Finder search name contains

I just purchased a new MacBook Pro with 10.8.2 installed. I used Migration Assistant to move my account from my old MacBook Pro running 10.7.8 to this laptop. When I did a file search in a finder window with 10.7.8, I got a drop down that was "name contains", so I could type in a piece of the filename I was looking for. On the new laptop with 10.8.2, the file search in the finder window comes up with a dropdown that is "name matches" as the only option and I have not figured out a way to change this either for the current search or permanently.
Any ideas how to fix this?

Well, yes, there's at least 5 people who want system files in the results of all searches.
That also blocks access to home folder stuff, especially the, IMO, stupidly hidden user's Library folder and its contents. It's crippled because there are no preferences that users can use to tailor their searches, globally. The only option is to use savedSearches. I've been dealing with this dumbing down of Spotlight since Leopard days. See these for some historical background (from https://discussions.apple.com/message/16663484#16663484— start at the top:
See http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html and http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/stopspotlightindex.html then my mod to Finder's Find at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080229204517495 for what you can change so you can find stuff excluded by the default structure. See http://lonestar.utsa.edu/llee/applescript/customfindSN.html for a Snow Leopard fix.
Finally, DL and peruse the Spotlight Query manual.

Similar Messages

How do I find file names containing special character

hi all
I need your help with a code that deals with finding file names containing special characters like * / \ : ? " |
the reason is I am doing a project that transfer files and folders from Mac to Windows. But names containing above characters cant be moved to windows.
the part of the code I write is like this
set illegal_syntax to paragraphs of (do shell script "find " & quoted form of POSIX path of oneFolder & " -name '*'")
if (illegal_syntax is not equal to {""}) then
repeat with each_record in illegal_syntax
do shell script "/usr/bin/ditto -c -k -rsrc --keepParent " & quoted form of each_record & space & quoted form of (each_record & ".zip")
end repeat
end if
First of all that '' will gives me an error.
Second, what i tried to do is once the file/folder is found, zip it at current location. But the problem is how can I zip it without the special character? or should I just give it a name, like "originalfile.zip";?
Last, or maybe you have better idea to deal with this situation? BTW, I can not rename or delete the file/folder because customer won't allow me to do it.

The backslash is used to escape characters in AppleScript, so if you want to use it in a string you need to escape the escape character, for example "\\*".
You could set the name of the archive by replacing the illegal character with another one, such as an underscore:
<pre title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor" style="font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #000000; width: 720px; color: #000000; background-color: #FFDDFF; overflow: auto">set each_record to "some*file*name" -- example
set {TempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, "*"}
set the ItemList to text items of each_record
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_"
set each_record to the ItemList as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TempTID
log each_record --> some_file_name
</pre>

Automator -- Find X name contains - why can't i?

i really dislike the way spotlight searches, I nearly always have to stop, change to "name contains" then use that box to search.
I thought Automator could skip those steps for me. There IS an action "Find Finder items" and it defaults to "name contains", interestingly. First I tried making that action by itself a workflow, then an app. I could get it to bring up the search by name contains window, but after I entered my term and hit return, the box went away and no results appeared anywhere.
So then I fumbled around trying to create a new folder, then search...no.
This seems the essence of simplicity..what am I missing?

Sounds like you're using the Finder's Find function, because a pure Spotlight search doesn't have a "name contains" option. You can replace the default Finder Find window by creating a new smart folder: Finder->File->New Smart Folder, tailor it to your needs, including where you want it to search by selecting Other and adding items. Mine has filename contains (not name contains—they're two different animals) and it searches in /System and /Library. Once you've tailored it properly, enter a name window, and save it to the Desktop. Once that's done, then drag it into TextEdit and change:
<key>RawQuery</key>
<string>(kMDItemFSName = '*<name you searched for>*'cd) && (kMDItemContentType != com.apple.mail.emlx) && (kMDItemContentType != public.vcard)</string>
<key>SearchCriteria</key>
to read:
<key>RawQuery</key>
<string></string>
<key>SearchCriteria</key>
and save the file. Rename it default_smart.plist
Open /System/Library/CoreServices/, CONTROL_click on the Finder.app, and select show package contents. Drill down to /Contents/Resources/, rename the current default_smart.plist to default_smart.plist.bak, drag the default_smart.plist from the Desktop into /Contents/Resources/, close all windows, OPT-click on Dock's Finder icon, and select Relaunch. Now, CMD+F and see your new default Find window.
G4 450 MP Gigabit Mac OS X (10.4.8)

