Limiting a spotlight search

how does one limit a search to a specific location, i.e. a specific folder or an external drive?

Jimyy
By not using Spotlight
Try EasyFind instead. It's freeware, here:
http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/freeware/index.html
There may now be personally offensive posts from Apple fanboys, about me and my Spotlight problem. Ignore them.

Similar Messages

  • Spotlight search limited by restrictions

    I updated my phone to ios8 the other day, greatly looking forward to the improved spotlight search suggestions and bing search results. However, after I updated, neither of those two features would show up, though they were selected properly in the settings. I called Apple support, but they didn't seem to know how to fix it. The representative told me when I asked him if restrictions might have anything to do with it, and he assured me that it did not. So I continued for several days without the much-desired feature. Just today, I wanted to check for myself, so I had my wife disable some of the restrictions. Sure enough, the spotlight search worked as expected! So here's my question: does anyone know of a way to enable restrictions while enjoying the two new features of spotlight search?

    The menubar really doesn't have much in the way of options.. From that Cmd-Space drop down, you'd need to go to Show All to bring up the Spotlight window to select a volume or further limit by location.
    Personally, I'd suggest just using Cmd-F window. The path is always displayed at the bottom of the window.
    Of course, you can see the location of items from the menubar. Cmd-clicking an item from the list opens up the parent folder in a new Finder window. And hovering over items should bring up an info box showing the path for most items.
    Message was edited by: Mike N. (nahyunil)

  • Spotlight search top hits problems in iphone 5 ios 6

    I upgraded from Iphone 4s ios 5.1.1 to Iphone 5 ios 6.02 yesterday.  (Att to verizon, but not relevant to this post)
    On first glance at spotlight search on new iphone 5, I thought for sure the index for my spotlight search was totally corrupt.  If I start typing 'Hol' for holly, after h or o she should come up as a top hit...instead my top hit is Chris Luxxxx (nothing to do with H or O)...I keep typing...top hit area totally disappears and Holly xxxx shows in middle of very long list of what would appear to be totally unrelated contacts.  I have to get to Holly Bo before the list is down to 4 names...and 3 of those aren't related to her (on the surface....)....and top hits still doesn't pop up??  I still had my 4s next to me...and the results were night and day different...and the iphone 5 were so totally irrelevant compared to the 4s for what I was trying to do (just look up a contact...the thing i use spotlight search for most!?!?)
    NOTE:
    1) At this point, I had already  disabled all categories but 'contacts for my spotlight search to minimize the hundreds matches I was getting in all kinds of categories that looked irrelevant......and to focus on what was going on with my contacts. 
    2) My contacts are synched with MS Exchange config connected to google apps account
    3) I have about 1500 contacts and 1700 other contacts (email addresses only), and TONS of notes in contact 'comments' fields   (foreshadowing here....'comments' fields....)
    After about 60 minutes of thinking the index for my records was corrupt...and reboots and resets and internet searches..I tried thinking differently....and I started looking at the 'comments' fields in my contacts...and whoooaaaa....arghhhhh...
    It appears spotlight is now indexing 'comments' section of contacts now as well many other fields in the contact records that I don't believe were previously indexed.........and apple is NOT not prioritizing the results by any fields (like giving first name, last name, business name top hit result priority)....and I know for a fact it did not use index notes..because i needed that function so I downloaded an app to do that....I found the fact that it did not index 'comments' section annoying, but tolerable...now they they are indexing it, but with poor implementation and no prioritization, spotlight has become a great tool for locating **** near anything on my phone...but a really crappy short cut to get to the contacts I wanted to get to....a better implementation of prioritization of 'top hits' would go a long ways...
    Back to my searches again....when I searched 'Ho'.........Chris Luxxxis showed up first as a 'top hit'....made no sense at all....but this is what I pieced together.....e he was the most recent phone call I made, and 'ho' is in the 'comments' section of his contact info 6 times........in the words home, home inspector, house masters, house password.....arghhhhh.....I did a lot more searches...and made some phone calls, and when I ran same search again....Chris Luxxxx was not longer an immediate top hit!?!?  ****...I don't need a short cut to recent calls in my top hits spotlight search!?!? It's not the magic genie!!!!  And when applied like that..it just makes a huge bowl of spaghetti!!
    I thought...okay...well, overall it's a better tool for finding EVERYTHING on my phone, just crappier for shortcutting to contacts to make calls and send emails....(i never used the contacts section of my phone on 4s for 3 years...just used spotlight, and it was awesome, easy and fast and got me to my contacts better than any other search system on any device i'd ever had).......So I thought.....ok so maybe I'll just have to used my contacts area more now to get to my contacts........and guess what...it appears the same darn alogrythim for search results there!!!
    Apple has obliterated the concept of top hits in spotlight search..and made finding the common items in the phone like contacts a heck of a lot more typing....I only have 1 Holly in my contacts....and I have to type 'Holly Bow' before she is the sole contact shown...and I have to get to 'Holly B' before the list is down to 15 results....oh....but if I recall this issue and start with her last name...only need to get three letters in to find her...unfortunately, but its individuall relevent...ie another contacts last name is a bomb for searching, but first is quick....
    Apple use to think for their users...they assumed what was most important given a spot in an application...and overall, made some decent decisions for the non technically oriented....(personally, I didn't like it...been a pc guy for 20 years..and a programmer...drove me nuts, but had a place for their customer base and nice if what you did with your computer was inline with the applications apple designed their machines to be great at....)...and I loved my iphone 4s compared to too many config options and poor implementation on windows phones ...and i'm still an iphone fan...for it's simplicity and lack of total cusomization actually (i get my creative juices flowing doing things other than customizing smart phones)........but in this case, too much info can be as bad or worse than not enough if you don't include some controls to start limiting relevance somehow....
    I'm 90 minutes into this...guess now that I seem to have concluded what's up...I can start working with it or around it...but it's a big departure for where spotlight was...and while it offers more...for me, it's offering a lot less for my hourly and daily needs.
    If my assumptions about these changes are wrong or anyones figured out how to get top hits useful again, please advise.
    thx

