mdutil

The mdutil command is useful for managing the metadata stores for mounted volumes.

Documentation

• man 1 'mdutil' [EN]

Syntax

mdutil [PARAMETER ...] MOUNTPOINT ...

Parameters

-d

Disables Spotlight searches on the provided volume.

-E

This flag will cause each local store for the volumes indicated to be erased. The stores will be rebuilt if appropriate.

-i ( on | off )

Sets the indexing status for the provided volumes to on or off.

NOTE:

The indexing may be delayed due to low disk space or other conditions.

-s

Display the indexing status of the listed volumes.

Examples

Never ever index my backup disk again!

sudo mdutil -d -E -i 'off' '/Volumes/Backup_No.1'