Finder Search – Fix Alias Not Finding Files

aliasfindersearch

I am running Yosemite on a Mac Pro Mid 2010.

When I moved to an SSD for my boot drive, I started using Symbolic Linking so some apps would store their data on a regular HD. So, for example, I go to my library folder and in Application support there's an Evernote alias. It works flawlessly, and I've done this for many apps that don't offer an easy way to store data elsewhere.

Now, my data drive is approaching its limit, and I have a larger drive coming. I'd like to be able to redirect the links to the new drive, and tried searching for "kind is alias" but that doesn't show the links. The Evernote alias doesn't get found in a search, nor do any others I know I've set up.

TL;DR – How do I perform a search to show me Alias files I've created? A normal search, even for alias files I've just created, don't show up in a search.

Best Answer

Did you use the Alias command from the finder when you created the links, or did you use ln -s in the terminal? Unix symbolic links are not quite the same as an Alias although they serve similar purposes. From the name of the service you installed, it's probably a good assumption they were using Unix symbolic links.

In that case, you'll probably want to use the find command in the terminal, e.g.: find /Users/yourhome/Library/ -type l

Assuming that this was the service you installed, it looks like they're calling symlink from the standard C libraries, which in turn is going to use Unix symlinks, and not Mac OS aliases.

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How to fix this Smart Folder problem? It keeps switching off of “This Mac”

Here's the steps I used to do what you're looking for which seem to be working the way you want.

Open Finder and click File > New Smart Folder - or press ⌥⌘N

Then setup as I have in the screenshot below and click 'Save' near the top right.

Smart Folder Settings

Then, when the little drop-down menu appears for you to save, select the options like I have below.

Save Dialog

Now, you'll get a window left behind like this.

Smart Folder

Now, close your new Smart Folder. Then in Finder, open a normal finder window with either File > New Finder Window or ⌘N

Your 'TV' Smart Folder will be listed under the 'Search For' section on the bottom-left if you expand it out, like so

Finder Window

MacOS – Find symbolic links (’s names) with Spotlight (Finder)

You can use the find command to show you the target of the symlink then have awk throw away the rest of the line. Then wrap that in a loop that tells you what it's doing then feeds the names to mdimport:

for linktarget in $(find ${HOME} -type l -ls | awk -F'-> ' '{print $NF}'); do
    echo "importing ${linktarget}"
    mdimport "${linktarget}"; 
done

It's probably easier to cut and paste this little script since there are some spaces that are easy to miss. (like the one after the arrow in the awk statement).

Best Answer

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