Couldn't find 'All My File' on Finder's sidebar

I didn't even notice it was gone. Never found it useful.

You can create your own search folder.

With Finder Prefs set to start a search in current folder,

Select your Home folder and type cmd-F

In the criteria, Option-Click on the + button.

Delete the first criteria just leaving the Any of the following are true

Change the first item under Any to Kind is Document

Add additional criteria under Any and set Kind to whatever else you want .

Save it and have it shown in Sidebar.

This doesn’t really help me.

Recents uses different metadata to determine what is included. If that metadata is not set, then the file doesn't show up. It should get set when you open the file in Finder.

It really doesn't matter if this doesn't help, there is no "All My Files" anymore. As Recents doesn't work as anyone expects, you'll have to create your own Search folder as I described above. Add criteria to make it work the way you want. Sort or arrange the search folder by Date Modified and you should see your most recent files at the top of that search folder, if you added sufficient search criteria to get the file types you want to see.

Thanks, Pete. This tip did the trick for me. Using the "Recents" gear icon, I clicked "Show Search Criteria." Then I was able to change "Raw Query" to "Last Modified Date," which I set to "within the last 400 days." That gave me a brand new saveable search that appears to return everything I would have gotten from the old "All My Files" search.

Barney, your tips also were helpful. I think, however, some of the frustration on this forum is from people who hunt for files in different ways. Some users are very comfortable with the filing systems and even building their own search queries. Others (like myself) would rather just get in and get out without thinking too much about it. "All My Files" wasn't very useful if you expected more from a search function/file structure. It was extremely useful if you wanted to quickly check many folders for what you just worked on.

When you first create a search, there is one criteria listed.

At the right of any criteria line is a + and a - button. If you hold down Option key (labeled "alt" on non-US keyboards), the + turns into …

Click that button and you will be able to make a group of criteria that are either "All of the following" (boolean AND)

or "Any of the following" (boolean OR).

In this case, you want to include many different types of files, so you want it to find files if "Any" of the criteria lines match.

When you do that, the first criteria remains, so delete it if it is not appropriate for your particular set of criteria.

Thanks again for the saved search tips, Barney. It is quite handy.

This following would not be my goto option, but I tried Siri "show me all my files" sure enough, up pop 230,000 give or take a few thousand. Click on Finder to get them in the Finder window.

Agreed - if you are looking to replace the functionality of ALL MY FILES you are far better off using the new "RECENT" fixes in sidebar which you can also tweak with the gear icon

Murddock wrote:

This option really dont work like the old "all My files" 😟

No, it doesn't. Nor was it meant to. I hated All My Files as it dumped a bunch of useless trash in that folder.

My example was just an example of how to create something useful to you, specific to your needs.

You can tailor the search folder to what works for you.

See Sparkleberry's post. You can see a small subset of the myriad options available.

If someone has the search criteria for "All My Files," then maybe they will post it and you can replicate it exactly.

Hi Bob - Did you specify 'document' in the 'any' options? I just created a 'Test' blank MS Word doc and saved it to my desktop, checked new smart folder (created as per Barney's instructions) and it immediately appeared - but sure enough, it isn't in 'Recents."

If I switch from Any to other types such as Document or Text, it shows large numbers of files.

How is that any different than what All My Files showed. On my Macs, "All My Files" showed every document in my home folder, regardless if it was a working document or not. There was zero utility to it. I could get the same effect by typing cmd-f and entering an * in the search field.

yes it is gone; very rarely used in the past

Well, you should have a Recents Folder.

But I took Barney-15E's search suggestions and find it much more useful than all files.

Recents does not do the same thing.

No, it doesn't. But, you can build your own search folder that provides whatever you need.

Just because you and others didn't find it useful, doesn't mean the rest of us thought it should go away.

I used "All My Files" every day, several times a day. It was a handy way to find files that weren't "recent." I miss it very much. Apple is often too quick to remove something people liked and used, just because a few users found it redundant. Please, Apple, restore "All My Files," a link SOME PEOPLE found useful.

I also discovered that under About This Mac (since Sierra), there is now a Storage button, that offers a Reduce Clutter option, that gives you a list of your largest and oldest untouched files. Only problem is that it does not give you a thumbnail so if you don't recognize your file name, you have to click to inspect each one.

but sure enough, it isn't in 'Recents."

It won't because Office doesn't write the kMDItemLastUsedDate metadata when it creates files. Some Apple apps and processes also do not write the metadata on creation, but, as far as I can tell, most do.