MacOS – Find files in current folder without spotlight

findermacossearch

I have often read about how good the MacOS finder is, but I cannot for the life of me work out how to get it to actually find something.

Is it possible to type in a partial file name in the Search Box and get it to highlight matching files in the current folder?

I can find files in the shell, and I also have EasyFind and Find Any File, but surely the MacOS finder can do a simple thing like that … ?

I don’t want to use Spotlight, as it doesn’t do the job simply, and I am looking for files on unindexed volumes.

Best Answer

This should work out of the box, actually.

Open Finder Preferences and set the default search location to "current folder"
In the search box of Finder start typing the name of the file (or a part of it) to get matching files/folders

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Finder search does not find all relevant documents MacOS 10.6.8

On my system, typing successive letters always shrinks the results menu. Have you tried rebuilding your Spotlight index? Open terminal in an admin account and type:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/YourHardDiskNameHere"

, authenticate with your password, and go get a coffee.

Edit: Another way to accomplish this is to open Spotlight preferences to the privacy tab and drag your HDD icon from finder onto the "Prevent spotlight..." list. Close preferences (may not be necessary - ?). Open it again to the same tab and use the +/- buttons to delete the disk. Re-indexing should start.

MacOS – Search a folder that is excluded from Spotlight

If you're happy with the terminal you can use the find command.

Something like opening Terminal in Utilities.

cd <folder name>
find . -name <whatever you're searching for>

Once found you can open it up with open

So, I can do something like:

alex@smiley:~|⇒  cd Desktop
alex@smiley:~/Desktop|⇒  find . -name Mac*
./Mac Pro.spx
alex@smiley:~/Desktop|⇒  open Mac\ Pro.spx

Notice that I used the * as a wildcard to match all files starting with Mac

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Finder search does not find all relevant documents MacOS 10.6.8

MacOS – Search a folder that is excluded from Spotlight

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