Find and Spotlight can not find folders labelled "Caches"

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Level 2

238 points

Find and Spotlight can not find folders labelled "Caches"

I have an iBook and a desktop, both G3 operating 10.4.2. With either of them, if I use Spotlight or Find to search for the term "Caches", no folders with such names are reported. If I use Finder to go to /Library/Caches, there is such a named folder. Neither that folder nor any of its contents show in Find or Spotlight.

If I use the non-Mactinosh application EasyFind, there are three folders titled "Caches" that show. The contents of these folders also show in EasyFind,

It appears to me that there is a fault with Find and Spotlight in that they are blind to the search term "Caches" as it applies to folders and the contents of such folders.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Bob Gallant

Posted on Oct 22, 2005 10:07 PM

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Answer 1

R C-R

Level 6

17,830 points

Oct 23, 2005 8:35 AM in response to Bob Gallant

The problem isn't with the search term exactly but with that combined with the location of the search. Spotlight doesn't find cache folders if the search location is the entire computer.

A more specific search location will find what you are looking for. Try this:

1) Enter Find mode with Cmd-f.
2) Click the "Others..." location button.
3) In the sheet that drops down, add /System & /Library to the list by using the "+" button or dragging these folders into the list from a Finder window view. (They will remain in the list until you remove them, so you only need to do this once.)
4) Click their boxes to make them your "Others" search locations & then click OK. The search location button changes to "2 Places."
5) Enter "Caches" (no quotes) in Find's search box.

Ta da! The caches folders should now be in the results list. (If you add your home folder to the list as in steps 3 & 4, Spotlight will now find the user cache folder in ~/Library too.)

Note that if you change the location to "Computer" the folders are no longer found. Switch back to 'xx Places' & there they are again.

From this, you might conclude that a "feature" of Spotlight is to exclude cache folders from searches on the computer location. Nope. It will find specific caches by partial name matches: try "DataCache" for example & you should get a few hits in /System/Library. Try "Cache" (the singular instead of plural form) & you do not get the Caches folders but you do get a long list of cache files in them.

BTW, there is a minor privacy concern with this. By default, Safari caches web site 'mini' icons for use in bookmarks & the address field & the cache search finds them ... for all user accounts, not just the active one. By examining them, you can sometimes see the web site & date it was visited by other users.

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Answer 2

Bob Gallant Author

Level 2

238 points

Oct 23, 2005 7:12 PM in response to R C-R

Find works exactly as you say. However, Spotlight does not have any such adjustments as to where it looks. I find that a strange design. EasyFind does it in a sensible way.

Thanks for your clarification. I had never noticed the "Others" tab.

Bob Gallant

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Answer 3

Bob Gallant Author

Level 2

238 points

Oct 31, 2005 9:22 PM in response to Bob Gallant

I found a solution, but I should give credit to Mike Azorin in another thread,

Open the Terminal and reindex spotlight with the command "mdimport -f /". Apparently the "-f" forces the reindex. The"/" reindexes the whole volume. actually, I used "/Library" where the "Caches" folder is located.

Both Spotlight and Finder now find "Caches". Thanks Mike.

Bob Gallant

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Answer 4

Nov 1, 2005 9:04 PM in response to Bob Gallant

Well, it's interesting that you found a solution, and commendable that you posted it here and credited another, but it's rediculous that one has to do that to get Spotlight to work. Never had to do that with any other Mac OS that I have ever used to find a file by filename.

And, how frequently are you going to have to run this little routine? How confident are you going to be that a file doesn't exist when Spotlight can't find it? (I'm so confident I'm going back to Panther!)

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