How do I disable Spotlight indexing to prevent system files from filling disk space on my Mac?

Question

Level 1

8 points

How do I disable Spotlight indexing to prevent system files from filling disk space on my Mac?

My system is a MacM3 power book with 1terabyte SSD and 18Gig of dynamic memory. The system files on my SSD (system disk) have expanded to about 25% of the disk storage space! When i examine usage, the bulk of it is spotlight indexes. As the disk nears full, the user response is extremely laggy while spotlight (process corespotlightd and storage managementservices) is updating indexes. It requires many pauses to type a paragraph like this. Once spotlight is through creating indexes things settle down and I can use the machine again until an index update begins. I've tried the "fixes" of deleting the index files, re-booting etc, but the indexes come back and fill the disk again. I have moved all I care to the iCloud. I am reluctant to move more as I frequently work in areas with no cell coverage and do need data to work on.

Things were OK until the MacOS 26 & it's updates started. I'd like to get back to where things were pre-MacOS26

An indexing system that uses this high a fraction of the disk space is not a very credible solution.

How do I turn spotlight off as much as possible until Apple gets it s**t together and fixes spotlight?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Spotlight indexing is causing system files to fill disk space. System thrashing as disk approaching capacity How do i disable spotlight?

MacBook Air (M3, 2024)

Posted on Dec 3, 2025 3:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 3, 2025 4:22 PM in response to e2ipiminus1

What makes you believe it is Spotlight indices that are taking up your storage space? How are you determining that?

Regardless, to answer your question about turning off spotlight indexing, follow steps 1-4 in this list:

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

If your assessment is based on System Settings > General > Storage, the System Data category, those are mainly your own data. See this User Tip:

How to free up ‘System Data’ and other st… - Apple Community

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 4, 2025 11:25 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

e2ipiminus1 wrote:

The problem is with the behavior of corespotlightd when the disk is nearly full. You are clearly NOT testing that. Fill your disk so that here is only about 5 gig left. I'm betting you will see dramatically different behavior. corespotlightd hits 90%+ of a CPU. At this time the system becomes quite laggy.

The problem there is not Spotlight, it's your disk being nearly full. You should always keep at least 10% space free (really free, see the post from @Owl-53 below), 15-20% is better. Absolute minimum is to have 20 GB free, and even then only temporarily until you can free up space.

If you have 5 GB free on your internal storage, your Mac is going to be in a bad state. Period. I have NO intention of testing that myself, it's like saying if you drive your car into a wall you at 30 kph then you will damage the car...it's not something that one needs to test, it's a simple fact.

You need to determine what is taking/filling up the space on your drive. It's not the Spotlight index. If it was, you'd see the Disk activity from Spotlight writing huge amounts of data, and if you excluded your drive from indexing as posted previously, the issue would go away.

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

215,196 points

Dec 3, 2025 4:15 PM in response to e2ipiminus1

The System Data was called the Other Category. The link will describe what files are in that category.

If you're using Time Machine a lot the following might help you in gaining back some real estate:

Reply

Answer 4

e2ipiminus1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 4, 2025 6:29 AM in response to neuroanatomist

I believe it is spotlight as the problem is only there when the two processes are running. It is a combination of the disk having filled up & corespotlightd processes running that creates the issues after awhile it is joined by storagemanagementservices. When both are running each is consuming just under a 100%cpu in activity monitor each. I cannot make a screen shot demonstrating this as the computer is locked up at this point.

I have previously tried the "rebuild spotlight index on your mac" you suggested. The amount of system strorage used went down and things were great for awhile. Spotlight was in the background building up indexes. As it worked, system storage increased. Eventually the system storage increased to the point where legginess and periods of lockup started when the two processes above were seen running in activity monitor.

I have also previously tried the "how to Free up system data.." Again, system storage went down. things were good. Yes, the disc filled up, partially due to time machine re-building the backup information. However, the lagginess and freezes do not appear to be happening when the time machine is running. I have used time machine since it was introduced. & am aware of these sorts of issues. the "how to free up system data" fix usually works for quite a while if time machine is the culprit.

I also have moved my data to the cloud and other disks. I am not sure thatches keeps it form being indexed.

Each time I delete files and move things off the system disk, things fill up again with the system consuming ever larger portions of the system (startup) disk.

PLEASE NOTE that I am complaining about 1) system storage increasing over time due to processes including spotlight. 2) the system usage appears to be ever increasing. 3) when the disk eventually becomes nearly full, the spotlight process running causes laggy response and system freezes.

I have been using UNIX based systems extensively since the early 80s, so I have some experience with them. This one is behaving quite differently and poorly since the MACOS 26 release.

Reply

Answer 5

Dec 4, 2025 6:43 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

The corespotlightd process is always running. It's still not clear to me why you believe there is a connection between that process and System Data increasing.

In Activity Monitor, what shows for that process in the Disk tab? Nothing concerning in mine (but my System Data is a very reasonable ~30 GB of my 2 TB internal storage).

Reply

Answer 6

Owl-53

Level 10

102,193 points

Dec 4, 2025 6:52 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

From another contributor @etresoft regarding Free Space and Available Space

Free vs available disk space huge differe… - Apple Community

Quote >> “ The "available" storage is the amount of used storage that the operating system could automatically delete if it felt that it was really necessary.

The "free" storage is the amount that you can actually use for something.

There are system processes that run in the background and automatically delete some of the "available" storage and convert it to "free". If you completely run out of storage, then those system processes will try a little harder.

When you "delete" files you are just hinting to the operating system that you don't need those files anymore. The operating system will eventually remove them, but on its own schedule.

Certain tools will allow you to force the issue and manually clean up some of this storage and manually delete local snapshots. But that is only temporary. " << End Quote

Purgeable Space is controlled by the Operating System and not the user

Get detailed information about a disk in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support (CA)

Reply

Answer 7

e2ipiminus1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 4, 2025 11:01 AM in response to e2ipiminus1

The problem is with the behavior of corespotlightd when the disk is nearly full. You are clearly NOT testing that. Fill your disk so that here is only about 5 gig left. I'm betting you will see dramatically different behavior. corespotlightd hits 90%+ of a CPU. At this time the system becomes quite laggy. I hear my backup disks rattling with activity. They are slower drives that the SSD. it is as if there is a blocking method inside the corespotlightd that is waiting on disk response and hanging the system. This was not there in pre-MacOS26. I have an older system that runs catalina (iMac 27", 2015 vintage). I cleared the caches for Time Machine & both it and my Mac Pro at the same time. They both get roughly the same amount of use. The iMac is performing better than the Mac Book Pro! I am convinced Tahoe has a bug related to corespotlightd that wasn't there previously.

I would like to understand if there is a workaround for calming Spotlight down.

Reply

Answer 8

Owl-53

Level 10

102,193 points

Dec 4, 2025 1:17 PM in response to e2ipiminus1

Yes it may, as it Spotlight attempts to index all the changes as the Operating Struggles to find Free Space

And I concur with my colleagues' assessment regarding Free Space versus Used Space

Most responsive users never allow or attempt to purposely fill the drive to the point that Free Space drops below certain values

Some of which have already been mentioned earlier

To make the analogy to the Fuel Tank

Once it is full, hard as one may try. You just can not fill it any further

Below is a Real Life example of a Drive that Too Full to perform a simple upGrade

macOS installation fails due to apparent … - Apple Community

Reply