Search within specified folder gives results but within ‘This Mac’ gives none

I type Cmd-F and call up a search window; my search parameters are 'Name contains "xyz"'. Currently the search is limited to the current folder (~/library/preferences) and gives two results. Thinking to widen the search to see what extra files/folders might contain the term 'xyz' in their name I click the button to change the search from 'Preferences' to 'This Mac'. Now the search gives zero results.

Should not the search on 'This Mac' be wider than the folder-specific one? Surely it should, at the very least, return the two results from 'Preferences'?

Can anyone advise on this please?

Extra context: This is on a laptop that is connected to the Internet by wifi, but has no other external devices connected)

Best Answer

By default, Search 'This Mac' excludes System Folders

By starting your search inside ~/Library/ you are forcing it to bypass that default, as you are already inside a normally-excluded location.

To persuade it to add System Folders to a 'This Mac' search, you must specify as an additional parameter.
Click the + sign, top right [which then turns into a - ]
Add 'System files' & 'are included' to your search parameters.

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MacOS – Desktop Search – with more features than Spotlight

I don't know of a third party solution, but I do know that Spotlight can do all of those things, except for #6, but that's more of a function of Word than Spotlight.

macOS Finder – How to Create a Saved Search That Excludes Specific Folders

I looked at some of the saved search files in Finder's application bundle, and for example /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/MyLibraries/myDocuments.cannedSearch/search.savedSearch used a format like this for excluding directories:

<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
<array>
  <string>~/</string>
  <string>-Library</string>
  <string>-Music/iTunes</string>
  <string>-Documents/Steam Content</string>
  <string>~/Library/Mobile Documents/</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Keynote</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Pages</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Numbers</string>
</array>

So you can exclude subfolders by adding strings that start with a minus character after a full path. Something like -~/Library doesn't seem to work.

You can edit savedSearch files by dropping them on a text editor. RawQueryDict:SearchScopes and FXScope:FXScopeArrayOfPaths seem to list the same paths by default, but just editing the second one appeared to exclude folders at least in Finder.

Best Answer

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