On my mac Finder used to search into the content of files as well but suddenly (may be after BigSur upgrade or other OS update) it is only showing matching file names.
How can I force it to look into the content of the files as well?
MacBook Pro
Finally it solved by playing with "mdutil" command, basically disabling, removing and re-enabling indexing.
sudo mdutil -ai off
locate .metadata_never_index (delete any bad entry for / etc)
sudo rm /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 (if allowed)
sudo mdutil -ai on
Finally it solved by playing with "mdutil" command, basically disabling, removing and re-enabling indexing.
sudo mdutil -ai off
locate .metadata_never_index (delete any bad entry for / etc)
sudo rm /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 (if allowed)
sudo mdutil -ai on
If you don’t pick a search token, it should be searching content as well. There isn’t a search token for content, it just does if you don’t filter the results with one of the matching search tokens. Is that not happening for you?
I guess that presupposes you know you have files with purge in them? A plain search will do both content and file name.
if you were wanting to just do a contents search without finding file names, you could set that up in the search criteria, or you may be able to use content: search term. I’m not at a Mac to check if that search token will work
Barney-15E wrote:
I guess that presupposes you know you have files with purge in them? A plain search will do both content and file name.
if you were wanting to just do a contents search without finding file names, you could set that up in the search criteria, or you may be able to use content: search term. I’m not at a Mac to check if that search token will work
Yes I have many text files with 'purge' string and I want Finder to search for both filename and content as previously.
Barney-15E wrote:
If you don’t pick a search token, it should be searching content as well. There isn’t a search token for content, it just does if you don’t filter the results with one of the matching search tokens. Is that not happening for you?
But there is...
content:purge
Also, you can use Boolean connectives like
content:purge AND name:stuff
The only thing I can imagine is your Spotlight index is corrupt. Try rebuilding it: Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support
I believe thats not the case with me as I am not applying any filter (see attached)
I will try the re-indexing, I remember I added few exclusions in spotlight and probably that started after that.
Unfortunately the index rebuilding didn't help either.
Finder: How to change default search criteria to look in content?
