Search CONTENTS of Files on iCloud?

Question

Level 1

5 points

Search CONTENTS of Files on iCloud?

I do a lot of research and writing, so I have several years of documents. Recently I decided to try storing all of it in iCloud, and paid for extra storage so I can have access to it all of my documents when I travel for research (Its a lot of documents, so I also wanted to free up room on my computer).

Often, I have to search by content (looking for a quote or a topic) and I noticed that unless the document is on my computer (so, the little cloud with the arrow is not next to the document), it does not show up in a content ("everything") search (If I look for the title, it shows up, but not if I look for the content).

Is there any way to search the CONTENT of files in iCloud (or iCloud Drive)? If I have to, I can use a third party search engine—although, will be super annoyed at Apple because.... I am paying for storage. Is there another place to store my documents so I can search contents?

L

Posted on Oct 27, 2021 9:10 AM

Reply

Answer 1

AppleJen77

Community Specialist

Oct 28, 2021 10:14 AM in response to Lstenmark

Greetings, Lstenmark!

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! That's a great question you have about searching for specific information within files on iCloud. At this time, there is not a function available to provide the option to search within files specifically. You are welcome to search within the App Store for options or check out this link for Product Feedback to submit feedback directly to Apple for features you'd like to see in the future.

Cheers!

Reply

Answer 2

Lstenmark Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 28, 2021 11:40 AM in response to AppleJen77

It is absolutely..... shocking to me that it is impossible to search the contents of documents stored in iCloud. I cannot be the only person with hundreds -- thousands -- of documents. How are we supposed to find what we have stored? When I got the new Mac, I was told I could trust the cloud and it was great because I could access documents from anywhere -- great! But I can't FIND them. Its like Apple just took a bulldozer and piled several file cabinets worth of documents into the corner and brags that the documents are there, I just have to search for them by hand..... Why should I pay to "story" my files in a big pit? This is horrible! Is this the system they are going to "upgrade" to next year?

Reply

Search CONTENTS of Files on iCloud?

Similar questions