What is the Search for:- All images/All documents/all movies for in Finder

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Level 1

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What is the Search for:- All images/All documents/all movies for in Finder

I am confused as to the purpose of Search for:- All images/documents/movies in Finder. I seem to have documents, pictures and music I have never seen or downloaded, and often photos I have actually downloaded are copied in triplicate sometimes more. I have at times got 10,000 items in my documents in Search for? My worry really is does this all take up memory on my computer and if so why is it happening and how do I stop it?

I do hope someone can explain the purpose of the Search For?

Jai309

Mac OSX, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Mac Pro

Posted on Nov 10, 2010 10:53 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,023 points

Nov 10, 2010 11:24 AM in response to jai309

Those are nothing more than saved searches. They take up a few KBs of space. The items as listed in your Finder's sidebar are simply aliases to the actual saved search files.

The purpose is obviously to "search for" specific things without having to repetitively set up the Spotlight search each time. If you don't wish to see them then open Finder preferences, click on the Sidebar tab and uncheck them.

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Answer 2

jai309 Author

Level 1

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Nov 11, 2010 12:41 AM in response to Kappy

Thanks Kappy, I had thought that is what it probably was but just confused by all the items I never searched for or downloaded. Now that I know it doesn't take up any memory I shan't worry about it. When I deleted everything from the search for files all the photos in my iphoto and documents were also removed. (thankfully I always have my stuff backed up on hard drive) I guess one just shouldn't remove them? Is there a safe way to clear it out without loosing the stuff I need to keep?

Regards
Jai309

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