How to Solve Magento Error: Cannot initialize the indexer process

Re-indexing manually on Magento is a option that developers cannot avoid even though they do not like it at all. And the fact is errors might happen during the process in your Magento Admin Panel.

Thus, we will guide you how to deal with the error “Cannot initialize the indexer process”. You just need to follow the below steps and the issue should be solved:

Step 1

Check your var/locks folder and make sure that it’s writable.

Step 2

1. In the var/locks folder, remove all the .locks file
2. Now back to your Magento Admin Panel, choose Reindex Data Action and click on Submit.

→ If it works then you just successfully dealt with the issue.

→ If it does not, following the next steps.

Step 3

1. In your PhpMyAdmin, take a backup of your database and run the below MySQL commands:

ALTER TABLE catalog_category_entity ENGINE=INNODB;
ALTER TABLE core_store ENGINE=INNODB;
DELETE FROM catalog_category_product_index;

DELETE cpop.* FROM catalog_product_option_price AS cpop
INNER JOIN catalog_product_option AS cpo
ON cpo.option_id = cpop.option_id
WHERE
cpo.type = 'checkbox' OR
cpo.type = 'radio' OR
cpo.type = 'drop_down';

DELETE cpotp.* FROM catalog_product_option_type_price AS cpotp
INNER JOIN catalog_product_option_type_value AS cpotv
ON cpotv.option_type_id = cpotp.option_type_id
INNER JOIN catalog_product_option AS cpo
ON cpotv.option_id = cpo.option_id
WHERE
cpo.type <> 'checkbox' AND
cpo.type <> 'radio' AND
cpo.type <> 'drop_down'

2. Now back to your Magento Admin Panel, try to Reindex Data again. It should be working just fine.

Hope that helps!