For Mac

What Is mdworker On Mac?

Aayushi Kapoor ,

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.

Also Read: CleanMyMac VS OnyX : Which is a better Mac Cleaner?

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)

Also Read: CleanMyMac X vs MacBooster 8: A Quick Comparison

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.

It will help to fix the slow processes of your Mac.

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.

Download CleanMyMac X

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ 1

It is completely dependent on your Mac file system and its indexing. Normally, it might take 15 minutes to 60 minutes.

FAQ 2

What will happen if I kill the mdworker?

You should never think of killing the mdworker. Killing will affect the searchability and indexing of your Mac.

FAQ 3

I hope this blog helps you to understand mdworker Mac. Comment down your queries related to the mdworker process Mac. For more such tech content, follow Tweak Library on all social media platforms.

Thanks for reading!

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