What is mdworker apple

Что такое mds и mdworker, и почему оно запущено на моем Mac

В «Мониторинге системы» вы можете заметить несколько процессов под назвалнием mds и mdworker. У них нет иконки, и они постоянно запущены. Не беспокойтесь, они безвредны.

Эти два процесса являются частью Spotlight, инструмента поиска macOS. Первый, mds — это сервер метаданных. Этот процесс управляет индексом, используемым для быстрого поиска результатов. Второй, mdworker — это «работник» сервера метаданных, но делает все работу по фактической индексации ваших файлов, чтобы сделать быстрый поиск возможным.

Почему mds и mdworker используют много ОЗУ и грузит процессор?

Если вы недавно перенесли свои файлы и приложения с одного Mac на другой или загрузили большое количество новых файлов, вполне нормально, что mds и mdworker работают на полных мощностях, тем самым используя много памяти и процессора. Эти процессы работают над созданием индекса всех ваших файлов, что в дальнейшем обеспечит быстрый поиск.

Как можно определить это наверняка? Откройте Spotlight, и вы увидите слово «Индексирование» рядом с индикатором выполнения.

Если вы видите это сообщение, знайте, что Spotlight работает над созданием индекса, это и есть причиной использования ресурсов. Обычно это занимает несколько часов, хотя и может варьироваться в зависимости от вашего жесткого диска и скорости процессора.

Spotlight настроен так, чтобы не использовать все ваши ресурсы. Если вы используете компьютер для других операций, которые требуют много ресурсов, процессы индексации должны временно остановиться. Но если ваш Mac остался бездействующим, и вы подключены к сети электропитания, Spotlight будет использовать все доступные ресурсы, необходимые для создания базы данных.

Пересоздание индекса Spotlight

Если эти процессы никогда не заканчивают работу и постоянно используют ваш процессор и память через несколько дней после начала индексации, есть вероятность, что ваш индекс поврежден. К счастью, вы можете исправить это, восстановив индекс Spotlight.

Существует два основных способа сделать это. Первый заключается в том, чтобы добавить весь ваш жесткий диск в список исключенных мест, а затем повторно добавить его. Во-вторых, можно выполнить следующую команду в терминале:

В любом случае, весь ваш индекс Spotlight будет пересоздан. Как только этот процесс будет завершен, mds и mdworker должны перестать использовать ваши ресурсы. Если нет, попробуйте запустить «Первую помощью» в «Дисковой утилите», чтобы исправить проблемы файловой системы на вашем Mac, а затем снова пересоздать индекс. Это позволит решить проблему практически во всех случаях.

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mdworker – What is mdworker?

Ever wondered what the ‘mdworker’ process was on a Mac? mdworker is short for ‘metadata server worker’ and if you’re still confused don’t feel bad. mdworker is basically the core technology behind Mac OS X’s awesome search engine Spotlight, it spiders meta data from your Mac and its files and creates a readable index so that you can find things practically instantaneously via Spotlight (command-spacebar).

We’ll cover some common questions and answers regarding mdworker on Mac, inspired by my recent switcher friend who arrived at the Mac OS platform from the other side, who tweeted me asking why mdworker is taking up so much CPU.

What is mdworker?

As mentioned above, mdworker is part of Spotlight, which is basically a search engine for your Mac (think Google but locally, for your own files).

mdworker is slowing down my Mac with 60% CPU usage!

Yes, mdworker will sometimes cause your Mac to be slow and have high CPU usage, this is totally normal. You should just let it run until it’s finished, and CPU usage will be back to normal.

How long does mdworker take to finish?

This is entirely dependent on the last time that your Mac filesystem was indexed and the amount of new files since indexing. If you just plugged in a loaded external hard drive, expect it to take a while. 15 minutes to well over an hour are not uncommon amounts of time for mdworker to run. If you have a very large hard drive with a ton of data on it, mdworker can take a long time to complete as each individual file is indexed.

Should I kill mdworker? What happens if I kill mdworker?

No you shouldn’t kill mdworker, because it’s doing you a service by indexing your Macs contents. If you do kill mdworker, your Mac filesystem will not be completely indexed and it’s searchability will be greatly reduced until mdworker runs again and completes a full indexing. There is no serious problem with killing mdworker, it’s just not recommended.

How can I stop mdworker or disable mdworker?