    Try at total shut down of Safari, double click on the home button then find the Safari app, hold you finger on the app for a few secs then tap the red minus sign to close the app. Re-launch Safari then give it a try. 

  • 10.5.5 Client Getting No Results with Spotlight Search

    Hi -
    My company is slow to change. We are just now getting some Leopard workstations in our enterprise. The thing my users noticed right away was that under 10.5.5, they are unable to get any results from Spotlight searches on our Tiger Xserves over AFP. The Tiger workstation users can get search results from share points but not Leopard ones.
    The Xserves all have 10.4.9 Server installed. The XServes and workstations are all bound to AD with SSO turned on. I limited the servers 10.4.9 Server because with 10.4.11 Server I get AD issues. 10.4.9 is stable for us.
    I am forced to use Leopard as the new MacPros demand it
    My question - What should I do so the Leopard workstations (10.5.5) can get real Spotlight results from my share points?
    I have looked at the other Apple Support Boards and I don't get understand what they are talking about.
    Thanks in advance.

    I am an IT manager in a similar situation. However, I have shelled out the thousands to upgrade everything to the latest OS with my xserve running 10.5.5, and users running 10.5.5 or 10.5.6. Spotlight is totally useless. I have talked to tech "supportless" several times - no help. I have installed and reinstalled 10.5 on the server, reformatted drives, copied and deleted hundreds of gigs of data, done all kinds of terminal commands that were supposed to fix it, but it still just doesn't work. I wish Apple would stop coming out with new stuff for a while and fix this basic computer function. For now I use "Better Search". Better Search is Freeware from http://www.fornextsoft.com. Its ok - at least it finds stuff, but it is still not 100% accurate sometimes.

  • ITunes, App Store and Bing results in Spotlight Search?

    Hi there
    iOS 8 was supposed to bring new levels of richness to Spotlight search results on iOS, including iTunes, App Store and Bing results (amongst others?). But none of my iOS 8 devices are showing me these results in Spotlight searches. I'm looking at an iPad Mini with Retina Display, iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and an iPad Air here, none of which are showing results any different to iOS 7.
    What gives here? Are these features limited to certain geographic locations? I'm in Denmark, for what it's worth.

    Hi drdaz,
    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
    Please refer to the attached weblink for information on the changes to Spotlight search in iOS 8. 
    Apple - iOS 8 - Spotlight
    Have a great day,
    Joe

  • How do I move the spotlight search window out of the freaking way in Yosemite??????????

