Indexing Broken in Ventura?

Bluebeep wrote:

are you saying it's a bad idea to 'search' in a network share in Ventura but an acceptable idea to connect to it and use the files in it?

Why would you ask if I had said something that I didn't? You didn't say anything about connecting to a network volume and using files on it. But if you had asked, I would have said it is a bad idea. 😄

And that it was an acceptable idea to search, connect to and use files to this same SMB network drive in previous OSes versions?

Like the vast majority of Mac users, I usually don't have access to any network volumes at all. In the rare years that I did work in large enterprise environment that weren't actively hostile to Mac, I learned why so many large enterprise environments are actively hostile to Macs.

Based on what I have read so far in your answer, it would seem SMB is only partially supported.

I would agree with that assessment. And I'm not alone.

Which begs another question - If SMB is only partially supported is there documentation which can show me all of the SMB features macOS supports and those that it doesn't?

No. Apple does not document system features at that level of detail.

BTW, the root user was activated to reach into a local directory. Not a network directory.

OK. I see what you mean. But it's a moot point. I went to that link and stopped reading when I saw things like "Mac OS X" and "Updated fix for OSX 10.12 Sierra". That was 2016. By an odd coincidence, that was the same year I developed most of my unflattering opinions of macOS networking while using it with a very well-managed and very high-speed Qumulo network. Finder QuickLook would lockup my computer. Default document behaviour would guarantee corrupted files. I just disciplined myself to always copy files locally, make my edits, and then copy them back to the server.

But even locally, root user is not the super-user anymore. I strongly discourage anyone from attempting to make manual changes in a system directory like that. And you should absolutely never activate the actual root user. That bad, bad news. Anything you need to do, you can do with sudo. If you did make changes to that directory as a root user, it is safe to assume the machine is irreparably corrupted. You'll need to wipe and reinstall the operating system. At this point, there is no way to tell what the actual problem was, assuming there was any actual problem beyond normal expectations. There may be no way forward from the current state.

But anyway, you've gone off on a tangent with respect to SMB. Your original question was regarding Spotlight search. The details of how that is implemented, either locally or remotely, are not public knowledge. Given how frequently Apple updates and re-writes software, any reverse-engineered instructions from the internet circa macOS Sierra should never be attempted in Ventura.

I recommend you take your question to the MacAdmins slack channel. These are the people who have "contacts" at Apple and may have information that Apple shares only with large clients. They also have an active Ventura forum that has been running quasi-legally since it was released in beta form. Generally speaking, enterprise customers that have problems with things like networking will go directly to their personal Apple support reps. This is a public, user-to-user support forum. There are a handful of networking professionals around. Maybe they will see your post. Sometimes it can be a useful strategy to post some off-the-wall replies in hopes of annoying someone enough to provide something more correct. 😄

Bluebeep wrote:

I can't imagine Apple would go this far so as to NOT coexist on a network with other OSes.

Ironically enough, Apple was headed straight for bankruptcy until they decided to abandon any efforts to coexist on a network with other operating systems. Once they started going their own way, the company took off like a rocket and never looked back.

First of all, due to the nature of Spotlight, it is inherently a really, really bad idea for a network volume. How big is your network volume anyway? What kind of data is on it? Even if you could get Spotlight working, it would require accessing every single file on the network volume.

Next, the idea of "root" on your Mac is utterly meaningless for the network. Obviously, if your Mac user can't create those Spotlight files on the network volume, then Spotlight isn't ever going to work. Whether or not your Mac user can create those files is a question that can only be answered during a long discussion with your network administrator. Network permissions are complicated.

I have been in search of an answer to this dilemma ever since I upgraded to Ventura on my MacBook Air M1. I tried everything under the sun to fix it - to no avail. Apple Support was of no help.

Finally, finally, I stumbled across this tidbit and like magic - the indexing function rose from the ashes of the dead!! It started indexing and in about 45 minutes Search worked again.

I hope it works for you as well. It's amazing how dependent we are on Search in our daily computer routines. https://matthewcassinelli.com/how-to-fix-recents-finder-macos-ventura-spotlight-index-terminal/

Did this get solved for you? This seems to be the only form about this issue.

We have a handful of users that use SMB on their macs to our windows file server. I agree it has only been an issue on Ventura.

I guess I just tell them we have a ticket open and we’ll have to wait for Apple to fix it