SOLVED -Why does Finder sometimes not find (all instances)?

[rawdawg]

This has bothered me for awhile. It's to the point I hope someone could explain what is happening. I'll use a current situation as an example.

I keep a copy of all the checks I deposit as a pdf. I name the files with the date, item, and amount. So it will look like this:

260303_company_$amount

I sell my solar generation to my power company which is "xcel".

In my deposits folder I have 65+ pdf files that have the "xcel" in it. They represent 65+ pdf's of checks I have deposited. I quit counting at 65 because it is sufficient to illustrate my issue. When I enter "xcel" into the search area on a finder window, and I select this deposits folder only 13 instances come up. Same results with or without quotations.

I will try to search using _xcel (because I have a "_" before it). Same thing.

Why do I only get 13 results?!

 

[Gregg2]

I don't think anyone can offer an explanation other than indifference on the part of Apple. This has been an issue, and a common complaint among users, for many years. Apple does not seem to care.

 

[rawdawg]

I don't think anyone can offer an explanation other than indifference on the part of Apple. This has been an issue, and a common complaint among users, for many years. Apple does not seem to care.

Actually I do appreciate your response so at least I know this has been a consistent issue and it's not just in my head!
Do you have recommendations for 3rd party finder apps? I used to have one long ago but now don't even remember what it was called.

another issue I've had for awhile now after an upgrade (1-2 years ago, don't remember), is that when I hit space bar to preview pdfs they often now don't have a preview. I have to fully open them. Is this common these days?
Once Jobs died, they really let QC go to ****. It's now acceptable to have stuff that doesn't work. Pathetic.

 

[Fishrrman]

Just a suggestion:
Try "EasyFind".
It's small, it's free, and it works.

Get it here:

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

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

www.devontechnologies.com

 

[rawdawg]

thanks!

 

[auxbuss]

Another way to solve this is via the command line using the `find` command.

For example:

find ~ -iname "*roadside*"

will find Roadside Picnic in your home directory (~). -iname perfoms a case-insensitive search.

I use this more generally by having an alias in my .bash_aliases file:

mfind() { find . -iname "*$1*" ; }

This performs the above search from the current directory, like so:

mfind roadside

 

[rawdawg]

Another way to solve this is via the command line using the `find` command.

For example:

find ~ -iname "*roadside*"

will find Roadside Picnic in your home directory (~). -iname perfoms a case-insensitive search.

I use this more generally by having an alias in my .bash_aliases file:

mfind() { find . -iname "*$1*" ; }

This performs the above search from the current directory, like so:

mfind roadside

Thanks for this alternative. I'm not well versed in terminal, but if that works better maybe it's something I should start using more.

 

[rawdawg]

Just a suggestion:
Try "EasyFind".
It's small, it's free, and it works.

Get it here:

DEVONtechnologies | Needful Things

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

www.devontechnologies.com

Wow... Gave it a try and it found 76 pdfs (versus 13) immediately.. Took me less than 10 seconds to figure out how to use.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Wow... Gave it a try and it found 76 pdfs (versus 13) immediately."

I turned off spotlight from the time it was first introduced years ago. Haven't touched it since.

I use either EasyFind or Find Any File for searching now.

Your experience is an example as to how well it works.

 

[Gregg2]

!
Do you have recommendations for 3rd party finder apps? I used to have one long ago but now don't even remember what it was called.

I haven’t used any alternate Finder apps. But, in addition to any mentioned in replies to your post, there are other threads on that very topic. If you want more suggestions, try a Search. There’s a current thread on this in the Mac Apps sub forum.

 

[auxbuss]

I turned off spotlight from the time it was first introduced years ago. Haven't touched it since.

I use either EasyFind or Find Any File for searching now.

I used Spotlight for a few years, but when it started not to find apps and my expenses spreadsheet – funnily enough called `expenses` – about 50% of the time, I looked elsewhere. I now use LaunchBar, which lets you specify the directories you want to index, rather than by file-type.

It's crazy, but symptomatic, that Apple can't write and maintain a core application that simply finds files by name. There are all these background processes that generate gigabytes of data, but none of it works reliably.

 

[TheIntruder]

Unsurprisingly, Spotlight has bugs. And other quirks.

Diagnose Spotlight local search problems

When Spotlight can’t find the files you expect it to, it could be that they weren’t indexed, or that Spotlight’s search has failed to find their index entries. Here’s how to…

eclecticlight.co

This is one of those bugs that on some days would find widespread press, but has flown under the radar:

A Spotlight bug affecting all recent macOS: the LG error

From Ventura (if not earlier) to Tahoe, Spotlight appears unable to index text files that start with two specific letters. Although those are exceedingly rare, this could still catch you out.

eclecticlight.co

Tools such as EasyFind are valuable to help make up for Spotlight's shortcomings, intended or not.

 

[rawdawg]

Thanks everyone! I'll mark this as SOLVED as I've received lots of good help