Macos – How to search with Spotlight more effectively

desktop-searchmacossearchspotlight

I'm used to using various flags to modify the results of Google searches, to only show results from a particular site, or only certain kinds of files.

For example you can restrict Spotlight searches to only look for pdf files like this example, when I'm looking for a pdf cheatsheet for using YUI's grid system css framework on my computer.

YUI grid kind:pdf

I'd be amazed if Apple's Spotlight didn't have loads of other handy flags to fine tune a search in the same way – what tricks do you use, or where do you look to find more tips to improve your Spotlight-fu?

Best Answer

Spotlight menu and Finder

name:filename
kind:kindle (kind:mobi and *.mobi cannot be used)
kind:image
date:today (date:week and date:month don't work)
date:12/31/11 (other formats like date:2011-12-31 don't work)
date:12/1/11-12/31/11
kind:mp3 AND bitrate:<192000

Common metadata attribute keys

mdls -name $attribute $file shows the value of a single attribute and mdls $file lists all attributes.

kMDItemContentType: the uniform type identifier like public.plain-text
kMDItemContentTypeTree: the UTI and its parent UTIs
kMDItemDisplayName: the name of a file without an extension if its extension is set to be hidden
kMDItemDurationSeconds: for example the duration of audio or video files
kMDItemFinderComment: the Spotlight comment that can be set in Finder's information windows
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate: modification date
kMDItemFSCreationDate: creation date
kMDItemFSInvisible: the visibility of a file
kMDItemFSName: the name of a file with a filename extension
kMDItemFSSize: the size of a file in bytes
kMDItemKind: a kind description like HTML document
kMDItemLastUsedDate: date last opened
kMDItemNumberOfPages: for example the number of pages in a PDF file
kMDItemPageWidth: for example the width of a PDF document in points
kMDItemPath: the full path of a file
kMDItemTextContent: contents of the file
kMDItemTitle: for example the title of a PDF document or a website
kMDItemURL: for example the URL of a webloc file
kMDItemWhereFroms: a URL a file was downloaded from

mdfind query expressions

mdfind . -onlyin ~/Pictures
mdfind 'kMDItemFSContentChangeDate == $time.this_week(-1)'
mdfind 'kMDItemTextContent == "*expose*"cd' (ignore case and diacritics)
mdfind 'kMDItemFSSize >= 5000 && kMDItemFSSize <= 5005)'
mdfind 'kMDItemFSContentChangeDate >= $time.iso(2012-04-13T13:44Z)'
mdfind 'kMDItemFSCreationDate >= $time.now(-3600)'
mdfind 'kMDItemKind == "*movie" && kMDItemPixelHeight >= 720'

Related Solutions

Macos – “Stuff” dissapearing from spotlight search

First, make sure Applications (and the others that you want) is selected in System Preferences > Spotlight.

If that does not work, it is possible somehow indexing got disabled. In terminal, run the following command:

sudo mdutil -E /

Still, if that fails try deleting the Spotlight index and start indexing it again:

sudo rm -r /.Spotlight-V<TAB>
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
sudo mdutil -E /

On my machine, the Spotlight index was .Spotlight-V100, but I have seen it as other, that is why used tab completion

Macos – How to use wildcard characters in Spotlight search

This article has a lot of good information on maximising the power of Spotlight search. To search by date, for example:

Check the Date Looking for a file that was created during a specific time period? Spotlight has a handle on dates. Typing date:today will bring up files you created, read, received, or opened today. You can also use the date: keyword with yesterday and tomorrow (for the latter, Spotlight restricts its results to iCal events and to-do items).

The latest version of Spotlight also lets you specify more parameters (whether a file was created or modified on a certain date), as well as enter an exact date or a range of dates. For example, you can type created:12/25/07 to find files authored on that date; type modified:<11/30/06 to look for files changed before that date; or type created:1/1/06-12/31/06 to locate files created between these two dates. Unfortunately, date: keywords don’t seem to work correctly all the time.