Finder - Search Problems?

Hi There,
Before I upgraded to Lion I was able to search for keywords within files within Finder and it would show me which file it was from. For example, if I had codes within an excel file, I could search for the specific code and then Finder would tell me which file it was from. When I search the same where now, it does not work. Even when I go in and select "Contents" from the drop down menu.
What am I doing wrong? It was such an amazing feature I'd like to know how to start using it again.
Thanks for everyones help!

Hi Harry, could be so many things.
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15667/applejack
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 6 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
Trash old Log files.
First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files!
Disconnect the USB cable from any UPS so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.

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The finder search seems to have issues with contractions.
If I search for the song title "I Don't Want To Lose You", I get nothing. If I search for "want to lose you" then it works. VERY frustrating to have to alter search especially when I have thousands of songs to search through.
Anyone else?

Hi Jai,
thanks for your tip.
Actually this thread is not about to find workarounds. At the end I found the blogs. This thread is about to optimize the SDN search engine and find problems with it.
Anyway, thanks again.
Best regards
Renald

Hi, Have tried searching the bookmarks database. Can't find my problem addressed :9

Hi, Have tried searching the database. Can't find my problem addressed. I have lost one folder in my bookmarks and all of its contents. Went to all of the sites in that folder and downloaded them again. Some of the new downloads don't show up in the bookmarks list even though it says, site is bookmarked? What do I need to do to see all of the contents in that folder, please?
Thanks.

Thank you so much for trying to help me. So sorry that I am computer illiterate :)
Using your first alternate suggestion I closed down the computer completely.
When reopened it was the same.
Downloaded the Maintenance Add-On and did All>Execute. Some changes were made but the problem remained the same.
Following your second suggestion I deleted the places.squite folder and reopened FF. The problem remains...
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Mail find/search not working

I have found that Mail has gone a bit bonkers. First I lost a bunch of important emails when moving the messages to a different mailbox (they are simply gone). Now the find/search function is completely erratic. The same search terms will sometimes turn up messages, sometimes nothing.
I have deleted the preferences, rebuilt the mailboxes multiple times, even deleted the envelope file so mail would rebuild the entire index from scratch. Also I've repaired permissions. The search function is simply erratic still.
I even had an issue after deleting the preference files where the custom tool bar would revert back to the default one when starting up Mail again... a reboot (and perhaps running various scripts through Onyx seemed to have nipped that one in the bud).
What is going on here? Anyone else havinfg these issues? How to fix it?
I am running Mavericks, OS X 10.9.1

... no fix for this problem?

Finder search bug? No results if 'Search' field is blank.

I can't determine if this is a bug or is simply a change in Finder search behavior (for the worse, IMO) in 10.8.
In the Finder, when I select 'File>>Find' (or hit ⌘-F) and then select the current folder from the top of the search parameters, no files appear in the search results if the 'Search' (for filename) field at the top of the window is blank even though the only other search parameter is 'Kind is Any'.
If I enter text in the 'Search' field, matching results start to appear.
In 10.7, I saw different behavior. In the absence of text in the Search field, the Finder would simply return results matching the other parameters and ignore the Search field.
With the new behavior, there doesn't seem to be any way to construct a saved search based solely on other parameters (kind, date, file label, etc) without specifying some filename parameter as well. Of course, I can work around the problem by using something like 'NOT xxx!@#$%' in the Search field, but this approach is klugy at best.
Anyone else see this? Bug? Deliberate change in Finder behavior?

Yes the report ESH_TEST_SEARCH returns no material.
So should I suspend the indexing and reschedule with with real time indexing ? I am not sure whether we choose real time indexing in the first time.
What about the authorizations, I see USER_AUTHORITY object is activealready.
Thanks

How do I fix a FINDER crash problem in 10.6.8

I recently, in the last 10 days, started having a FINDER crash problem with my iMac 24" (iMac9,1) Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz computer.
I have 4 GB of ram installed, no external hard disks installed.
It seems to crash when I have five or more applications open, but it is not consistant.
When it freezes or crashes, I get the spinning ball. I open the Force Quit Window with comand, option, escape and it show Finder not responding.
I click on Finder and tell it to relaunch. It does nothing. At that point I cannot even go to the APPLE icon on the dock and do a shutdown or restart.
From that point on, I have to press and hold the START button to shut the computer down.
I have checked the hard disk integrity with Disk Utility after starting on the Snow Leopard 1.6 install disk. everything shows good.
I have repaired permissions using the same application. I then restart the computer and log back in.
I have used Onyx for Snow Leopard version 2.3.1 to do some maintenance routines.
I have checked the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive and it passes.
I have verified that the Daily, Weekly, Monthly routines have been run. They have.
I have executed the Cleaning tab to include the following cache files:
System: Boot
               International Preferences
               QuickTime Components
               Audio Components
               Other Components
User Cache: Applications
                         Prefernces of System Panels
                         Java & Applets Java
                         Desktop Background
                         International Preferences
                         Dock Icons
                         ColorSync
                         QuickLook
                         Temporary Items
Internet Cache: Browser Cache
                            Download Cache
                            Browser History
                            Recent Searches
                            Web Page Previews
Fonts Cache: System and User
Logs Cache: Log Files
                        System Archive Logs
                        User Diagnostic Reports
                        System Diagnostic Reports
                        Mobile Devices CrashReporter
Misc. Cache: Recent Items
                        Recent conversion of Calculator
                        Obsolete Items
                        QuickTime Content Guide
Under Maintenance Items:
Rebuild:
               LaunchServices
               dyld's shared cache
Short of taking this computer, packing it up, and hauling it down to the Apple Store for the 'Genius' to poke around in it, I am at a brick
wall as to what to do next. (I am useing this same computer to enter this message).
Here's hoping someone on the forum will have an answer.
Douglas J. Parker
P.S. Does APPLE Technicians ever read these discussion questions and interject their 'Expert' knowledge?

