Tinkering with Spotlight disk indexing in macOS 11 Big Sur

 Having upgraded to Big Sur last week, I'd noticed that Spotlight still hadn't completed disk indexing after ~7 days.

I was digging in further using Terminal: -

sudo mdutil -E /

/:
Error: Index is already changing state.  Please try again in a moment.

sudo mdutil -i on /

Password:

/:

Indexing enabled. 

sudo mdutil -i off /

/:

Error: Index is already changing state.  Please try again in a moment.

sudo mdutil -s /

/:

Error: unexpected indexing state.  kMDConfigSearchLevelTransitioning

None of this looked particularly good ....

Thankfully, a colleague showed me how to turn indexing off: -

sudo mdutil -a -i off

/:

2020-11-23 11:12:08.988 mdutil[75847:1674629] mdutil disabling Spotlight: / -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly

Indexing disabled.

/System/Volumes/Data:

2020-11-23 11:12:09.061 mdutil[75847:1674629] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /System/Volumes/Data -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly

Indexing disabled.

/Volumes/Backups of Dave’s MacBook Pro:

2020-11-23 11:12:10.963 mdutil[75847:1674629] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/Backups of Dave’s MacBook Pro -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly

Indexing enabled. 

and on again: -

sudo mdutil -a -i on

/:

Indexing enabled. 

/System/Volumes/Data:

Indexing enabled. 

/Volumes/Backups of Dave’s MacBook Pro:

Indexing enabled. 

and, now, things are looking better ....

sudo mdutil -s /

Password:

/:

Indexing enabled. 

Spotlight is still eating battery : -

but .... we'll see ....