Does Finder search work differently now?

[donawalt]

I am on Sequoia 15.3.1.

I have a folder with lots of files in it, some have the name New Zealand as part of the filename.

In the Finder Search (in a Finder window), if I type New Zealand without quotes, it finds none of them. If I add quotes, "New Zealand", it finds them all.

I don't remember Search working that way, I am pretty sure I just typed my multi-word name and if it's in the title it is found - no quotes needed.

Did something change, or did I inadvertently change some setting? Or am I misremembering?

Thanks!

 

[zevrix]

Normally, you don't need to type any quotes. Sounds like a bug. Spotlight can be unreliable in general.

 

[donawalt]

I submitted this to Apple as a bug - does this seem correct? Check the two attachments. I have a folder with image files in it. I search for files with New Zealand, and you can see Finder takes that as Name contains “New Zealand”. It finds no files. But in the other image I attached, if I type “New Zealand”, with quotes, Finder interprets it as Name contains “”New Zealand”” (with double quotes!), and finds 12 files!

 

[zevrix]

I submitted this to Apple as a bug - does this seem correct?

looks like a bug. normally, you don't need any quotes and the search is case-insensitive. i can't reproduce it here.

 

[fisherking]

I am on Sequoia 15.3.1.

I have a folder with lots of files in it, some have the name New Zealand as part of the filename.

In the Finder Search (in a Finder window), if I type New Zealand without quotes, it finds none of them. If I add quotes, "New Zealand", it finds them all.

I don't remember Search working that way, I am pretty sure I just typed my multi-word name and if it's in the title it is found - no quotes needed.

Did something change, or did I inadvertently change some setting? Or am I misremembering?

Thanks!

not seeing that here. is 'images' selected in the spotlight settings? (just a thought)...

 

[donawalt]

Actually, you might have seen this from my images above, but it's not Spotlight, it's the Finder search. My apologies!

 

[MacGizmo]

Actually, you might have seen this from my images above, but it's not Spotlight, it's the Finder search. My apologies!

Finder search IS Spotlight
For those who want to argue about this (because there always is here) I'm not interested in getting deep in the weeds technically, so just save it.

If the search is "Case Sensitive" then there is no bug—you searched for new zealand and there are no files that contain new zealand with lowercase letters. But...

Spotlight Search isn't case sensitive (at least not by default, and I can't find any way to change that), so I can't imagine why it isn't working other than to say that Spotlight has never worked very well, on any version of the OS, and particularly if files are stored on an external/network drive.

You can try rebuilding the Spotlight Index (you can google the terminal commands to do it, or use a free utility like Onyx to do it for you) to see if that fixes the problem. But if you do that, expect to wait between a few hours or even days (depending on how many files you have on your storage drive) before Search works.

 

[donawalt]

Yeah I tried rebuilding the index a few days ago, and just tried again, no difference. What also works, if I click the Name contains "New Zealand" in the dropdown that appears, it works - not a surprise since it's in quotes lol. That's actually faster than typing the two quotes.

What also works is just Zealand, no quotes.

Not a big deal, I am just pretty sure I used to just type in multi word searches and it worked without quotes - maybe I am dreaming though.

 

[Canubis]

Just to sprinkle in a random crazy idea – could it be spotlight now treats "new" as kind of keyword instead of text in your case? I.e. meaning file needs to be recently created?

 

[donawalt]

Good idea @Canubis ! B ut sadly, no - I just tried with other two word combos that are likely NOT a keyword - like Platte River - and the same thing happens.

Interestingly, if I type slowly - Platte - the one matching file shows up. When I type - River - the file goes away lol!

 

[MacCheetah3]

Spotlight has always had mysterious results. From what I recall as well as this recent dive, it has long prioritized meta and other data far before the actual file name — and, yes, that feels unproductive for us old schoolers.

I haven’t determined if there is a way to truly adjust that behavior.

Search for anything with Spotlight on Mac

Spotlight finds items on your Mac, like apps, files, and emails. With Siri Suggestions, you can get news, sports, stock prices, weather, and more.

support.apple.com

* I was rushed to get this posted and forgot to point out… As you can see, pay attention to hyphen usage, adding quotations — and only the leading appears necessary — doesn’t force a literal string match as would be expected by anyone with basic software/coding/programming knowledge.

Again, I say, mysterious.