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How can I make Finder find files?

Gnarlodious

Gnarlodious

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 16, 2020
11
1
All the latest software. Finder doesn't work. Finder has been chronically trouble for me forever. All it can ever find is recent Safari searches, Dictionary definitions and Preference panels. If I need to find something I have to use Terminal 'find' command, but it gets tiresome. It seems like I delete and reset Spotlight regularly but it always reverts to being useless. What am I doing wrong?
 
This sounds like you are using Spotlight from the screen menu (top bar) where it’s by default configured to find all kinds of data like the ones you mention. When I search for files, I always only use the search field from within Finder itself.

Alternatively, you can configure Spotlight to find only those types of data you want under Settings > Siri & Search (I think it is, not at my Mac right now).
 
Well, hard to say when we don't know what you are doing.

Are you using the search field in a Finder window, or the Spotlight popup (F4)? Seems like the later, did you try the search in a Finder window? Does it happen there too?

If you use the Finder window you have options to search the current folder, your whole mac, your user directory, make sure that's set correct.

How do you delete and reset Spotlight? Does it work afterwards? How long does it work?
 
In System Settings app > Siri & Spotlight:
1) Is everything ticked in the "Spotlight" "Search results" section?
2) What do you see after clicking the "Spotlight Privacy..." button (at the bottom)?

As @Diskutant says, using the search field in a Finder window is more controllable than the Command-space (not F4 on my Mac) Spotlight popup.

If you are unsure about the state of the Spotlight indexes the Terminal command
Code: 
mdutil -sav
is helpful. What does it show?
 
Gnarlodious said:
All the latest software. Finder doesn't work. Finder has been chronically trouble for me forever. All it can ever find is recent Safari searches, Dictionary definitions and Preference panels. If I need to find something I have to use Terminal 'find' command, but it gets tiresome. It seems like I delete and reset Spotlight regularly but it always reverts to being useless. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Spotlight is not the best and it will often not show something that it should.
Try EasyFind <https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/freeware> , it is free and has lots of options.
Highly recommended.
 
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There are two "better tools" for finding things.
Both of them are small and FREE.

The first is EasyFind, available here:
www.devontechnologies.com

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

A little collection of free utilities for the Mac to make your life easier.
www.devontechnologies.com www.devontechnologies.com

The second is "Find Any File", from here:

Find Any File

apps.tempel.org apps.tempel.org

I never use spotlight or finder's "find" box.
EasyFind does a much better job.
 
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Fishrrman said:
There are two "better tools" for finding things.
Both of them are small and FREE.

The first is EasyFind, available here:
www.devontechnologies.com

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

A little collection of free utilities for the Mac to make your life easier.
www.devontechnologies.com www.devontechnologies.com

The second is "Find Any File", from here:

Find Any File

apps.tempel.org apps.tempel.org

I never use spotlight or finder's "find" box.
EasyFind does a much better job.
Click to expand...
huh, could have sworn that @davidlv & i just posted the same thing... 🤔
 
I'm using CMD+f in the finder to find files and I'm not getting results i know are there. Like if i find files by kind: audio i get the expected results but if i find by file extension mp3 or .mp3 i get nothing, even though most of my audios are mp3s which it can find if i search for kind: audio. Like what the heck?
 
thebart said:
I'm using CMD+f in the finder to find files and I'm not getting results i know are there. Like if i find files by kind: audio i get the expected results but if i find by file extension mp3 or .mp3 i get nothing, even though most of my audios are mp3s which it can find if i search for kind: audio. Like what the heck?
Click to expand...
what happens with CMD+spacebar (ie, spotlight)? & easy to configure spotlight searches in system settings...
 
fisherking said:
what happens with CMD+spacebar (ie, spotlight)? & easy to configure spotlight searches in system settings...
Click to expand...
After CMD+spacebar, i type in mp3 which it completes to mp3 file. I'm getting a few hits but none where i expect to find them. It looks like spotlight is not finding anything on the external SSD unless it's been symlinked in internal somewhere.

if in finder i type in mp3 in the search box on the upper right it'll find the files. in the CMD+f search dialog it can find mp3 if i search for file name contains: mp3, but not if i find files extension equals mp3 or .mp3. or file size > 10kb
 
I discovered that delete and reset Spotlight isn't a feature anymore. In previous systems you could add your userfolder to the "Do not index" list and it would delete and re-index. But that feature was removed.

Code: 
mdutil -sav
> /:
Indexing enabled.
Scan base time: 2023-05-02 13:02:11 +0000 (822458 seconds ago), reasoning: '(null)'
/System/Volumes/Data:
Indexing enabled.
Scan base time: 2023-05-02 13:02:12 +0000 (822457 seconds ago), reasoning: '(null)'
/System/Volumes/Preboot:
Indexing enabled.