How to do Finder Search using Name Contains in 10.8.2

I just purchased a MacBook Pro with 10.8.2 installed. I used Migration Assistant to move my account from my old MacBook Pro which was running 10.7.8. On my old MacBook, a search for a file in a finder window dropped down to let you select "name contains", so you could type in just a bit of the filename to find a file. On my new MacBook, when I do the same thing, all I get is "name matches", which is much less useful. How do I get back to being able to use "name contains" or maybe even other options like "name starts with"??

As OS X Mountain Lion is registered to your Apple ID, you have to install the OS X version that came with your Mac or Mac OS X Snow Leopard, so he will be able to purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store.
To do it, just follow these specs:
1. Back up the data you need.
2. Insert the Snow Leopard DVD and press C key while your Mac is starting to start from the disc.
3. Go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select the hard disk at the top of the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the disc.
4. Close Disk Utility and reinstall Mac OS X. When the installation has finished, press the mouse while your Mac is starting to eject the DVD, and turn off the Mac.
You could also give him the Mac with Mountain Lion, but as he's using a different Apple ID, it's not legal and he could have problems if he needs to reinstall OS X, because the Mac won't allow him to reinstall it

Search 'filename contains' in finder. Help please

Hello. I need to search my filesystem for any files containing the words "foo" (for example). Currently, when I type 'foo' into my finder search bar, it returns only those filenames starting with the word 'foo'. Can anyone tell me the way to adjust search behavior to search filenames containing 'foo' instead of starting with 'foo'?
Thanks!

That's odd: if I open the Applications folder, then do a Command-F search, with the criterion of
"Name contains and"
on the Apps folder, I get 143 results, including things like
GarageBand
GrandPerspective
HandBrake
Random Spheres.bmp
copyLibFile.command
bread and wine
CopyAndPaste.js
And so on. If I add the restriction, "Kind is Applications" I get four results:
GrandPerspective
PandoCalendar
HandBrake
GarageBand
HOWEVER, if I leave the restriction "Kind is Applications" and delete the "Name Contains" criterion, and instead put and in the Search for field I get this bewildering result:
CSSEdit
Xee
Neither seems to have anything to do with my Search for term. Looking at the metadata which is indexed I see both do have the actual word "and" at some point in their metadata. Poking around a bit and thinking, I concluded that the only way to get a partial name search is to use the "Name contains" criterion. If you use the Search box with the only criterion being "Kind is Any" you will get:
1. Any file that has the word "and" in its content
2. Any file whose metadata contains the word "and"
3. A file where "and" is separated in the title by any method that Spotlight recognizes as a delimiter; thus you will get "Roll and Crash" and "Pen And Ink" and "FiveBySevenAndThreeH.txt" but not something like GarageBand.
The delimiters that I know about off-hand are capital letters, spaces, the underscore (thus something like "washanddry" would show up), and periods (so if a file was named "foo.and.txt" it would show up). There are probably others as well.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Change the Finder search default to Find by Name (search by file name) rather than Find by Content

I just discovered another way to set the finder Find option to default to "find by name" (search by file name). I'm using Mac OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion. I'm not sure if this works on other OS versions, but it probably does.
Here's a step by step:
#1: Open System Preferences
#2: Click on "Keyboard"
#3: Click on "Keyboard Shortcuts"
#4: Click on "Application Shortcuts" (on my system this was the last item located on the left-hand side window)
#5: Click the little "+" right below the right-hand side window
#6: Click on the "Application" menu and choose "finder.app"
#7: Click into the field "Menu Title:" and type "Find by Name..." (Type it exactly like that including the three dots. Don't type the quotes BTW.)
#8: Click into the field "Keyboard Shortcut:" and press the command-key and F at the same time. It should look like this ⌘F
#9: Close System Preferences
That's it. Basically what you are doing is remapping the command-F key (⌘F) to "Find By Name".
I tried to post this to other previous discussions asking this same question, but they were all locked.

