That's interesting; I had no idea Spotlight was involved with these issues. Bill, I do indeed use and like column view in the finder but it will be interesting to see if list or icon view yield different results. So far, the problems I encountered have been with my external 2 TB hard drive. At this point, I now have files on both partitions so I'll have to look into this with some SD cards or something. Yes, I confirm the problem goes away once something is copied onto that drive.
Yes Esther, you're right; I do have a lot of Linux experience so the Unix stuff in the shell is no problem for me. I don't recognize that specific shell command off the top of my head but it might be an Apple specific thing; who knows. That's where man pages come in but I have seen some commands on the shell on macs which don't have man pages <sigh>. On 4/13/12, Esther <mori...@mac.com> wrote: > Hi Steve, > > Actually, if you want to disable Spotlight indexing of all externally > mounted volumes of any type, you don't need to know the name of your device. > Just go to System Preferences > Spotlight, select the "Privacy" tab, then > navigate to the "Add" button and press it with VO-Space. In the dialog > window that appears, use the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-G. Then, in > the text box of the dialog window, type: > /Volumes > (that's a slash symbol, immediately followed by the word "Volumes") and > press the return key. > > That will keep Spotlight from indexing any externally mounted devices, and > you can perform this set up action at any time. Note that you may not want > this all-inclusive behavior, if you mount external hard drives that you want > to search for stored files. > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > On Apr 12, 2012, at 7:00 PM, Esther wrote: > >> Hi Steve, >> >> Not sure that this helps to answer your question, but when I attach USB >> memory sticks to my Mac, in order to prevent the system from trying to >> start up Spotlight indexing of the drive when I connect, I go to System >> Preferences > Spotlight and select the "Privacy" tab. VoiceOver will say >> "Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations: Click the Add button, >> or drag a folder or disk into the list below." Navigate to the "Add" >> button and press it (VO-Space), then select your USB drive in the dialog >> window. You can use any of the Finder keyboard shortcuts to navigate >> here. For example, Command-Shift-C will set your default directory to >> your computer, and you can navigate to the list of mounted drives or >> devices to select your USB memory stick, and then press return to register >> the selection. You can also use the Command-Shift-G "go to folder" >> shortcut here if you know the name of your drive. I find that my Lexar >> memory stick gets mounted as: >> /Volumes/Lexar >> and my Crucial memory stick gets mounted as: >> /Volumes/Crucial >> So I could also have specified my Lexar memory stick in the dialog window >> that appears after pressing the "add" button by pressing Command-Shift-G >> and then typing into the text box: >> /Volumes/Crucial >> (that's a slash character, followed by the word "Volumes", followed by >> another slash character, followed by the word "Crucial"; Finder is not >> case sensitive, so you do not have to capitalize the "V" in "Volumes" and >> the "C" in "Crucial" as you would if you were typing commands in >> Terminal.) >> >> I'm not sure that these settings made through the always stick, although I >> haven't had problems with activity from Spotlight indexing once I've >> applied this setup. I am sure that this works if you use the Terminal >> app instead: >> 1. Command-Shift-U in Finder to go to Utilities >> 2. Press "t" to navigate to "Terminal" >> 3. Command-Down arrow or Command-O to open Terminal >> 4. Type (exactly): >> sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/Crucial >> and press return to execute this. You should substitute the path to your >> USB drive, with it's name. It may not be named for the manufacturer, >> especially if it is not a "brand" memory stick. I think you may be >> prompted for your Admin password to execute this command. Steve, I think >> you have linux background, and may be comfortable with this. I can >> usually Command-Tab to Terminal to execute commands. >> >> Let us know if any of this helps. (People who are not familiar with >> command line usage might want to skip using the instructions for >> Terminal.) >> >> HTH. Cheers, >> >> Esther >> >> On Apr 12, 2012, at 4:26 AM, Scott Howell wrote: >> >>> Bill, >>> >>> Command-w closes the window. I am not sure that it would be fair to say >>> APple is not interested in fixing the issue. There is a good chance that >>> they are working the issue on their end and has not said anything or they >>> simply do not have sufficient information to determine the underlying >>> cause. I am experiencing an issue with my iPHone that I am pretty sure is >>> or has affected others and I have been working with APple on/off in >>> regards to the problem. THey have not resolved the problem yet, but I do >>> not believe this is because they are not interested in resolving the >>> problem. I can appreciate that at times it seems as though you are being >>> ignored, but on the other hand I do not think this is always the case. >>> >>> On Apr 12, 2012, at 8:49 AM, Bill Holton wrote: >>> >>>> Here's the workaround I use. First, turn off VO and then press command >>>> q to >>>> close that finder window. Then press command 2 to get into list mode. >>>> For >>>> me this problem seems to mostly happen in column view. Now that you're >>>> in >>>> list mode, try again. Let me know if this works. Apple has shown very >>>> little interest in solving this problem. >>>> You can also go to the drive on the main finder window. First, find a >>>> file, >>>> any file, and copy it to the clipboard. At the main finder window use >>>> the >>>> right click menu to call up the paste command. If you can get any file >>>> onto >>>> that drive it will then work fine and you canego from there. >>>> Let me know if either of these works. >>>> Bill >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> BILL HOLTON >>>> Email: b...@bholton.com >>>> Direct: 386-624-6309 >>>> Homepage: www.bholton.com >>>> Home Office: 1520 Loughton ST >>>> DeLand, FL 32720 >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com >>>> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Steve Holmes >>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 6:25 PM >>>> To: macvisionaries >>>> Subject: Finder Busy Finder Busy with Empty USB Drives! >>>> >>>> I think this is similar to Bill's empty DVD problems but I'm actually >>>> wondering what the solution is when I get into these situations. If I >>>> plug >>>> in a USB drive which happens to have no files yet, the finder goes into >>>> that >>>> damn busy stuff and I can't get out of it any way, any how. I always >>>> end up >>>> turning off the computer and power back up. Is there any other way to >>>> get >>>> out of those busy loops? Unplugging the drive did not help the >>>> situation. As >>>> soon as I copy a file on to that empty partition, then all is fine. >>>> What I >>>> do is go into the terminal and use the cp command to do this. I read >>>> Bill's >>>> message about deleting finder settings and then it straitens out for a >>>> bit >>>> but obviously, that doesn't sound like a good solution as his problem >>>> kept >>>> coming back. If I use Command O to open the drive, I also get the >>>> dreaded >>>> "finder busy" crap so How does one get out of this loop when you get >>>> caught >>>> in it? I could see this happening every time you stick in a blank USB >>>> stick >>>> or SD card or something. >>>> >>>> I sure hope Apple gets this serious bug fixed soon. >>>> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
