10 Advanced File Search Techniques

The search feature in macOS is very deep, including the ability to search metadata in media files, dimensions of images, fonts used, file origins, and much more.

Comments: 9 Responses to “10 Advanced File Search Techniques”

    tom
    3 years ago

    "go to Finder, Preferences and then under When Performing a Search you can set it to Default to Search This Mac," I have this selected yet it seems my searches, at least according to the search scope, only searches in the folder I started in. Also, I have an external hard drive on my MacBook. Will search go through that drive, too?

    3 years ago

    tom: Not sure why the default isn't sticking for you. Search "This Mac" should search all drives, unless you have for some reason a drive that isn't indexed (like one formatted for Windows or something).

    nick
    3 years ago

    Gary: that's great, I never looked in "Other" to see all the search options. So, I love the fact that there are options to search photos by focal length and other camera parameters, but given that pretty much all my photos are stored in the Photos app, is there a way to search the folder where the images are stored? I'm not even sure I was ever able to see the individual files that Photo stores or where it stores them. Thx

    3 years ago

    nick: To search in your Photos Library, do that in the Photos app instead. This is for files.

    Micks
    3 years ago

    Thanks Gary Brilliantly helpful tutorial containing so much information I never knew, or even dreamt was possible.

    Bob Gerard
    3 years ago

    Gary - What am I doing wrong on my 2015 iMac, FusionHD, macOS 12.1. When, under Spotlight, I enter the word glycemic, I find 12 documents on my iMac, but when I do a search in the finder and type glycemic into the very topmost search bar I get no hits? When I hit the + sign and in the first space enter Name and in the second Is I get no hits. Change it to Name and Contains glycemic and still no hits. This is crazy. (Addendum - Why won't MacMost accept my @gmx.com address?

    3 years ago

    Bob: My guess is the search area. When you use the Finder, what does it say under that? "This Mac" or just your current location? Where are you trying to use your email address (exactly) and what error message do you get?

    Bob Gerard
    3 years ago

    ⌘+Shift+find = Finder window w/ Recents highlighted.
    As soon as I enter GLYCEMIC, Robert's iMac is highlighted and I get results.
    If I click on the + and use Name/Matches GLYCEMIC and search in my Home folder I get nothing.
    Yet, my home folder is precisely where all those GLYCEMIC files and folders are located.
    It seems, therefore, it is always going to search on Robert's iMac. Is that it? Thanks, Gary
    I am inputting email address where is says Name (required) and Email.

    3 years ago

    Bob: I'd have to see exactly what you are doing here. Pay careful attention to everything. As for the email address, perhaps you included an extra space before or after it by accident?

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