Since mdworker is part of Spotlight, you’ll have to disable Spotlight to disable mdworker. Again, this is not recommended, but if you want to disable mdworker here’s a how-to guide:

What about mds? Is this tied to mdworker?

Yes, mds is the parent metadata server that runs the child process mdworker, the two usually run concurrently. You can read specifically about mds and Mac OS for more information.

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Question: Q: What is ‘mds’ and ‘mdworker’?

My computer seems to be going reaaaally slow lately, and whenever I check activity monitor there is this program at root level called ‘mds’ that appears to be hogging my cpu and ram.

What are they, and do I really need them!?

I am also using HP software for my digital camera so the slowness is probably related to that.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on May 31, 2009 1:42 PM

Helpful answers

May 31, 2009 1:45 PM

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May 31, 2009 1:45 PM

May 31, 2009 2:19 PM

May 31, 2009 2:24 PM

Yeah I read a bit about it, but you know I am kind of getting a bit fed up of spending too much time preforming maintenance on this machine rather than using it for something more useful or interesting. I feel sometime that I might as well have just bought a windows system.

I have something I need to do, that spotlight thing is just for quick searching and nothing else right?

ps I am typing this with my wireless keyboard disconnected, waste of time buying that thing, it just causing my MM to malfunction all the time.

May 31, 2009 2:34 PM

May 31, 2009 2:47 PM

Spotlight is indeed a main user of mds and mdworker, but it’s not the only one.

OSX uses them for various things, as does Time Machine.

If you’re using Time Machine, exclude your backup drive/partition from Spotlight indexing.

If you’re running any anti-virus scanning, some of them use these processes, too. So also exclude your TM drive and anything else you can (such as a photo library) from scanning.

If these are still a problem, you might be able to figure out what they’re working on by selecting Inspect on them via Activity Monitor (in your Applications/Utilities folder), then click the +Open files and ports+ tab (if it appears).

May 31, 2009 3:44 PM

Pondini wrote:
Spotlight is indeed a main user of mds and mdworker, but it’s not the only one.

that’s wrong AFAIK. I believe both processes are for spotlight only which includes indexing TM backups. I don’t believe any AV programs use them directly.

May 31, 2009 4:13 PM

Pondini wrote:
Spotlight is indeed a main user of mds and mdworker, but it’s not the only one.

that’s wrong AFAIK. I believe both processes are for spotlight only which includes indexing TM backups. I don’t believe any AV programs use them directly.

«It serves all clients of the metadata APIs, including Spotlight»

If there were only two (Spotlight and TM), I suspect it would say that.

It’s my understanding that it’s available to any process, including 3rd-party apps, that want to use it to extract metadata from a file, especially since it can determine and use the proper «mdimporter» routine for the file type in question.

There were a couple of posts a few months ago (which of course I can’t find now), reporting mds/mdworker using lots of CPU, even with all disks excluded from Spotlight. Cancelling the anti-virus scanning seems to have fixed it.

May 31, 2009 5:01 PM

May 31, 2009 5:06 PM

I’m not really sure I understand what indexing is, but I’d guess this spotlight is building up a temporary database of files on my computer whenever I turn my computer on for quick keyword searches. I don’t normally search for photos using spotlight so I turn that onto privacy mode. I would also hazard a guess that the problem here stems from the fact that I am using third party software digital camera software and it is not communicating with Spotlight as to the whereabouts of the files? No, that is probably not quite right.

I don’t understand why it needs to run every time I start up, should it not already have this information from the previous time it was being used.

Jun 1, 2009 6:48 AM

STU9000 wrote:
I’m not really sure I understand what indexing is, but I’d guess this spotlight is building up a temporary database of files on my computer whenever I turn my computer on for quick keyword searches. I don’t normally search for photos using spotlight so I turn that onto privacy mode.

Spotlight is rather quirky, to put it politely. I’ve never quite understood the big spike after booting, either, as it does put a hidden index on each drive, and does index files as they’re added or changed. It also examines any (non-excluded) disk/partition as soon as it’s attached, so perhaps that’s at least part of what’s going on.

I would also hazard a guess that the problem here stems from the fact that I am using third party software digital camera software and it is not communicating with Spotlight as to the whereabouts of the files? No, that is probably not quite right.