Spotlight prefs have "Documents" enabled, but perversely that's the only files I really want but they are not indexed. File title words are not found and Spotlight comments are not indexed. All other files that I am not interested in appear in a long list even though they might be deselected. It seems like Spotlight knows exactly what I want and does the opposite!

Truth be told, I have been using the Terminal command "find" for years and it works well. And I will continue doing so.
 
Gnarlodious said:
All the latest software. Finder doesn't work. Finder has been chronically trouble for me forever. All it can ever find is recent Safari searches, Dictionary definitions and Preference panels. If I need to find something I have to use Terminal 'find' command, but it gets tiresome. It seems like I delete and reset Spotlight regularly but it always reverts to being useless. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
You aren't doing anything especially wrong, that is just the sad state of Spotlight.
It takes lots of time to reindex every time it gets the notion, then doesn't work as expected.
I encourage you to try EasyFind. Keeping it in the Dock, it is easy to use and when it produces a list of files, you can see the path to any file you select at the bottom of the EasyFind screen. Then you can often delete files just by hitting the Command + Backspace keys. That won't work for some files, but getting to that file is easy, via the path shown at the bottom of the screen.
EasyFind is so effective I have never felt the need to check out Find Any File, but I have heard it is good too.
 
Gnarlodious said:
> /:
Indexing enabled.
Scan base time: 2023-05-02 13:02:11 +0000 (822458 seconds ago), reasoning: '(null)'
/System/Volumes/Data:
Indexing enabled.
Scan base time: 2023-05-02 13:02:12 +0000 (822457 seconds ago), reasoning: '(null)'
/System/Volumes/Preboot:
Indexing enabled.
Click to expand...
So we know that indexes are being built (subject to any exclusions you may have added).

Gnarlodious said:
Spotlight prefs have "Documents" enabled, but perversely that's the only files I really want but they are not indexed
Click to expand...
I would start by enabling everything and only when that is working would I reduce what is indexed. I never have known whether my idea of "document" is precisely the same as Apple's.

On another tack, what Spotlight importers do you have installed? Importers are the code that understand details of specific file types and are used by the indexing processes.

What is the output for the command mdimport -L?

davidlv said:
You aren't doing anything especially wrong, that is just the sad state of Spotlight.
Click to expand...
I don't agree with that. With Ventura, Apple seem to have got rid of all the bugs in Spotlight. Indexing is now reliable and searching in Finder works as expected. The Command-Space Spotlight interface is, for me, the weak point as it tries to be more than just a file search. Other issues are mostly configuration problems - which can very difficult to diagnose.

Fishrrman said:
There are two "better tools" for finding things
Click to expand...
"Different tools" is nearer the mark.

FAF does use the Spotlight index for some searches before falling back to scanning files. It is fast for searches by file name, but is excruciating for content searches.
EasyFind is thorough, but also slow (because it doesn't use a prebuilt index) and is restricted to particular document types.

Neither have the breadth or precision of apps which use the Spotlight index, because the Spotlight index is rich with file metadata. I use both of them occasionally, but generally prefer to search in Finder (or use HoudahSpot).
 
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Code: 
mdimport -L
Paths: id(501) (
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iWork.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PDF.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/RichText.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Office.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/PS.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/MIDI.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Archives.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Audio.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iPhoto8.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Automator.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Application.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Font.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Mail.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/vCard.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/iCal.mdimporter",
"/System/Library/Spotlight/CoreMedia.mdimporter",
"/Library/Spotlight/iBooksAuthor.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/uuid.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Google Earth Pro.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Google Earth.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Script Debugger.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/SDImporter.mdimporter",
"/Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/GarageBandSpotlightImporter.mdimporter",
"/Applications/GarageBand.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/LogicX_MDImport.mdimporter",
"/Applications/Transmit.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/Transmit Favorite Importer.mdimporter"
)

I don't know what all this means but all I really want is RichText and PDF. The rest of this list can be deleted. Also, where is .txt and .md (Markdown) files? That is what I need to index.
 
Why does it say " This message is awaiting moderator approval, and is invisible to normal visitors."? And what is a normal visitor?
 
I'm a huge Alfred fan. It uses the Spotlight database, but seems to always use it better than Spotlight, somehow. Also very good at finding files based on their contents, not just the name.
 
Gnarlodious said:
I don't know what all this means but all I really want is RichText and PDF. The rest of this list can be deleted. Also, where is .txt and .md (Markdown) files? That is what I need to index.
Click to expand...
You list is the same as mine, except I don't have the Transmit imported. I wonders if you might have something extra that was messing the index.

My understanding (I can't quota a source) is that the RichText importer also does all plain text files. Markdown files are just plain text.

But all looks good regarding your importers.
 
FWIW I had this issue from day one with m2 pro mini with Ventura. Today did a clean install of 13.6.1, restored data with migration assistant from superduper clone. Resolved, finder finds things within folders.
 
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