Possible solution for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7 update issue 'mdworker'

Some users have noticed that after the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7 update the mdworker process was consuming a rather large portion of their processing power--in some cases over 130 percent. The mdworker issue was noted in our second installment of "Readers Report" sent in by MacFixIt reader "Robert H." who noted that Time Machine was being affected by mdworker hanging. MacFixIt reader "Leo M." writes in today with another possible fix for the mdworker issue.

"Leo M." reports:

"Like some of the readers out there, I updated to 10.5.7, and had mdworker go crazy, spiking to 130%, messing up Time Machine backups, etc.

I tried restoring from backup, re-installing the Combo, all to no effect.

The 'culprit', believe it or not was older [2007] Xvid Quicktime plugins. Even though I had 'Movie / Media file' searching unchecked, mdworker was still trying to access these files. And hanging. Found this out via Activity Monitor > mdworker > open files and ports.

So if your users are having issues, look to your /Library/Quicktime folder if all else fails. Removing these older plugins helped in my case."

As always, when removing items like codecs or .plist files, drag them to the desktop first to test. If the solution works, you can then delete them. Of course, always have a recent backup ready to go incase you lose information.

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