It is quite possible for 3rd-party software to be involved, somehow or other, directly or indirectly. The only way to tell for sure would be to turn it off. Even that might not do it, as there could be a separate autostart process doing something, too.

I don’t understand why it needs to run every time I start up, should it not already have this information from the previous time it was being used.

One thing you might try is, set up a different user. Do a shutdown and start-up and log in as that other user and see if the problem persists.

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What Is mdworker On Mac?

Do you know there are various types of processes running on your Mac? You must know about them as every process functions differently. Knowing about Mac can be one of the best things when you want to gain control of applications that you’re working on.

Some of the processes run because of applications and some are related to your operating system. The names given to these processes are so new and unique that it becomes difficult to understand and identify the process and related to an application. One of such processes is the mdworker process. This blog covers everything you need to know about mdworker Mac. So, let’s get started.

What is mdworker & mds?

Mdworker is a short form of metadata server worker which indexes your files to enhance the search process. While Mds stands for the server of metadata which manages indexes to provide fast search results. These processors are part of Spotlight, a search tool for Mac.

Why Do mds and mdworker Consume So Many resources?

If you have downloaded or transferred a lot of files on your Mac, then mds and mdworker start working on it, due to which they use a lot of resources. If you want to be sure of it, launch Spotlight and if you see Indexing on the search bar area, you must understand that both the processes are at work.

Note: The process could take hours, depending on your processor speed and hard drive. Well, Spotlight is not supposed to use excessive resources, especially when you are working on something that is CPU-intensive or consumes battery. However, it takes up all the resources needed, as and when your Mac is idle.

However, if these processes are taking a lot of time and are hogging CPU resources. then the index might be corrupted and you must rebuild Spotlight Index. For that, you can either follow the manual steps below or you can use third-party tools (mentioned one of the best tools in the second section)

Re-indexing Spotlight Manually

To do so, let’s follow the steps:

First, make sure that mds and mdworker are the culprits

List of Contents

1. Checking Activity Monitor

• Go to Applications and launch Activity Monitor.
• Click on the CPU column to check CPU cycles used by your Mac.
• If mdworker and mds are at the top of the list, it means Spotlight has run into indexing problems.

Now, you can fix this by rebuilding Spotlight’s index.

2. Rebuilding Spotlight’s database in Terminal

• Go to Application, launch Utilities, and go to Terminal.
• Type “Return:sudo mdutil –E/” string.

This command will help in re-indexing the Mac.

3. Steps to take if mdworker quits

If throughout the process, you receive an error message that mdworker quit unexpectedly…it is happening because Spotlight tried to index more than its handling power.

To fix this, try to exclude external drives (if connected) and check if this helps.

• Click on Apple and launch “System Preferences.”
• Now, select Spotlight and then go to Privacy.
• Now, drag external files from the Finder to the Privacy.

Re-Indexing Spotlight Via Third-Party Tool:

If you don’t want to get into the hassle of following these steps, you must use a third-party tool like CleanMyMacX

CleanMyMac X is an easy tool for fixing Spotlight and other issues related to indexing on your Mac. It is a famous Mac Maintenance software.

You can also download the free version to get hands-on with it.

To use CleanMyMac, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Launch the app.
2. Select Maintenance from the sidebar.
3. Now, select Reindex Spotlight.

This might take a couple of minutes to complete the maintenance process. but, trust me it is worth downloading.

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Question: Q: What is mdworker?

I don’t know why my Mac book pro is working so slowly. I wondered if I had somehow gotten MacDefender downloaded and realised it was malware. I couldn’t find it in the Applications but I did find mdworker. I don’t know what that is. Could it be related to MacDefender?

I am very frustrated with the performance of my Mac recently and I don’t know what to do about it.

Posted on May 30, 2012 8:16 AM

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mdworker is system software that takes care of spoltlight indexing. it’s perfectly normal, and if this is a new machine (or a machine you’ve just added a lot of files to) then mdworker will be busy for a while indexing. best thing to do is to leave your computer on for a couple of hours and let it get done, and after that it will only pop up occassionaly to deal with new material.

May 30, 2012 8:20 AM

I have had this machine for a year and a half and I haven’t added a lot of files to it. I have given my children their own accounts. Would this slow it down? Also, why would my fan be running loudly for over 16 hours?

I have the computer on a quartz desk top and there is lots of ventilation around it.

