Sort all files by date regardless of folder location

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Level 2

164 points

Sort all files by date regardless of folder location

I'm trying to figure out how to find any/all files from certain dates on my computer.

For example, when I go to Documents, and sort by date created (or modified), it sorts them by folder date, except for the files that happen to be in the Documents that aren't in a sub-folder.

What I'd really like to do is end up with a list of all the files in my computer, or in Documents, that shows the actual files sorted by date, ignoring whatever folder they are in.

Anyone know how to do this?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 11, 2021 12:31 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

VikingOSX

Community+ 2024

Level 10

112,697 points

Apr 11, 2021 1:08 PM in response to atthecshore

The script would not be simple. Spotlight would be the practical approach. In the following, show me all the MS Word documents created in the month of June 2020, which demonstrates date range:

kind:word created:06/01/2020-06/30/2020

Show me all word files created after June 1, 2020 through present:

kind:word created:>06/01/2020

And show me all word files created before a certain date:

kind:word created:<06/30/2020

There is more on using Spotlight syntax in the macOS User Guide's Narrow your search results on Mac.

I was using Word as an example, there is kind:pdf, kind:pages, kind:image, kind:audio, etc.

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Answer 2

atthecshore Author

Level 2

164 points

Apr 11, 2021 12:53 PM in response to VikingOSX

I've written some very simple ones but not for years. But if simple, I could give it a shot I guess.

Let e explain a little further... I'm actually trying to find any files from a particular date from last June. So a Spotlight search would do it, if there were a way to search for a date, similar to searching for a word or number.

So a list by date, or a way to directly find that date, would work.

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