Serious Application Error

Error Message

The following error is returned related to the Esri Desktop Indexing Service:

"Serious Application Error"

This error is not associated with any operation of ArcMap or ArcCatalog, and may occur when all other Esri software applications are closed.

Cause

If an application associated with ArcGIS Desktop generates large files during processing, and the Desktop Indexing Service is running with default settings, excessive memory can be consumed and crash the application with the "Serious Application Error" message.

The DMP files generated from the Serious Application Error are saved at:

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Local\ESRI\ErrorReports

These files have names with 'DesktopIndexingService_' as a prefix, followed by the software version and date the file was generated, for example:

DesktopIndexingService_10.3.1.4959_0_12_08_2015_14_08_35

Solution or Workaround

Change the Indexing Service default values as described below.

1. In ArcMap or ArcCatalog, open the Search window.
2. In the top bar of the Search window, click the dropdown for Search Options, and in the Search Options dialog box, select the Index tab.
3. Click the Delete Index button at the bottom of the dialog.
4. Under Indexing Options:
   1. Increase the value for Index new items(fast) every: X minute(s)
   2. Increase the value for Re-Index from scratch(slow) every: X day(s)

These steps reduce the indexing intervals and prevent the indexing process from consuming too many system resources.