You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Bug in Finder search

I want to find a file called...


SOL PROJECT - 1ST DIALOGUE PASS COMPLETE - AUG 2010 - 1


I can't remember the full name so I am just going to enter "dialogue pass" in the search box in the folder's window. So I start typing and results are popping up, and when I'm at "dialogue pas", I can see all the folders and files that match my search. But when I add one more "s", resulting in "dialogue pass", all the results disappear. Then when I had a space and a "c", resulting in "dialogue pass c", the results come back.


This process is shown in the screenshots here.


The only logical explanation is that this is a bug.


Mac mini, macOS 13.2

Posted on May 18, 2023 12:26 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 18, 2023 1:04 PM

It is not a bug, but your misunderstanding of how to use Spotlight keywords to narrow your search results. Let's say that the search document is a PDF. The following will find your desired file, and not the folders:


kind:pdf (name:"sol project" OR name:"aug 2010 - 1")


The name strings are case-insensitive and if the document type were from MS Word, then you change pdf in the preceding search to word.


if you knew that document was created after Jan 1, 2023, you could further constrain the search:


kind:word created:>01/01/2023 (name:"sol project" OR name:"aug 2010 - 1")


Tested: macOS Ventura 13.3.1 (a).

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 18, 2023 1:04 PM in response to carboncoffee

It is not a bug, but your misunderstanding of how to use Spotlight keywords to narrow your search results. Let's say that the search document is a PDF. The following will find your desired file, and not the folders:


kind:pdf (name:"sol project" OR name:"aug 2010 - 1")


The name strings are case-insensitive and if the document type were from MS Word, then you change pdf in the preceding search to word.


if you knew that document was created after Jan 1, 2023, you could further constrain the search:


kind:word created:>01/01/2023 (name:"sol project" OR name:"aug 2010 - 1")


Tested: macOS Ventura 13.3.1 (a).

May 18, 2023 2:18 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks, I'm not familiar with the keywords, or that you could do boolean expressions. I just tried entering...


name: dialogue pass


...and that worked. That will be useful.


Nonetheless, what I showed must be a bug. Because it makes no sense that adding the last "s" to "pass" would make the results disappear, and then adding space plus "c" makes them come back.


But thanks for the tip!



Bug in Finder search

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.