Spotlight mdworker_shared causing repeated kernel panics when checking storage in ‘about this mac’

[Jgpsolo]

So, just checked my storage using the Storage tab on the ‘About this Mac’ window.

It took a few moments ‘Calculating…’, then reported the disk usage. Oddly, it kept intermittently flicking back to ‘Calculating…’ for a fraction of a second, but reporting of various sections and free space remained unchanged. This didn’t seem to stop.

On exiting this window, about 10 seconds passed and a kernel panic occurred.

Fine as a one-off, but this is perfectly reproducible every time the stats are accessed and the window closed.

The problem thread is reported as mdworker_shared (which I understand is something to do with Spotlight)

Anyone else seeing this or able to reproduce? Any advice on being able to look at this screen without causing a panic?

This is an M1 iMac with the latest version of Big Sur.


Thanks all

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you given any consideration to TURNING OFF Spotlight?
It can be done using the terminal:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

 

[Jgpsolo]

Have you given any consideration to TURNING OFF Spotlight?
It can be done using the terminal:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

I’ve started with a re-index as I do use spotlight search all the time…