189gb etc, but on the internet it says to never delete file that start with dbStr... because the mac will be irreparably ruined. I'm a PC guy, let's be honest. So, can I just drag those hateful green sectors into the circle on the bottom that says "Drag and drop files here to collect them"

Also, I typed sudo mdutil -i off.
Is that going to mean spotlight doesn't make another enormous index on by 500gb disk like a cancer?

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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EDIT: first, turn off indexing for all disks: sudo mdutil -a -i off. Do this step even though you did it previously, as the -a command will make sure it is disabled for all volumes. sudo su is unnessecary, so to eliminate variables, stick to the command exactly.

Then, delete the folder using the command sudo rm -r /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 If the folder re-develops, let it. 99% chance is that it will be reasonable this time.

After that, since this was certainly a bug, you can re-enable indexing if you'd like: sudo mdutil -a -i on (the file will hardly take up 5 gigabytes when it forms again correctly. If the issue happens again, repeat this without re-enabling indexing.

If you would like to check the size of the spotlight index, you can simply run the command sudo du -hs /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100.

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On OSX recent versions .Spotlight-V100 is xattr protected, meaning rm commands are inoperant, whatever privileges you own. This explains the "Operation not permitted" mentioned in the above thread.

To remove a .Spotlight-V100 folder, use the mdutil utility instead.

mdutil - manage the metadata stores used by Spotlight

we will disable (-d) and remove (-X) spotlight index for the Volume "NO NAME" :

sudo mdutil -d "/Volumes/NO NAME"
sudo mdutil -X "/Volumes/NO NAME"

Here the .Spotlight-V100 to remove is on the "NO NAME" volume. Adapt your command line accordingly.

Avoid any file operation before unmounting the "NO NAME" volume, or the folder will most probably come back...

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  • Recent macOS are not called OS X. Might you edit this to explain on which specific version this answer applies?
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Dec 3 at 11:40
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You can delete a volume's .Spotlight-V100 file, rebooting in Recovery mode (CMD + R), doing rm -rf /Volumes/.../.Spotlight-V100

Ceteris paribus, the index/file, will be rebuilt after normal reboot.

(MacOS Sequoia. 15.1)

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