When we first installed Leopard Server, we found that Spotlight wasn’t working on the server by default. A number of people have also found this to be true, and some people have suggested it may have something to do with installing on to a RAID 1 drive setup (as we did).
The following is a possibly solution to get Spotlight working if you are having this issue1.
- Login in to your server as an administrator.
- Open the Terminal application (in your /Applications/Utilities folder)
- Type the following exactly as written in to the Terminal:
sudo rm /.metadata_never_index
It will ask you for your password. You may get a “file not found” error, as the file has only been reported as being there for some users. Regardless, move to step 4.
- Type the following in to the Terminal:
sudo mdutil -i on /
Spotlight in the right corner of the menu of your server login should indicate it is indexing, and before long will start working.
1. This post is based on a discussion in Apple Discussions, and fixed the problem we had been having with our server.
Thanks, it solved my index problem.
This fixed my problem too. I also created a Raid 1 array on my xserve and installed the OS onto that.
Wow, worked immediately. When I posted in the forums no one knew what to do.
THANK YOU!! Spotlight did not work on a single HD Leopard installation either. It is fixed now.
Many thanks – solved this most annoying problem