Magento Indexes Issue - Can't reindex

Question

I have a problem with index management inside my Magento 1.6.2.0 store. Basically I can't get them to update. The status says Processing but it says like that for over a 3 weeks now.

And when I try to reindex I am getting this message Stock Status Index process is working now. Please try run this process later but later is 3 weeks now? So it looks like the process is frozen but I don't know how to restart.

Any ideas?

cheers

Answer 1

Whenever you start an indexing process, Magento writes out a lock file to the var/locks folder.

$ cd /path/to/magento
$ ls var/locks
index_process_1.lock    index_process_4.lock    index_process_7.lock
index_process_2.lock    index_process_5.lock    index_process_8.lock
index_process_3.lock    index_process_6.lock    index_process_9.lock

The lock file prevents another user from starting an indexing process. However, if the indexing request times out or fails before it can complete, the lock file will be left in a lock state. That's probably what happened to you. I'd recommend you check the last modified dates on the lock files to make sure someone else isn't running the re-indexer right now, and then remove the lock files. This will clear up your

Stock Status Index process is working now. Please try run this process later

error. After that, run the indexers one at a time to make sure each one completes.