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-   -   SuperDuper keeps turning Spotlight indexing back on - grrrr! (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6157)

gmachen 04-06-2010 11:15 PM

SuperDuper keeps turning Spotlight indexing back on - grrrr!
 
Maybe I don't understand what "Restoring Spotlight state" is supposed to do, but it's not doing what I want, or at least not what I intuitively expect:

- I have Spotless set to keep Spotlight indexing disabled on my internal drive. (I abhor Spotlight in the first place, and it's an SSD drive, which doesn't need all that life-reducing thrashing.)
- I have Spotless' daemon set to automatically disable indexing on all newly-mounted volumes.
- After I backup my internal drive with a Smart Update, indexing always gets enabled on my destination drive.
- So it's not restoring the actual Spotlight state of my source drive; rather, it's forcing indexing on me when I don't want it.

How do I configure SuperDuper to honor the extant Spotlight state, viz., disabled, of my drive that's being backed-up?

dnanian 04-07-2010 12:11 AM

Simply add the backup drive to the spotlight preference pane's privacy tab.

gmachen 04-07-2010 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 29087)
Simply add the backup drive to the spotlight preference pane's privacy tab.

Allright, I'll give that a try and see if it works.
But I guess the wider question is, my sense of what a backup is, is to make a duplicate of my source drive. If Spotlight is disabled on my source drive, then why isn't that state honored when it's backed-up? When I hear the phrase, "Restoring Spotlight state," my natural intuitive expectation is that whatever state it's originally in will be what's "restored." But that state isn't getting restored: what was turned-off gets turned-on behind my back. It seems to my way of thinking that the question of the Privacy Tab shouldn't even arise in the first place. I thought that Spotless was taking care of all that. My concern is that it's SuperDuper that's imposing its will on me instead of just duplicating all aspects of my source drive.

dnanian 04-07-2010 12:03 PM

There are a lot of different 'parts' to Spotlight. In general, Spotlight - that is, the process - should be on. Privacy tell spotlight to not touch the drive. It's different than the overall state of Spotlight.

It's best to use Privacy. They fixed the problems with privacy long ago (it used to vanish unexpectedly, hence the need for spotless originally), and I think you'll find it'll work fine as long as you're using Smart Update.

gmachen 06-23-2010 02:41 PM

> It's best to use Privacy. They fixed the problems
> with privacy long ago...

Well, it's still flaky as of Leopard 10.5.8. It sure doesn’t remember the privacy state of my removable drives.

How about coming up with a script we can add to our SuperDuper! options to run a script after backup that will disable Spotlight and eject the volume upon quit?

dnanian 06-23-2010 02:47 PM

I haven't seen any problem with this in Leopard, as long as you're using Smart Update... you can always eject the volume, if you want, with the existing on successful completion options.

gmachen 06-23-2010 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 29413)
I haven't seen any problem with this in Leopard, as long as you're using Smart Update... you can always eject the volume, if you want, with the existing on successful completion options.

I do use Smart Update, and I do have it eject the volume on successful completion, but Spotlight indexing gets turned on again, and the next time I do a backup, it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r, because it's indexing my backup volume during the backup, unless I disable indexing manually.

I accept that it's not happening to you in Leopard if you say so, but it's happening to me, so that's why I still use Spotless, and I have to launch it before every backup to disable Spotlight indexing.

I'm not asking you to go to the trouble of adding a feature to SuperDuper!; I'm just asking for a script that I see I can add to SuperDuper! to disable Spotlight indexing upon completion. (I don't know how to write such a script.)

dnanian 06-23-2010 03:19 PM

Use of spotless might prevent privacy from working properly...

gmachen 06-23-2010 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 29415)
Use of spotless might prevent privacy from working properly...

I had to start using Spotless because Privacy was unreliable before I even heard of Spotless.

SuperDuper! has the ability to run a script after completion.
Could someone please post the syntax for a simple script I could so use to disable Spotlight indexing after my backup?

dnanian 06-23-2010 04:39 PM

That script is already available in the forums, in "Frequently Asked Questions".

ngc4900 01-08-2011 02:51 PM

Hi Dave,
Not to beat a dead horse on this topic. I came across this issue now that I have a bootable volume on my Drobo. Is this issue with Privacy working been fixed in Snow Leopard such that I can use it instead of having to purchase this third party app, Spotless?
Thanks
Joe

dnanian 01-08-2011 03:02 PM

It was fixed years ago: Privacy works fine as long as you use "Smart Update" and you're running 10.5 or later, and indexing is ON. (Privacy won't index the volume, but you need indexing on for privacy to work, if that makes any sense.)

macWish 03-14-2012 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnanian (Post 29089)
There are a lot of different 'parts' to Spotlight. In general, Spotlight - that is, the process - should be on. Privacy tell spotlight to not touch the drive. It's different than the overall state of Spotlight.

It's best to use Privacy. They fixed the problems with privacy long ago (it used to vanish unexpectedly, hence the need for spotless originally), and I think you'll find it'll work fine as long as you're using Smart Update.

Dave,
In my experience with Spotlight Privacy on Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard, I find absolutely no evidence that Apple has fixed the problems with Privacy. My privacy settings regularly disappear on my new MacBook Pro running 10.6.8 just as they did on my iMac and MacMini running 10.4.11. The disappearance is unpredictable, but always happens sooner or later. Once the privacy settings automatically reset to their defaults, namely, no volumes listed, then my external clones start indexing.
I haven't had to use Spotless to control Spotlight as TinkerTool System does an adequate job.

dnanian 03-14-2012 08:51 AM

I've had no problem at all with Privacy - it works just fine for me since 10.5. I don't know why you'd find differently, unless you erased the drive (or the Spotlight files).


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