On my Mac, In the Console, there is an excessive amount of logging from the 'mds' process.
mds is the service that runs Spotlight. It is also integral to Time Machine, apparently.
Small sample (In the last 8 minutes, over 240,000 messages have been logged):
Date & Time Category Process Message
2021-05-13 14:31:00.089632 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.089757 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.090442 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.090862 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.091281 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.091833 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.092386 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.093219 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.093765 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.094511 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.095089 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.095727 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.096749 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.097218 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.097585 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.097944 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.098345 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.098795 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.099081 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.099400 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.099740 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.100123 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.100474 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.100847 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.101130 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.101387 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.101629 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.102011 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.102361 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.102844 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.103164 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.103754 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.104052 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.138314 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.139141 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
2021-05-13 14:31:00.139709 -0400 default mds Reading localized string from /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemFolderLocalizations
You can see from the timestamps that these are occurring frequently (every 0.001 or so).
Note: I enabled Private Data in the Console using the instructions here: https://superuser.com/a/1532052/1247878 .
This issue this is causing me (other than being unsightly) is that a diagnostic tool for my VPN wants to collect Console logs over the past day, and the report file it's generating grows to double-digit GB sizes, making it nearly impossible to submit to the network team for troubleshooting.
Is there any way to reduce mds' logging level? I could turn off the indexing, but then that would affect Time Machine.
Mac Specs:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro14,3
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.9 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 16 GB