    The spotlight search window is Yosemite is obtrusive. How can I get the old spotlight behavior back in Yosemite? Spotlight windows used to be on the side and out of the way. Now spotlight is completely worthless, if it is going block what I am working on. I don't need a luanchpad app. OS X is a multitask environment and spotlight kills the ability to multitask. My desktop and laptop computers are not tablets, so why is spotlight limiting their abilities.

    There are lots of useful things you can do with spotlight. My most common uses are: (a) an app launcher, and (b) a quick calculator, (c) a search tool. Each of you probably have others.
    When I'm using it as an app launcher, the pop-up window in the middle of the screen is not an issue. I type a few keys and it's gone. For example, "CMD-Spacebar S A Return" launches safari.
    When I'm using it as a calculator the pop-up window is often annoying because it obscures the data I want to do calculations on. I have to remember all the numbers I want to type in. Could I just use the calculator app? Of course, but this wasn't an issue previously.
    When I'm using it as a search tool the pop-up window is usually not a problem but sometimes obscures information I want to see
    Bottom line based on my use cases is that I prefer the pop-up out of the way in the corner.

  • Spotlight Search for 0KB Images?

    I'm having a big problem with my iPhoto Library.
    Is there a way for me to search for 0KB images in an iPhoto Library (say after I do a Show Package Contents)?
    If so, I'd love to get specific instructions on how to do this. Also, if there is a Spotlight Forum please direct me to it as I could not find it.
    Thanks

    Or try Find Any File . I find Spotlight searches overly complex and limited.
    -mj

  • HT204014 How can I get spotlight search to work over a network running OS X Server?

    I have installed OS X Server on an iMac to share its files over a network.
    I can access the files fine, but if I try and search the shared folders from another Mac on the network it yields no results.
    How can I get search to work as well as it does on the files on local disks.

    Spotlight searching of shared volumes works for me using OS X 10.10.3 Server and OS X 10.10.3 client, as follows:
    If I use Spotlight to search for some content "Aaron Aardvark" the file that contains this text does not seem to show up in the immediate results, but if I select "Show All in Finder" and switch from "This Mac" to "Shared" the file "untitled text.txt" that contains it is listed.
    In the past Spotlight was responsible for bringing servers to their knees, so I suspect that the above two-step process is a way of limiting server searches to cases where it is actually required.
    Server 4.1 (OS X 10.10.3) seems to add the extended attributes needed to allow Spotlight to index sharepoints:
         test_server3:~ admin$ ls -el /Volumes/Server\ 3\ Users/
         total 0
         drwxr-xr-x+ 4 admin  staff  136 30 Apr 17:02 Server 3 Users
          0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
         test_server3:~ admin$
    but in the past, e.g. Snow Leopard server, you could choose whether or not these attributes were set or not. IIRC  Snow Leopard clients would always include server volumes in Spotlight searches, causing significant slow-downs on the client, so a lot of sysadmins, myself included, chose not to enable it.
    C.

  • Using AppleScript for launch a raw-query Spotlight search?

    As per usual with my limited scripting skills, I am finding the apparently simple stuff rather difficult to achieve.
    My problem with Spotlight is that I want to use the same type of raw query repeatedly, but I want to avoid the tedium of having to:
    1) open my saved search
    2) choose "Show Criteria" to make the saved raw query visible
    3) edit the text field containing the raw query, where the visible stuff is not what I want to edit, so I have to scroll to the right within that tiny field
    So my idea would be to design a simple UI with AppleScript that
    1) pops up a dialog asking for a phrase to search
    2) launches a Spotlight search using the raw query:
    kMDItemTextContent=="xxx*"
    where "xxx" is the phrase that I am searching for, and opens a Finder window with the results of that search.
    My reason for wanting to do this is that, by default, a search for an exact phrase with Spotlight fails to return matches that contain the plural form when the searched phrase is a singular.
    See:
    http://www.betalogue.com/2010/05/07/spotlight-plural/
    http://www.betalogue.com/2010/05/11/spotlight-phrase/
    for more information about the background for this.
    Would this be relatively easy to do with AppleScript?
    Thanks in advance.
    Pierre

