Okay, I am in Finder and searching for a word in a file (document). I type the word in the search box in the top right hand corner of the screen and press return. I see the "Searching Folder_Name". And it never changes. The folder I am searching is relatively small (several hundred documents). Will Finder say when it's done? In Windows a progress bar tracks progress (albeit a guess) at the top of the screen. Is there a way to see search progress in Finder.
You'll know it's done when whatever you're looking for, or whatever matches what you're looking for, is in the Finder window. If I do a search in Finder for the word "tomato," everything on my computer that has the word "tomato" in it will be filtered out to show me. There is no status/progress bar to tell you how far along into the search it's going. Perhaps you could show us a screenshot of what you're seeing. Unless what you're looking for isn't there to be found, it shouldn't take long to finish.
I get near instantaneous results when search words in files, even if I let it search the entire computer rather than just a particular folder.
You could try reindexing Spotlight to see if that resolved your issue.
To force a reindexing, launch System Preferences > Spotlight - Privacy
Add your hard drive to the list, either by click on the '+' icon and selecting from the list, or dragging your hard drive icon into the window.
Then Remove it from the list by clicking on the '-' icon.
Reindexing will now occur to your full hard drive. It will take some time, just let it run.
After say 10-15 minutes, try the search again and see if you now find your search results.
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support
I am searching a large folder (80 meg) and it's on iCloud so it could take some time. But will the "Searching folder' (see picture) go away when the search is over.
It appears that the "Searching..." never goes away? That's kind of a drag. How do you know it's done if it's searching 80 meg of iCloud docs?)
I hope I am missing something but Apple seems to do some stuff very well but there are things that could be done with little effort on their part that are not done. Like that message going away or changing to "Search Complete". My other pet peeve is lack of help in some area in the apps.
But thanks again to all of you smart people.
I see no difference when searching the my local drive or iCloud Drive. You should be seeing search results pretty much based on the letters you type.
The reason is, there is a 'local' copy of your iCloud Drive on your Mac so when you are off line you still have access to these files.
I would still try reindexing Spotlight to see if the issue is resolved.
MD_Gene wrote:
It appears that the "Searching..." never goes away? That's kind of a drag. How do you know it's done if it's searching 80 meg of iCloud docs?)
I hope I am missing something but Apple seems to do some stuff very well but there are things that could be done with little effort on their part that are not done. Like that message going away or changing to "Search Complete". My other pet peeve is lack of help in some area in the apps.
But thanks again to all of you smart people.
Agreed, Apple doesn't do everything well and some things very poorly, but in my experience neither does anyone else. There is always areas that can be improved.
I remember when I moved back to Macs about 10 years ago after heavily using Windows. One thing I learnt early on my return was to not to try to use OS X like you would Windows. They are both good operation systems but they do things differently from each other. Neither are necessarily right or wrong, its just how they do it.
When a Search is Done What Happens?
