Making Smart Folders that only look in certain places

On Tiger, I could easily make a Smart Folder that only looked inside a given folder (and those below it) very easily..all I had to do was click the "other" button the appeared in the "Search:" bar in the Smart Folder. Then I could specify where I wanted the Smart Folder to look.
Try as I might, I've been unable to duplicate this functionality in Leopard. Am I missing something?

What you want is easily done, as V.K. pointed out, that is, to search a folder and all its sub-folders. The real problem with the disappearance of the Tiger "Other" is that you can not search two separate folders or places easily: your only choices in Leopard are This Mac, or the folder you initiate the search in. Searching two places can be done, as a Smart Folder, but not easily (you need a way to edit the code of the Smart Folder file--I use Property List Editor). You may find the little section on Spotlight in the Leopard Review I wrote helpful:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/Leopard/leospot.html
While the short-comings in the GUI are a bit annoying, Spotlight is basically working very well. If there is some particular short-coming you are finding particularly annoying (the inability to list results by size springs immediately to my mind), be sure to let Apple know:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html/
If no one complains they'll figure they got it right. If enough people complain they may well change it, as they did with Stacks and the transparency run amok things (both modified in the .2 update).
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Similar Messages

Music/Photos only look in certain folders?

I copy all my music to a folder called 'Music' and my photos go to whatever the phone's default folder is. However, when I go into the music player, it lists all the audio files on my phone including sound effects, voice recordings and so on. The photo gallery does a similar thing, showing all images on my phone including album art and contact photos. I just want it to show the photos i've taken!
Is there a way to set these library applications to only look in certain folders?

Symbian devices are designed to pick up compatible file types wherever they are stored on the device, because there are always at least two and increasingly with high-end devices like the Nseries three different accessible memories (phone memory, mass memory and memory card).
There are alternative ways to organise data, for example the photo gallery will normally have the feature to create multiple galleries, and the music player will use ID3 tag data to organise music, which should leave all ringtones under something like 'unknown artist' or 'unknown album', and also the feature to create multiple playlists.
If this or any post answers your question, please remember to help others by pressing the 'Accept as solution' button.

How to create a smart folder that only selects from a specific directory?

I am trying to create a smart folder that lists all my iPhoto original content in the last few months. I want this so that my wife can connect into the smart folder over the LAN when copying specific photos to her PC.
I am have trouble working out how to restrict the search to only those files that exists in the iPhoto directory. When I look at info for a photo is states "Where: /Users/Shared/iPhoto Library/iPhoto Library/Data/2009/....etc etc".
However if I add an filter for "Where from" begins with "/Users/Shared/... etc etc" it returns nothing. Is there a way to do this?

Find the iPhoto library file.
Right click -> Show package contents.
Double click the Originals folder.
Type anything in the Search box at the top of the Finder window.
In the top of the Finder window, click "Originals".
Click the + (plus) sign next to Save.
Select Kind is Image.
Click the + (plus) sign again.
Select *Created date* is *within last 3 months* (or whatever you want).
Go to the search box and delete what you typed. Don't hit the X to delete the search text.
Now save the smart search.
This is saved in ~\Library\Saved searches. Copy or move it to the desktop where your wife can get access to it.

How can I create a smart folder that only searches one event?

Is it possible to create a smart album but have it not search my entire library, but only a certain event?
I have created a smart album to find unnamed faces, but I have many old pictures in my library with strangers in them so the smart album ends up quite large. If I could apply the rules of the smart album to only one event at a time I could find the photos i need with no faces recognized in them easier right after I import them.
Or conversely, is there a fast way to delete all the unnamed faces boxes for all my pictures with strangers in them- there must be a faster way than going through and clicking the 'X' on each individual face.
Thanks!

Make the criteria: Event Contains XXXXXXX and Faces is unnamed. That will search only that Event.
OT

I need a Smart Album that only contains photos with NO faces detected

I've been fiddling with the smart album settings, and I can't seem to find a way to do this. iPhoto will miss detection on some faces, and I need a way to see ONLY the photos that iPhoto didn't find a face for.
This is NOT the same as a smart album with an "unknown" face. This is a smart album that will show ALL photos with NO face detected at all.
Is this possible?

Boy, why can't we use Smart Folders as a criteria for creating another Smart Folder? This works in iTunes! You can use a Smart Playlist as a criteria for creating another Smart Playlist.
Well, here is what you can do...
Create a Smart Folder that gathers all of the identified Faces. Faces --> is not --> unnamed
Then drag all those photos to a standard album titled Faces Named
Next Create a Smart folder that gathers all of the unnamed Faces. Faces --> is --> unnamed
Now drag all those photos to a standard album title Faces Unnamed.
Finally, create a Smart Album with the following criteria...
Album --> is not --> Faces Named
Album --> is not --> Faces Unnamed
That should gather every photo that iPhoto has determined that no faces exist.

Smart Folders That Omit Files Contained In Particular Folders

I would like to create a smart folder that contains all files that have a filename matching a certain string that are not contained in a list of particular folders e.g. everything that has ".pdf" in the filename that is not contained in folders Downloads or Music.
I do not want to permanently exclude these folders from Spotlight's indexing just omit search results that yield files contained in certain folders.
Is there a way to do this?
Thanks

Folder has not been a criteria available for searching. There is a raw query item for the folder, but it specifically states that it cannot be used in a search.
I'm not aware of a workaround.