    Hi
    Pierre Igot wrote:
    Am I correct in assuming that this means that what I wanted could not just be achieved with AppleScript and required a Perl script?
    Message was edited by: Pierre Igot
    A smart folder is an XML file (PLIST), you can edit it in many ways.
    It's possible with other shell commands (sed or awk).
    But perl works seamlessly with extended characters (ASCII > 127)
    Also it's possible with AppleScript commands (open for access, read, write, close access), or with *property list file* in System events
    But it requires more lines of code.
    Here's the script :
    global a_text
    set smartFolder to "/Users/jack/Library/Saved Searches/Recherche dans “Bureau”.savedSearch"
    set a_text to text returned of (display dialog "Enter a phrase to search" default answer "")
    if a_text contains """ then
    set a_text to findAndReplace(""", "\"", a_text)
    end if
    tell application "System Events"
    set TheXML to property list file smartFolder
    repeat with i in (get property list items of contents of TheXML)
    set t_name to name of i
    if t_name is "RawQuery" then
    tell i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
    else if t_name is "SearchCriteria" then
    tell property list item 2 of property list item "displayValues" of property list item 1 of property list item "FXCriteriaSlices" of i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
    else if t_name is "RawQueryDict" then
    tell property list item "RawQuery" of i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
    end if
    end repeat
    end tell
    set smartFolder to ((POSIX file smartFolder) as alias)
    tell application "Finder"
    activate
    open smartFolder
    end tell
    on replace_text(t)
    set x to the offset of "kMDItemTextContent==" in t
    set L to length of t
    repeat with i from L to 1 by -1
    if character i of t = """ then
    set y to i
    exit repeat
    end if
    end repeat
    return (text 1 thru (x + 20) of t) & a_text & (text y thru -1 of t)
    end replace_text
    on findAndReplace(tofind, toreplace, t)
    set ditd to text item delimiters
    set text item delimiters to tofind
    set t to text items of t
    set text item delimiters to toreplace
    set t to t as string
    set text item delimiters to ditd
    return t
    end findAndReplace

  • Help! On the new iOS 7 I can't find spotlight search!

    Help! On the new iOS 7 I can't find spotlight search!

    Then you are swiping too close to the top of the screen.
    Spotlight Search

  • I accidentally quit my CC on my Macbook pro and now the cloud icon is grayed out and every time I hover over it with the mouse I get the spinning beach ball of death on the icon. I have no idea how to open it because when I use spotlight search to open it

    I accidentally quit my CC on my Macbook pro and now the cloud icon is grayed out and every time I hover over it with the mouse I get the spinning beach ball of death on the icon. I have no idea how to open it because when I use spotlight search to open it it gives me a message saying "Creative Cloud is not open anymore" help!

    Since you didn't include any pertinent info such as the Mac model and OS version you are running, here is some general information:
    Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
    Depending on which OS yours came with originally - and which OS you are now running - you would either need your original install disks - you can call Apple for replacements by giving them your serial number. Or you may be able to reinstall the OS by using recovery (again, depends on which model/which OS).

  • Why is my spotlight search slow/unresponsive in IOS 7... specifically when I start the search with the letters "n" or "c".

    I have an iPhone 5 that must be just over a year old now. I don't remember exactly when this problem started, but I think it was right after updating to IOS 7. The problem is that with certain searches, such as "chrome" or "calender", the spotlight search will basically do nothing. It is somewhat random. Sometimes it will work imidiatly as I am typing it like it usually did. But other times, I will write out the whole word, press search, and still nothing will come up.
    As I was just testing it now, I came up with an interesting discovery. I tested every letter of the alphabet and while 24 of them immidiatly worked fine like usual, it was actually only searches that started with "n" or "c" that did not work. Perhaps the reason I noticed this so much is because some of the apps I use all the time are Chrome, Calender, Notes, Contacts, Calculator, Clock, Camera (wow- just realized how many apps started with "c"!).
    While in spotlight, if I type in C or N and then delete it and try to type another letter that would work normally, it does not work. So if I type in N and then delete it and type in A, A will not come up with results like it would if I just started with A. But if I close and reopend spotlight search and then type in A, it works fine.
    When spotlight search is unresponsive if I wait for about a min sometimes results will actually come up, other times it will sort of crash (it will just randomly close before any results came up).
    I could go on and on with the little details concerning this problem but I do not know what info would/would not be useful to you guys. I have tried restoring my phone from a backup and nothing changed. I am updated to the most recent version. My phone has never been jailbroken and otherwise is in perfect shape.
    Thanks for reading,
    Matt