/Library/Preferences is where you will find that file.
#2 - yes

Spotlight and Finder related problems

Lately Spotlight hasn't been too keen on finding things in my drive, most notably applications. Once or twice, I experienced problems with Finder while this was occurring, so I relaunched Finder and everything began working properly. But lately I haven't been able to do anything to fix this. Just minutes ago I had to hold down my MacBook's power button because applications on my Dock weren't opening or closing when I told them to and finally it wouldn't restart when prompted either.
A quick search found that a few people might have been having similar problems, but I'd just like to know if any knowledge of this has been unearthed.
Could it be that my drive needs to be defragmented? Or maybe it's because of the recent, large updates?

In a Finder search, set the search to include system files:
1. Produce a Search window by typing Command-F while in the Finder.
2. Pull down the menu that defaults to "Kind" and choose Other.
3. In the sheet that appears, type System in the Search field.
4. Select the "System Files" entry that appears.
5. If you want to be able to easily include system files in future searches, click the "In Menu" checkbox. System Files will now appear in the pop-up.
6. Click OK.
All the mozilla files and folder should now appear.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Why the Finder Search-Function is corrupted in Mavericks so that I cannot open any file after searching it?

Finder Search-Function is troubled / corrupted / misfunctioning
When keying in a search word the files are selected properly, yet not shown with details. Furthermore you cannot click and open any file. Also sorting is not possible.
Anyone else has such a problem and has figured out on how to resolve it?
(Spotlight works properly and is somehow a spare solution).
There seem to be many basic problems with the finder in Mavericks, this problem unfortunately has not been resolved also with the last software-release 10.9.2.
The quality strategy of Apple has to be questioned: I do not need 200 NEW functions, but I need the previous basic functions STILL working!
Thank you!

As a cross-reference:
Eric Root
Re: Hi! I have a problem with finder
01.03.2014 12:14 (in response to Fexei)
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by logging out/in and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer ones.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.
You might need to redo the View settings after an update.
Resolved the Problem! Thanks to Eric and Leonie
Felix

Unhidden files are not revealed in Finder search

When I use the Finder "Search" window, my Library folder, System folder and folders therein are not revealed, even though I can manually locate them though the Finder's tree. As far as I can tell, these files are not hidden and do not have special security settings. They do not show up in Spotlight either. What in the world is going on? I never had these problems with older versions of OS X.
Thanks to anyone who can assist!

Spotlight doesn't normally show files from those folders because those folders do not contain files that should normally be accessed directly. Rather than clutter the search results, system files are suppressed unless you specifically ask for them. Do that by including a criterion in your search to 'include system files'. You might have to add that option to the search criterion pop-up by choosing "Other...". Check "System Files" and then choose "Include".

Finder Search -- complex search in a particular folder

This is embarrassing!
I want to use Finder
     File-->Find
to do complex searches (e.g. using "Kind", "Created Date", "Contents", etc.) on a specific folder. I want to use the Finder "Find" GUI, not the Spotlight "command line".
I think I need to discover how to add additional places, folders, to the search location header of the Finder Search window, which now contains (by default?)
     Search:   This Mac    "My HD"
In other words, if my target folder is called "Fum" I think I need to see
     Search:   This Mac    "My HD"   "Fum"
Then I need to select the right-most item to tell the Finder Search "just search the folder named 'Fum'". After that, I enter the search parameters.
But I cannot figure out how to do this.    I tried drag-and-dropping folder "Fum" on this line. I tried Command-F with "Fum" selected. I tried enabling the left tool-bar, getting "Fum" in the list, then highlighting "Fum".
D'oh!   It's such a stupid question that ... the obvious web searches are useless.
So... how is this done?
I feel like I'm totally missing some basic assumpation of the current 10.7 Finder search metaphor. Please feel free to fill me in.   (Why isn't there a "+" button at the far right of the Search locations header, instead of what I see now, only a "Save" and a "-" button? That would seem the logical way to add locations to search.)
TIA

Whew, sorry...
[A tedious description of various experiments, failing attempts to sort this problem omitted here.]
I note that Finder Preferences ---> Advanced offers 3 choices for searches, schematically:
     When performing a search:
      (1) Search This Mac
      (2) Search the Current Folder
      (3) Use the Previous Search Scope
[Another tedious description of more experiments omitted here.]
Just a moment... Selecting alternative (3) does the trick for me!   I can now restrict the search directory to "Fum". I just need to:
a) Choose Finder search preference (3), which to my mind implements "Search the Current Folder" and NOT "Use the Previous Search Scope".
b) Interpret "Current Folder" as the folder open and at front.
Life is now good!   <heavy sigh>

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.

