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My 2017 iMac Pro running Monterey takes a minute or two to shutdown. However, it shuts down in 5 seconds after I use Activity Monitor to quit the mds_stores background process. Why does system shutdown take so long, and what can I do to speed it up?
iMac Pro, macOS 11.6
As I said in my post, it's mds_stores that's consuming lots of CPU and taking a long time to shut down. Since posting that message, I've noticed that shutdown is delayed only when an external WD easystore SSD, which happens to be blank, is attached. It's unclear why mds_stores hangs, presumably when trying to index that disk for Spotlight. If I eject the disk first, shutdown takes only 5 seconds.
As I said in my post, it's mds_stores that's consuming lots of CPU and taking a long time to shut down. Since posting that message, I've noticed that shutdown is delayed only when an external WD easystore SSD, which happens to be blank, is attached. It's unclear why mds_stores hangs, presumably when trying to index that disk for Spotlight. If I eject the disk first, shutdown takes only 5 seconds.
Salutations Steve-PA,
We understand that you’re noticing your Mac takes longer to shutdown than expected.
A few things we can do are to start isolating. For example, do you notice the process consuming lots of CPU or Memory when using your Mac? If you start up in safe mode and then shutdown, does it also seem to delay the process? Start up your Mac in safe mode How about from a new admin user? Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.
Let us know what you find out.
Steve-PA,
It sounds like you’ve determined the device causing the issue. If you’d like to continue isolating, we can see if that process continues to run like that in safe mode and a new user. If it does, then we can look at the external hard drive itself. Perhaps reformatting it would help resolve the continual processing, especially since at this point there is nothing being stored on the drive. Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac
Thank you.
Steve-PA,
That’s good to know. So despite having the external hard drive connected, when booted to the same user in safe mode there isn’t an issue. When you were booted to safe mode, were you able to see if your external hard drive mounted? We ask that because some devices don’t work in safe mode.
You also mentioned testing in the Guest User. Was your external mounted there as well? We just want to be sure since you’ve already done the work to isolate to that peripheral.
If you add something to the external hard drive, does that change the behavior? You could do a few documents or pictures, just something to test with.
Thanks.
This and two other problems went away after I did a clean re-install of Monterey (the birthday of one contact was displayed twice in Calendar, and the contents of the Documents directory on my iMac were not visible in the Finder on my MacBook).
Shutdown takes 10 seconds in safe mode or when I am logged in as Guest. Even after reformatting the drive, shutdown takes 75 seconds when I am logged into my account.
Steve-PA,
We appreciate you letting us know of your success and that other issues have also been resolved for you.
Cheers!
System shutdown delayed by mds_stores
