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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.
Jane
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox Staff
I should also let it be known at this particular client's office, the whole office is using SmartSync and the other computers are having no issues, and no crash logs on the computer. I'm happy to dig further into this with Dropbox, including giving them access to machines, but only if DB shows interest in learning more about the problem.
Thank you Jane for staying up to date with us on this.
This problem is still an issue, and I don't want to stop spotlight from indexing my Dropbox folder.
However I have removed the annoyance of the incessant dialog box by entering this command in terminal:
defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none
The crash still occurs as I can see it in the console, but I am not shown a dialog box every time.
Thanks to this info:
Turning the message into a notification did not wortk - but turning the reporter off did.
Just to add another data point here, our company has also been having this issue since Smart Sync was launched.
It appears that the issue is related to the PDF Spotlight importer being unable to read the metadata from the Smart Synced files. Whatever the file structure of those files is seems to be throwing the importer for a loop.
From my crash report:
Thread 4 Crashed:
10 com.apple.MDImporter.PDF 0x000000010b326f94 GetMetadataForFile + 97Excluding my Dropbox folders from Spotlight in the System Preferences, Spotlight under Privacy temporarely solved the issue for me.
- Jane
Hey
Your message seems to imply we are finished, which I hope is not the case. I was just giving you some additional information, and I look forward to working with you on THIS issue in the present and the future until resolved.
- Jane
Hey
Can confirm, I was observing this on my machine with Smart Sync turned on.
In Activity Monitor under CPU sorted by % CPU I noticed ReportCrash appearing every few minutes on top.
In Console under User Reports multiple mdworker crashes are listed:
Crashed Thread: 4 Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS) Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x000000010be48000 Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY Termination Signal: Bus error: 10 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0xa Terminating Process: exc handler [0] VM Regions Near 0x10be48000: mapped file 000000010ba93000-000000010be48000 [ 3796K] rw-/rwx SM=COW --> mapped file 000000010be48000-000000010be90000 [ 288K] r--/rwx SM=COW __TEXT 000000011811e000-000000011815c000 [ 248K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /usr/lib/dyld Application Specific Information: import fstype:hfs fsflag:480D000 flags:240000007E diag:0 isXCode:0 uti:com.adobe.pdf plugin:/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter - find suspect file using: sudo mdutil -t 130027556 Application Specific Signatures: import uti:com.adobe.pdf plugin:/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter uuid:7D48EF77-69AB-47DB-BBD9-D907F89C3C17 61If I run the command noted above (sudo mdutil -t 130027556) it gives me a PDF file in Dropbox which is Online Only.
- I too can confirm that this mdworker frenzy also driving me nuts.
Excluding the folder like Euklid did gives me indeed a temporary solution.
My setup: MBP2016TB running Sierra, Dropbox 28.4.14 synced with both personal and business (I think the business account is the culprit because a lot of people also live-editing MS Word documents for example) Is there an update on this issue? I've quickly run through the thread and it seems there's a lot of people having this issue.
In my case, the pdf worker seems to crash on every pdf document that's come accross the mdworker...
Any progress on this issue?
Carl
Yup. Same here. Crashes on PDF.mdimporter and Font.mdimporter. Happens with Smart Synced files that are "online only". QuickLook crashes as well, as it uses the same Spotlight. mdworker mechanisms. Dropbox should work together with Apple to resolve this. Good Luck.
Exclusing the dropbox folders form within the Spotlight control panel is one workaround. Removing the Spotlight Importer packages for font en PDF files in the /System/Library/Spotlight folder is another one.
If the Spotlight Importers would exit somewhat more gracefully instead of crashing mdimporter, the issue would be resolved.
Of course more mdimporters could crash on the "smart synced" files, but these are the ones I noticed.