Does the 10.5.7 update address command+f finder search issues?

Does the 10.5.7 update address command+f finder search issues?
Search has been horrible under 10.5 in that it does not reliably find FOLDERS on network drives, only file names.
Even when I am looking directly at a folder and I search for it will not appear in the command+f window.
Also the stupidity of not allowing a specific search location.
Has this been addressed? I have, at any given time, 3-4 mounted servers.
I do not have a choice now to search a specific hard drive.
10.4.11 gave me the option under "OTHERS" to select a specific place to search.
The only choice I have in 10.5.2 is "SHARED". Which searches all drives when I only want to search one. Nor do I have a choice of searching just one of my two internal drives.
I talked with Chris in apple engineering several months ago, who acknowledged that search problems are a known issue under 10.5 and this was being addressed but have not heard any more. I don't want to download an update unless these broken search issues have been fixed. This is a production machine and I cannot have downtime in the Dept.

Have you filed a bug report or enhancement request with Apple?
http://bugreport.apple.com/

Adobe Reader Search problem

Since Adobe Reader 9 we have a problem with the "find" (search the content of pdf files). Sometimes it works fine and sometimes the search result highlights incorrect words.
We use now Adobe Reader 9.1.2 but had the same problem on 9.1.0. It seems that the count of results is correct, but not the highlightet word. The files have the PDF-version 1.4.
Do anyone know the problem or have an idea whats wrong?

The Problem was not Adobe Reader!
We use ScanSoft PDF Create! to create the PDF files directly from Word 2007. In the tool settings we activated now the option "Optimize for Web Viewing". Now it works correctly with every testet document.
But it still strange, that we didn't had the Problem with Adobe Reader 8.
Many thanks for your support.

Finder search malfunction

After a reboot cause by parallels desktop crash, the finder search goes malfunction, I just saw a message shown at bottom "searching",nothing appear after keyward search like "mail".
I've call apple care call center for help, the staff told me to use cd boot then use disk tool to repare the disk permission, but it's didn't fix my problem, can anyone help.
my os is 10.4.9
here is the system crash log
panic.log:
說明: 危急（系統當機）記錄
大小: 1.49 KB
最後修改日期: 2007/3/30 下午 5:20
位置: /Library/Logs/panic.log
最近的內容: Fri Mar 30 17:20:22 2007
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x001A429B): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 1, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0xdeadbeef, CR3: 0x00e01000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0xdeadbeef, EBX: 0x00000000, ECX: 0x037783cc, EDX: 0x045bc184
CR2: 0xdeadbeef, EBP: 0x2510bbd8, ESI: 0x2510bc0c, EDI: 0x0569c4e0
EFL: 0x00010282, EIP: 0x3d3ce140, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x3d250010
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x2510b9b8 : 0x128d08 (0x3cb134 0x2510b9dc 0x131de5 0x0)
0x2510b9f8 : 0x1a429b (0x3d0e4c 0x1 0xe 0x3d0670)
0x2510bb08 : 0x19ada4 (0x2510bb20 0x48 0x25100010 0x190010)
0x2510bbd8 : 0x94f9f0 (0x3d1c13a0 0x2510bc0c 0x108 0x3f7ff081)
0x2510bd38 : 0x94c8c7 (0x45bc184 0xc0185405 0x2510beb8 0x5914b8c)
0x2510bd68 : 0x1f05d7 (0xd000000 0xc0185405 0x2510beb8 0x81)
0x2510bda8 : 0x1e7411 (0x2510bdd0 0x297 0x2510be08 0x42733e8)
0x2510be08 : 0x1df212 (0x3ffc738 0xc0185405 0x2510beb8 0x81)
0x2510be58 : 0x331c4c (0x569c4e0 0xc0185405 0x2510beb8 0x42733e8)
0x2510be88 : 0x34ffa8 (0x569c4e0 0xc0185405 0x2510beb8 0x42733e8)
0x2510bf58 : 0x379e23 (0x42733e8 0x376c940 0x376c984 0x0)
0x2510bfc8 : 0x19b17e (0x3771700 0x1 0x19e0b5 0x37794c4) No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xb011eeb8
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.parallels.kext.vmmain(2.2)@0x94b000
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.9.1: Thu Feb 22 20:55:00 PST 2007; root:xnu-792.18.15~1/RELEASE_I386
MBP Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I just try to use a tool mainmenu to force finder restart after system boot, then the search function in finder became work. But I think it's a temporary solution, will try find the best solution, not just restart finder after system boot.

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

Finder - Search Problems?

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