How do I search for a folder by its name in Library?

[c073186]

I feel like this should be incredibly simple, but I cannot figure it out. I want to search within Library to find all folders that contain "Flash" in the name. I recently uninstalled Flash Player and want to see if there are any flash folders remaining.

If I navigate to Library and search Flash and then choose to include System Files in the search and change the Kind to search to Folder, nothing comes up. However, I know with certainty there are some folders - if I navigate to Library\Preferences\Macromedia there is a folder called Flash Player, yet this does not appear in the search.

Is there something I'm missing here?

 

[randomgeeza]

I feel like this should be incredibly simple, but I cannot figure it out. I want to search within Library to find all folders that contain "Flash" in the name. I recently uninstalled Flash Player and want to see if there are any flash folders remaining.

If I navigate to Library and search Flash and then choose to include System Files in the search and change the Kind to search to Folder, nothing comes up. However, I know with certainty there are some folders - if I navigate to Library\Preferences\Macromedia there is a folder called Flash Player, yet this does not appear in the search.

Is there something I'm missing here?

It's like that in order to protect you from yourself and to prevent you from maybe deleting something important.

The workaround is to use Terminal and find the objects, note their location and then delete manually.

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-find-files-via-the-os-x-terminal/

Hope that helps.

 

[NoBoMac]

^^^^This.

So in OP case, in Terminal:

cd ~/Library
find . -name '*[Ff]lash*'

 

[jbarley]

Or use a search app such as "FindAnyFile", well worth the small cost.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30079/find-any-file

 

[mailbuoy]

Or use a search app such as "FindAnyFile", well worth the small cost.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30079/find-any-file

View attachment 832137

Or DEVONtechnologies' Easy Find. It is free

 

[jbarley]

Or DEVONtechnologies' Easy Find. It is free

I repeat...
"well worth the small cost"

I've tried them all, EasyFind slowed to a crawl in High sierra and is next to useless in the new APFS file system.
But that would be expected for an app that hasn't seen an update in over 5 years.

 

[fisherking]

I repeat...
"well worth the small cost"

I've tried them all, EasyFind slowed to a crawl in High sierra and is next to useless in the new APFS file system.
But that would be expected for an app that hasn't seen an update in over 5 years.

easyfind is fast and furious here on mojave (on both of my macs); version 4.9.3...

EDIT: just tried 'findanyfile'; somewhat faster than easyfind; i searched for a word ("london"); findanyfile found 14 items, easyfind found 16...

faf is somewhat faster, $6 more (easyfind is free); so, maybe easyfind is a good place to start...

 

[mailbuoy]

I've tried them all, EasyFind slowed to a crawl in High sierra and is next to useless in the new APFS file system.

You are correct that it hasn't been updated in a while, but, I don't have the same performance issues that you do. EasyFind worked great in HS and is working great in Mojave on APFS, for me.

 

[Fishrrman]

Use EasyFind. It's free. It works great.
'Nuff said about that!

 

[flaubert]

^^^^This.

So in OP case, in Terminal:

cd ~/Library
find . -name '*[Ff]lash*'

I'm not at my Mac to test this, but shouldn't there be a '-print' on the end of that Terminal command?

Kurt

 

[NoBoMac]

I'm not at my Mac to test this, but shouldn't there be a '-print' on the end of that Terminal command?

Kurt

No, no -print required. Defaults to that if no "execution" options provided.

$ find . -name '*[Ff]lash*'
find: ./Application Support/MobileSync: Operation not permitted
./Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash
./Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Pepper Data/Shockwave Flash/WritableRoot/#SharedObjects/4GFEQTNZ/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer
./Application Support/Google/Chrome/PepperFlash