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

It can't find URL when i use HLS for vod and the vod file name contain Chinese.

It can't find URL when i use HLS for vod and the vod file name contain Chinese。eg： http://127.0.0.1:8134/hls-vod/你好.mp4.m3u8.
How does it support Chinese path?

To answer the post title FireFox save all downloads automatically in the download folder, which you can find in the Documents folder. If you want to choose where to save your downloads go to tools>options>check always ask me where to save files.
Secondly, I am assuming you have IE 8 installed as this is the only version that supports this fix that is currently not in beta. Go to control panel>internet options>advanced tab and reset the settings at the bottom. This may or may not fix the problem but it is a good first step.

Finder search - change to name search?

When I type a search term into a Finder search window, I sometimes get a little pop-up menu that says "Filenames" underneath. If I don't select it, it seems like it's doing a Spotlight search, showing everything (metadata & contents) that have the search term. But after it's done a search, there's no way to select that little "Filename" option unless I delete a character or start typing again.
How do I have the Finder always default to searching the filename?

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

HT1222 10.6.3 everytime I try to upgrade to this ver. it stops at the end because it can't find the folder containing the information package "itunes.msi" I have did a search for msi with no luck in finding it. has anyone have this problem with a soluti

eerytime I try to upgrade to this ver. it stops at the end because it cant find the folder containing the missing "itunes.msi" has anyone else experienced this and is there a solution. help. Using XP service pack 3

Download the Windows Installer CleanUp utility from the following page (use one of the links under the "DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS" thingy on the Major Geeks page):
http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4459
To install the utility, doubleclick the msicuu2.exe file you downloaded.
Now run the utility ("Start > All Programs > Windows Install Clean Up"). In the list of programs that appears in CleanUp, select any iTunes entries and click "Remove", as per the following screenshot:
Quit out of CleanUp, restart the PC and try another iTunes install. Does it go through properly this time?

Finder Search in Mountain Lion -- broken?

Since upgrading to Mountain Lion yesterday, my Finder Search does not operate the way it used to and I'm not getting the right results anymore. I have already forced Spotlight to reindex by adding the entire drive and a disk image file to Privacy, and then removing them from Privacy. Reindexing took about 45 minutes, but now it says it is done reindexing. I have these same two issues both before and after the reindex.
If I have Finder displaying the files in the disk image and type a few letters for a filename (e.g., name matches great) in the search box, Finder Search cannot find the files in the disk image even though I can plainly see they are there.
I have Finder pointing to the entire main drive. I search for name matches quiz. I get 10 results, including 3 in the RE Class folder, plus seven others. But, if I point Finder to the RE Class folder on the main drive, and do the same search, it shows me those three files (as it should), and if I click the button above the search results for "This Mac" to expand the search, it displays only those same three in the RE Class folder, and "Searching This Mac..." appears with a spinner at the bottom of Finder ... forever? About 20 minutes so far... (This used to be instantaneous.) It cannot find all the other matching files it previously showed me are in multiple locations on the main drive.
Can someone tell me how to fix this? Thank you.