May 30, 2012 8:25 AM

well, there could be a lot of reasons. first thing that comes to mind: do you use fast user switching for your kid’s accounts? if they’ve left their accounts logged in with peer-to-peer networking running that could be eating up a lt of CPU. How much memory do you have? are the vents clogged with dust? if you open activity monitor and sort by CPU usage, what processes are at the top?

May 30, 2012 8:29 AM

It looks like it’s with Skype and it is using around 100 percent of the CPU It also says ‘skype not responding’

The next in the list is Java Application stub with 19%.

What does this mean?

May 30, 2012 8:33 AM

You didn’t answer my other questions. for instance, I don’t know whether skype is running in your account or a different one.

at any rate, force-quit skype (you can do that from Activity Monitor). have you installed the latest updates with the java patches?

May 30, 2012 8:36 AM

first thing that comes to mind: do you use fast user switching for your kid’s accounts?

*******I don’t know what ‘fast switching’ is . they just log in or out under the apple menu.

if they’ve left their accounts logged in with peer-to-peer networking running that could be eating up a lt of CPU.

********I don’t know if we have peer to peer networking . what is it and can I check to see if it’s on the computer?

How much memory do you have? I have 928.6 mg free 2.17 gb is active

******* I’m useless with computers. every question requires more questions.

are the vents clogged with dust? no

May 30, 2012 8:48 AM

Fast user switching is a way of quickly moving between accounts, by leaving one account running in the background. If you always use the Apple menu, then that’s not the case, so you don’t have to worry about peer-to-peer (those are file-sharing programs, where people can trade things like music and movies).

you’ve got 2 gb of memory, which is on the low side for Lion (assuming you’re using Lion). That can cause excess disk usage (and thus excess heat) because the system will be paging memory out to disk more frequently. It would be worth the $100 (or whatever) to buy a couple more gigs of ram — when I did that with my laptop the difference in performance was noteworthy. If you tell me which model MBP you have I can link you to the correct memory type and tell you how to install it.

Do your kids have standard accounts or administrator accounts? You can check that in System Preferences -> Users and Groups (that used to be called Accounts, if you’re on an earlier system). You should set your kids to standard accounts if they aren’t already, which will keep them from innocently installing something like MacDefender.

Did Force Quitting Skype solve the fan problem?

May 30, 2012 9:46 AM

are you still there?

May 30, 2012 9:46 AM

lol — yes, but I do have a life to live. None of us work for Apple here, so you’re going to have to share me with the real world. 😝

May 30, 2012 9:49 AM

No the fan is still running high.

I don’t know what «lion» is.

The kids are on standard accounts.

The serial number is

W80443E7DB7 I have 4 g of memory. checked under the apple menu.

Hey, I’m learning!

May 30, 2012 9:51 AM

Lion is OS 10.7, and I need the model number not the serial number. Look at About This Mac (under tha Apple menu) again. It will tell you the software version right under the apple. Then click More Info, and click system report, and on the first page (Hardware) it will say something like MacbookPro3,1. that’s what I need.

I’m curious why your memory only said 2.17 G + 928 m free. you must have missed something.

May 30, 2012 9:58 AM

Sorry I didn’t realise you didn’t work for apple.

the model number is

Model Identifier: iMac11,2

May 30, 2012 10:22 AM

what you want is pc3-10600 ddr3 1333mhz ram sticks. from what I see online you can get a pair of 4gig sticks for around $50, giving you a total of 12G memory. here’s an Apple link that gives step-by-step instructions for installing it. You probably don’t need that much ram, but more ram is always better, and at $50.

As far as the over-heating issue, there are a few standard causes:

• blocked air vents (which you’ve already eliminated), or no clearance under the machine (does yours still have its rubber feet?)
• runaway processes (look in activity monitor for any process that consistently has high CPU values. make sure you choose All Processes from the pull down menu, so you can see system processes)
• excessive disk access (4Gb should be enough to prevent excess paging, but doing something like running a movie from the hard drive, downloading a huge file, or indexing a drive might kick in the fans)

I suggest you shut down your machine and let it cool for a couple of minutes, then restart it and see if the fans kick in again. If they do, download an app called iStat and we’ll look at the internal temperatures and other activity. However, fans running without an obvious cause might mean it’s apple-care time.

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