I use "Note List Search…" and it's great. However, it searches through deleted notes as well and I sometimes I get confused. Is there a way to search only non-deleted notes?
This applies both to MacOS and iOS.
Which of these is possible:
- Disable indexing of deleted notes somehow.
- Make notes disappear on delete instead of going to Deleted folder.
- Have one command for searching through non-deleted notes and another for searching all notes (including deleted).
- Clearly mark deleted notes from non-deleted in the results (with different colors perhaps).
Best Answer
It is not currently possible to search only undeleted notes without either emptying the Recently Deleted folder, or without locking all the notes you've deleted.
Recently Deleted folder
Deleted notes are placed in the Recently Deleted folder and, by default they will remain there for 30 days before they are automatically deleted. This applies to both macOS and iOS. So, if you manually delete them from there it will solve the problem, as they don't still exist to be searched.
However, if you don't want empty the Recently Deleted folder, another option is locking your notes.
Locking notes
By locking notes you will prevent them from being searchable. However, while the contents of these notes do not appear in search results, the titles of these notes will.
You can lock any notes so long as they're not already in the Recently Deleted folder. So one option would be to lock your notes prior to deleting them.
To lock notes:
Once locked, the contents of the note is unsearchable (although the title itself is still searched). This will be the case whether you now delete the note or not.
Below is more general info about searching notes.
Within macOS
In the Notes Help pages there's a page titled Search for notes.
From this page, is the following info:
Also included are these tips:
If you're using macOS Sierra, you can also use Siri to search your notes.
Ask Siri something like: “Show me notes from today”, or “Show me notes about vacation plans”.
Source: Notes > Help > Notes Help and select the Search for notes page.
Within iOS
Assuming you're using iOS 10, its Note app introduced some major enhancements.
From the Use Notes on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch page on Apple's website:
And of course, you can use Siri (as I mentioned above) to search notes in iOS.