Based upon my test results below, Apple Support has escalated this to the engineers for resolution. It appears that the presence of any mounted DMG file is what precipitates the problem, and the problem goes away if I close the DMG, but I can't really search in my DMG files until this gets fixed.
<quoting my test results:>
I have done more testing this morning.
I had always worked with the Finder Preference > Advanced > When performing a search = Search the Current Folder. I changed this back to Search This Mac before conducting the following tests.
My conclusion is that the presence of any open DMG is causing the problem. Other connected drives (external) don't have any bearing; they work fine.
Test 1, with no DMG open:
Pointing to the David home folder.
Search Name=Dad
          This Mac=58
          Davidn=23
          This Mac=58
          David=23
This is as expected. The counts include files from an external hard drive, together with the internal drive.
Test 2, with a DMG (Personal) open:
Pointing to the David home folder.
Search Name=Dad
          This Mac=45 (Note that this number is lower than in test 1, and it should be higher by 3 because of the files in the DMG. Expected count was 61.)
          David=23
          This Mac = <spinner> (Expected 61)
          <cancel>
Test 3, with the DMG still open:
Search Name=Dad
          This Mac = 0 (Expected 61)
          David = 23
          This Mac = <spinner> (Expected 61)
          <cancel>
At this point, I closed the DMG.
Test 4, with no DMG open:
Search Name=Dad          This Mac=58
          David=23
          This Mac=58
          David=23
This is as expected. The counts include files from an external hard drive, together with the internal drive.
In addition, the tests I conducted yesterday, where I was directly searching in the DMG, remain the same: The first time the result is correct, and after that I only get beach balls.
Note that the DMG used for this test (Personal) is only 1 MB in size, and contains only 12 items in the root -- not a lot of searching to do. I have tried to force Spotlight to reindex this file by moving it into and out of Privacy. I never notice Spotlight do anything about that, but maybe it is too small to be noticeable.

Error: Find criteria must contain at least one sort field value.

Hi
I am getting the followng error in Sort.as when I click on a column in a DataGrid that is bound to a nested property (e.g. parent.name)
Error: Find criteria must contain at least one sort field value.
I can see why this is failing.
In the findItem function of Sort.as the code tests whether there is data in line (456) hasFieldName = values[fieldName] !== undefined. This fails and so an error is raised later in the function by:
     if (fieldsForCompare.length == 0)     {
     message = resourceManager.getString("collections", "findRestriction");
          throw new SortError(message);     }
The code needs to traverse down the object hierarchy to get the field so that error is not thrown .
The code needs to traverse down the object hierarchy to get the field so that error is not thrown .
In the case of a non nested property, everything works fine.
There is lots of discussion about nested properties in DataGrid and there is this jira:
http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/SDK-9801
There is talk of using a labelFunction or an itemRenderer and other third party solutions (extensions of DataGridColumn).
Is this a bug? is there a workaround using labelFunction or itemRenderer which can stop the error in Sort.as?
James
Here is the code of findItem in Sort.as of SDK 3..4.0.9271
public
function findItem(items:Array,values:Object,
mode:String,
returnInsertionIndex:Boolean =
false,compareFunction:Function =
null):int{
var compareForFind:Function;
var fieldsForCompare:Array;
var message:String;
if (!items){
message = resourceManager.getString(
"collections", "noItems");
throw new SortError(message);}
else if (items.length == 0){
return returnInsertionIndex ? 1 : -1;}
if (compareFunction == null){
compareForFind =
this.compareFunction;
// configure the search criteria
if (values && fieldList.length > 0){
fieldsForCompare = [];
//build up the fields we can compare, if we skip a field in the
//middle throw an error. it is ok to not have all the fields
//though
var fieldName:String;
var hadPreviousFieldName:Boolean = true;
for (var i:int = 0; i < fieldList.length; i++){
fieldName = fieldList[i];
if (fieldName){
var hasFieldName:Boolean;
try
hasFieldName = values[fieldName] !==
undefined;}
catch(e:Error){
hasFieldName =
false;}
if (hasFieldName){
if (!hadPreviousFieldName){
message = resourceManager.getString(
"collections", "findCondition", [ fieldName ]);
throw new SortError(message);}
else
fieldsForCompare.push(fieldName);
else
hadPreviousFieldName =
false;}
else
//this is ok because sometimes a sortfield might
//have a custom comparator
fieldsForCompare.push(
null);}
if (fieldsForCompare.length == 0){
message = resourceManager.getString(
"collections", "findRestriction");
throw new SortError(message);}
else
try
initSortFields(items[0]);
catch(initSortError:SortError){
//oh well, use the default comparators...
else
compareForFind = compareFunction;

I have tried a sortCompareFunction:
var sort:Sort = new Sort();
sort.compareFunction = compareFunction;sort.fields = [sortField];
data.sort = sort;
data.refresh();
this makes no difference.
James

Find by Name can't be set as default?

