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Forum Discussion
In a "mdworker quit unexpectedly" loop after turning on Smart Sync
Ever since turning on Dropbox Smart Sync, Spotlight has been going nuts and using tons of CPU. The helper app "mdworker" is constantly crashing. Will report back after Dropbox finishes indexing all t...
Hi everyone,
I wanted to give you an update on the issue of mdworker crashing when reading a mismatch in the expected logical vs physical size of PDFs on Mac.
Firstly we've not forgotten about this, a lot of work has been going on in the background to resolve the issue. It has required extensive code re-writing. For those not familiar with the issue, users may see within the logs mdworker crashing. This crash is fairly silent, though will appear in logs. There's no risk to data, but for those who like to inspect clean logs this can cause a lot of noise and may be viewed as sub-optimal.
Based on the feedback raised by yourselves on this forum we've spent considerable time working toward a fix. We've changed the way we write Smart Sync placeholders (ie the files that look like files, but take up 0kb until recalled) for those on 10.13.5 and later. The new sparse format will not trigger an mdworker crash.
We've tested within the beta to validate the code and at this point have now rolled the fix / changed behavior out to 100%.
This is a forward fix, so from now on all and any placeholders created will not suffer this issue. For those who have the placeholders (the empty files with the grey cloud symbol on them) already on their machines there are a few options:
- Unlink and relink your Dropbox. Note: this will trigger a reindex of content that may take minutes to a few hours depending on your filecount.
- Remove the content, via Selective Sync, then return it. Similarly, but perhaps preferably, this will remove the placeholders then re-add them quickly and non-destructively.
There are a few other options, but those keen to avoid this error being highlighted in logs can take these steps.
Many thanks for your feedback on this issue here, it's driven a clear change in product. We pay close attention to the feedback surfaced via this channel so if you have other wishes please either add to existing threads, up-vote ideas, or create your own thread to spark discussion or development.
Ross_S
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox Staff
zobie wrote:
Was this issue resolved? I'm having the same problem.
Hi there,
I'm still looking into it, I'll email you too so we can start a support ticket incase it's an unrelated cause.
Thanks for highlighting.
I am having the same issue. I tried the code to disable and it has stoped for now. I have not yet enabled it again.
I enabled it and the error came back. So I have to keep spotlight disable for the error to go away or close dropbox for it to dissaper.
I have tried to unsync my dropbox and sync again same error.
I have encountered spotlight being unable to index my entire drive after enabling smart sync. I placed my Dropbox folder into the Privacy Tab of Spotlight (in System prefs) and spotlight was then able to complete an index of my computer (minus the dropbox folder of course). There appears to be something inside the dropbox folder that is giving Spotlight a problem - prior to enabling smart sync spotlight had no issues that I know of.
mark
- Leno M.
I think the issue is that Spotlight indexing get's held up on a corrupt file (or maybe thinks the Smart Sync files are corrupt) and has to time out on the process before the errors go away. I assume that even though you disabled Dropbox, the MDWORKER is still trying to finish it's process. I found that errors go away in time, even if not disabling the MDWORKER in terminal. I just shove the error dialog to the corner of my screen and keep working. What ever is going does seem to empty my brand new laptop batter pretty quick.
markh31
What is your OS? I'm having general Spotlight indexing issues after migrating my computer on Sierra. It seems to be having a lot of problems indexing older media like emails and files older than 2016. Some people recommend reinstalling the OS, but I just don't have the time at the moment at work to dedicate the time to do it. Mine is Sierra as well and if I leave it one it did not go away for at least 6 hours. I closed dropbox after that and it stoped.
Quitting and relaunching Dropbox definitely helps but does not solve the issue ... I can now go on for almost a full day without getting the error message but it pops back after a while... Definitely the best option so far though! The good old 'turn it off and on again' ;)
- using sierra
Quitting Dropbox solved the issue
The problem started after I turned on Dropbox smart sync. I have MacOS X 10.12.6.
You can disable indexing PDFs in the Spotlight preferences. That's what solved it for me.
- "disable indexing PDFs in the Spotlight preferences" Unfortunately doesn't work for me :/
Same problem here after updating dropbox... Will try that with pdf...