    I've seen this happen before, and generally turning off Documents and Data in Settings > iCloud will fix it.
    If that doesn't work, try the following.
    1. Restart the phone and check it out.
    2. Reset the phone (hold the home button and the lock button until you see an Apple Logo and then let them go).
    3. Go into Settings > General > Reset > Reset all Settings and test it out again
    4. If none of the above work, try creating either an iTunes backup or an iCloud backup and restore the device as new using iTunes. Here's an article to help with that: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4137

  • Mail+Spotlight Search Not Working in Lion

    I've been dealing with this problem for over a month and have not been able to fix it.  Search works fine in Lion on several computers, but on my laptop it still won't do a complete search.  It will only pull up emails from people in my contacts list..... no subject key word searches or people outside my contacts searches..... very frustrating! The searches also don't work in Spotlight, so I can't use spotlight as a backup.
    I've tried rebuilding my mailbox.... deleting and recreating the account.... tossing out the Envelope Index folders in the Mail library... Deleting and re installing my search window, etc...... I see lot's of other people with the same issue. It's frustrating when your running your business on your computer and have to deal with a flaw in a new OS..... it was working fine in Leopard..... whats up APPLE?  Please help! 
    Other Info:
    Macbook Pro 2008 Version with 2.5 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
    Running 10.7.4

    Glenn,
    Regarding adding and deleting the System Drive from the Spotlight Privacy Tab...... I'm following your sequence, but when I come back to Spotlight Search in the menu bar it just works the same.... no mention of indexing. What's interesting is that "Mail" dosn't appear anywhere in search results when a keyword search is performed via spotlight.
    Regarding the "enevelope Index Files" ..... I followed the instructions and quit and re-opened mail as instructed.  When I re-opened Mail I selected "continue" and the program began to index the contents of mail for about 30 minutes.  I thought that would would fix the issue, but it's still not working. 
    I've tried to compare the account setup from my IMAC which works fine to see if I have something setup wrong in the account, but everything looks the same. 
    I guess I can try to re-index again?  Don't know what else to do? 
    Thanks,
    Bill

  • Password protecting mail app and permanent deletion of emails so they don't appear in spotlight search

    I realise that there is a temporary way to prevent this happening by unticking the 'mail' option in the spotlight search settings menu, but how do you permanently delete the emails? I assumed that when I hit delete then emptied the trash box, the mails were gone for good. But finding that they remain stored in some hidden place and can be easily accessed is very annoying! In fact, finding that other users can quickly change the settings back and have free access to my email is rather disturbing anyway, especially as there is no way to password protect my email account once i activate the mail app. the apple mail app is linked to my yahoo account, but within yahoo mail there seems to be no problem in regards to deleted mail being stored somewhere else, only within the apple app system.
    So i guess id like to know, is there some way to password protect my account or do I just need to keep deleting my account before lending the ipad to someone else and then reinstating it? And is there any way to properly delete emails for good?
    I would be happy just to go without the mail app and log in directly through yahoo in Safari, except that I find the notification alert when I receive a new mail very handy!!

    [edit] I dragged the email I sent through the MBP Mail app (under MAILBOXES > Sent > Yahoo!) to the highlighted Sent folder (YAHOO! > Sent), and now it shows up on all Yahoo Sent folders (iPad app, web browser, phone app). Not entirely solved the issue but will use web browser to sent future emails to keep everything in sync.

  • Spotlight search doesn't include my email - should it?

    Sorry but I am a newbie running Lion
    I can search in the Mail app and find the email I am looking for (I have a Gmail IMAP account setup)
    When I search using the spotlight app however, it is not searching for email
    My questions is - should I be able to find emails in the spotlight search app?
    Sorry if this is known by all
    I did a clean install of Lion on  a 2010 27" iMac
    thanks
    Mark

    I just did a test and Spotlight found my Gmail messages.
    Go to Ststem Preferences/Spotlight and be sure you have "Messages and Chats" selected.  Also in Privacy, make sure you don't Gmail set to be excluded.

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