When I hit command+F I get the Find window but it always defaults to Find By Content.
Can I make it default to Find By Name? From the search I did here in the forums there is no way but I thouht to ask again.
Thanks in advance

While there isn't a thing you can do about the toolbar default, you CAN render it irrelevant. If you bring up the Find window using the shortcut of Command-Shift-F, then you will get "Name:Contains" with the cursor blinking in the blank entry field. Type the file name you want to find, and the results will be files whose actual file name contains whatever you typed. Furthermore, if you don't want to be bothered by using the shift key, you can go to System Prefs->Keyboard&Mouse->Shortcuts and reverse the two shortcuts, so that "Find..." with the "Kind" nonsense becomes Command-Shift-F, and "Find by Name..." is a simple Command-F. Restart the Finder after you make your changes, and then whenever you do Command-F you will get a search box with "Name:Contains" and the cursor blinking in the field for you to just type your search word-- the results will be files containing your word in their NAME, not the content.
There still ain't a dang thing you can do about the default of searching "This Mac" rather than the folder you were in when you invoked the search. Which is idiotic.
You may want to take a look at the article I wrote on Spotlight:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html
Be sure to click the link to see the expanded page of illustrations.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Ng finder search in Lion

I'm still trying to figure out the anomalies or functionality of the (10.7.4) Finder "find" command at this late date. I posted this once before and got many useful tips… among them using EasyFind (good but slow). I'm now hitting a wall such that I'll run a test search (file name contains) on a file name I know is there… and get nada. Some searches will deliver results but there are blind spots. I've lost confidence in this essential feature.
90% of my searching is "file name contains" - is there something I can do to get the finder to reindex to get this working?
Thanks in advance for any ideas
Paul

I'm still trying to figure out the anomalies or functionality of the (10.7.4) Finder "find" command at this late date. I posted this once before and got many useful tips… among them using EasyFind (good but slow). I'm now hitting a wall such that I'll run a test search (file name contains) on a file name I know is there… and get nada. Some searches will deliver results but there are blind spots. I've lost confidence in this essential feature.
90% of my searching is "file name contains" - is there something I can do to get the finder to reindex to get this working?
Thanks in advance for any ideas
Paul

Change finder search default (filename not content)?

In Leopard, when one types into the search field of a Finder window, the window changes to search "This Mac" on "Content."
That is never, ever what I want it to do!
What I always want it to do is, search folder I had selected, on FILENAME. In other words, two extra mouse-clicks to make the search -- click the folder-name instead of "this mac" and click "filename" instead of "Content."
Is there any way to persuade the Finder to make selected-object/filename the default for searches?
P.S. this does not refer to anything in Spotlight preferences or in Finder Preferences that I can find.

You can get it down to one mouse click if you open the folder you want to search, then use the key combo of Command-Shift-F to bring up a search window. You still have to click the name of your location to get out of the idiotic default of This Mac, but at least you are in Name contains:___ and can immediately type the file name in the space.
Be sure to send feedback to Apple:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html/
If enough people raise enough Cain we may get a return to sanity in the Spotlight GUI. Worked for Stacks in the Dock, where Leopard originally had less functionality than Tiger.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Lion Mail "Name contains"?

I have recently upgraded to Lion and I am finding a serious inconvenience in its new version of Mail that I'm amazed not to see discussed in forums like this. I guess I must be searching in the wrong place. Help please!
My problem is as follows. I have about 700,000 email messages in my archive, spanning 19 years, and I very often need to search for old mail from someone who has had multiple addresses. In previous versions of Mail, typing such a person's name (or a substring thereof) in the search box and selecting "From" would give me everything they had ever sent me from any address. Now, such a search gives me an autogenerated list of senders, but no way to select more than one of them. There is a nice "Message contains" menu item, and similarly a "Subject contains" (even though there is also an autogenerated list of particular Subjects), but no "Name contains". I am already finding that this is wasting me a lot of time. Am I missing something?
Alternatively, can I roll back to Snow Leopard's Mail within Lion?

I agree whole heartedly. I want to find all e-mails from a particular domain ([email protected], [email protected], etc) along with old contacts that may have changed e-mail addressess.

Finder search name contains

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