Is Search in Finder bad or am I just using it wrong?

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Level 1

16 points

Is Search in Finder bad or am I just using it wrong?

I've been using Macs since they were beige but I just don't get Search in Finder.

If I search using the search bar in any Finder window, I just get a huge list of irrelevant files and often don't even see the one file named with the exact same string I'm searching for.

eg:

Search for "CV.pdf" will return any file that bears the characters CV in the file name but also ANY FILE that contains the characters CV in its content anywhere, even app functionality files.
The default in Search is not to search by filename, whether exact or phrase, etc. This seems daft as that's how I'm sure most searchers are most often searching. Fiddling with the search settings seems to be a daily chore for me and "Saved Search" is far from being a practical solution.
Sometimes a file I have just saved won't show up in the returned file list, eg- even if it's called exactly "CV.pdf"
Lastly, Searches are conducted live, seemingly of almost every file on the system, so Search slows down the Mac and forces you to wait 'til Search is done before you can change the parameters.

Compare this to the way Search works in Google (including Google Drive) and Finder Search seems insanely useless.

I conclude therefore that I'm not using it right 🙂

Any advice?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Aug 1, 2022 08:13 AM

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Answer 1

tomb Author

Level 1

16 points

Aug 1, 2022 09:34 AM in response to VikingOSX

I already had Search Current Folder set in Finder prefs but this seems very intriguing.

I don't know why re-indexing what should already be indexed might help but I'll give it a go.

The real insight for me here is the way you effectively use MAc OSX Finder "Dorks" to pre-filter the Search.

Magnificent!

I'd still say this kind of dork deployed clarification shouldn't be necessary really, as, in 2022, most of us will be used to more user-friendly search methods, but it's certainly progress.

Thank you.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

122,106 points

Aug 1, 2022 08:36 AM in response to tomb

In Finder Preferences > Advanced, have When performing a search: [ Search the Current Folder ] set.

Finder search is based on the indexing of the categories listing in System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, and once those are setup, then you need to let Spotlight index your startup drive, or any other external drive that you want it to index for future searches.

Once the first paragraph is done, in System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy, you drag and drop the startup drive icon (Macintosh HD) from the Desktop onto that Privacy window. Wait ten seconds, and then select that entry and click the [-] button to remove it. Spotlight will begin indexing your startup drive, and if you click the Spotlight 🔍 icon in the menu extras panel, it will open and show you an indexing progress bar. In the following, I am asking Spotlight to locate PDFs, and it shows that Spotlight is currently indexing:

The Spotlight search could be formed in a Finder Window's search field too.

Now, lets assume Spotlight is done indexing your drive. If you want to find any filename with CV in it, Spotlight is case-insensitive, so the following only looks for filenames:

name:cv

or:

kind:pdf name:cv

Would very quickly find your CV.pdf as you are not searching every single Spotlight category including internal document content. It would be inefficient to just use the following as it would search every Spotlight category looking for the string CV, and potentially as you found, return a ton of unwanted results:

CV

Apple has an article: Narrow your search results on Mac - Apple Support which is within the macOS User Guide.

There are reserved words that you can use such as the preceding kind, name, tag, etc. that can help you be more productive in your search activity. Use double-quotes around search terms that include white-space.

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Is Search in Finder bad or am I just using it wrong?

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