Prevent disk from being indexed by system
When prepping a new backup disk, especially after securely wiping, formatting, and mounting it, you might be surprised to see the disk still blinking — indicating activity.
It most probably GNOME indexer, which prepresented by this tracker-miner-fs-3, so check process list for its presence.
ps aux | grep -E 'tracker|baloo|mlocate|plocate'
What is tracker-miner-fs-3?
tracker-miner-fs-3 is part of the Tracker 3 framework, a background service used by GNOME to scan filesystems and build a searchable metadata database. It powers features like:
- GNOME Shell search
- Nautilus file search
- File indexing for content, tags, metadata
By default, Tracker watches all mounted volumes, including your freshly-prepared backup disk.
Why This Matters for Backups
If you’re like me, using a clean ext4-formatted HDD for photo backups, Tracker is:
- 📈 Consuming disk I/O
- 💾 Creating hidden files like
.tracker3/ - 🌀 Interfering with a clean, controlled backup workflow
You probably don’t want your backup volume scanned, tagged, and written to by an automated desktop daemon.
How to Stop Tracker from Indexing Your Disk
Prevent Tracker from Touching a Mount
Create a .trackerignore file at the root of the mount point:
touch /mnt/photos/.trackerignore
Alternatively, .nomedia is also respected by some services:
touch /mnt/photos/.nomedia
This tells Tracker (and sometimes other indexers) to ignore the folder entirely.
Kill It Temporarily
To immediately stop Tracker:
pkill tracker-miner-fs-3
It may restart automatically unless disabled via systemd.
Disable Tracker Permanently (if you don’t use it)
tracker3 reset --hard
systemctl --user mask tracker-miner-fs-3.service
systemctl --user mask tracker-store.service
You can also stop all Tracker daemons:
tracker3 daemon -t
This will disable GNOME file search features system-wide.
Remove tracker index database
The tracker3 database storage is here: $HOME/.cache/tracker3 The log is here: $HOME/.local/share/tracker/data
rm -rvf ~/.cache/tracker3
rm -rvf ~/.local/share/tracker
How to See What’s Accessing the Disk
To confirm Tracker (or anything else) is touching your disk:
sudo iotop
sudo lsof +D /mnt/photos
sudo fuser -vm /mnt/photos
These tools let you observe file-level access and identify persistent background activity.
Thoughts
If you’re using GNOME and preparing a backup volume — especially for photos — make sure tracker-miner-fs isn’t working against you. A simple .trackerignore file can prevent unintended indexing, I/O, or metadata writes.
There is an option to setup udev to create .trackerignore automatically.