Smart Folders that Omit Image Criteria?

In the midst of so many serious problems, this one is pretty trivial.
I have the sample Tibet project folder in my Library and I'd like to keep it there. But I'd also like the Tibet images not to show up in my smart folders, like "* or better" or "2005" under Library. Is there any way to NOT show an image if it contains a keyword or other criteria?

Folder has not been a criteria available for searching. There is a raw query item for the folder, but it specifically states that it cannot be used in a search.
I'm not aware of a workaround.

Smart Folders to find files with certain priviledges

How do I set up a smart folder to display files that have only read&write privileges within a directory.

You mmight have better success using a standard Finder search. In the Finder press Command-F and then you can apply various filters to isolate files based on kind, name, dates created/modified, and a large number of additional metadata criteria.
If for some reason you can only find files that you have already modified (ie, by searching wiith modification date), then one way to reverse this for a search is to first find these files, then select them all and apply a Finder label to them (ie, "Red") and then perform the search on the same folders again but this time search for all items that are not labeled "Red" and your other items should show up.

Is there a way to create a Smart Mailbox that shows Sent emails only?

Hi there,
I am trying to find a way to create a smart mailbox that only shows emails I have sent.
If I receive 20 emails today, 10 yesterday say, I have a Smart MB where I have set up emails received today, another SMB for emails received yesterday and another SMB for emails I've received in the past week. I can very easily see what has come in during the last few days or whatever.
What I also have are rules that move all emails received and sent to specific folders. The idea is that I will have nothing in my INBOX. The problem is that although it's easy to set up views to see what emails I've received on any day using the calendar option, I can't see a way of doing this to see what emails I've sent.
So, if I receive 20 emails today and I replied to 3 of them, those 3 will get sent to whatever folder I've allocated for them - I put all emails TO/FROM in one folder for each email address. This way I don't have 2 email folders TO and SENT for each recipient.
My problem is that I want to ONLY look at what I've sent today or maybe yesterday etc. if I can set things up the same way as receiving emails, But I can't seem to do this.
Seems strange that there are options to see filter out what's coming in but not what is being sent! But if there's a way to do this, it would be appreciated.
Regards,
Maz

Mail creates a Sent mail folder automatically when you set up an account. All your sent mails are kept there. You configure how it saves your sent mail here:
You should see the mailbox in Mail's sidebar:

Design flaw in MAC OS X "smart folders" system resulting date lose

Hello there !
I would like your opinion on that issue.
This is how I discovered it : many, too many friends who switched to Mac reported me loss of iPhoto pictures with a question mark instead of the picture and "corrupted" iPhoto library. Is been more than 2 years and 15 persons in my entourage who reported that to me. This is big, too big in my opinion to not take in account those behaviors. I always thought they used iPhoto in a (very) bad way and I was wrong. They never recovered their picture.
After observing by chance how they manage their pictures, I observed, in my opinion, a big design flow in Mac OS X "smart folder" system that can too easily lead to (logically) data corruption in iPhoto.
As you know, Mac OS X comes with pre-made "Auto search" "smart folders" that are available in the lateral bar of every finder window such as "all images", "all movies".
What my friend do is use this automatic "all images" smart folder to browse recent imported pictures in iPhoto and send them by e-mail and move them around their disc, and/or share them. I fact I never had the idea of doing that with those folder, and this is very quick and handy !
Where the huge issue lies is that this auto "All images" smart folder searches INSIDE the iPhoto library package ! Therefore, if you move a file from the smart folder "all images" result to another place in your hard drive, you actually remove it FROM THE IPHOTO library package folder and iPhoto naturally lose track of the picture resulting in data loss.
I posted you a screenshot to illustrate that :
http://gallery.me.com/jbroussel#100105
I really wonder how the Apple Team can factory "lock" the iPhoto library content by making the folder a "package", BUT, at the SAME TIME, allow the predefine "all images" "Smart folder" browse in this entire very folder as if its content was available to the user. It is not a "Smart Folder" at all.
In a user point of view this is a huge FLAW. No wonder the user have no clue that he (or she) is doing something wrong by doing so. I especially noticed those error from users switching from Windows machine.
In my opinion this the most illogical design I saw in a long time !
What do you think about it ? Am I to exigent ? Too logical ?
Message was edited by: Didsayan

Thank you all for your interesting feedback, really.
When I say 15 people, it is the truth because I love to help my entourage with Mac (since I often recommended them the Mac in the first place), and this is on a 2 years timeframe, so it is not that bad, but I is enough to me to consider their behaviors, especially since I would not have done it myself (I am a Mac-only user).
Most of them had a backup (thanks Time Machine), but unfortunately, when they do noticed the problem it was too late and Time Machine already erased the backup that had the original pictures in it, so they could not retrieve their pictures.
Of course, as you said, some of the pictures were not "lost", just removed in another location, but this led to iPhoto database corruption and this is a lot of trouble. Trying to find the original location of 100+ pictures in iPhoto database is a pretty hard job since the structure is complex and this is very time consuming, I gave up the idea of fixing those folder.
I totally agree on the fact that I is too easy to blame the system for user wrong manipulation.
In that very case, the standard features of the system are to me far too ambiguous :
- iPhoto library folder content is hidden to the user (UNLIKE iTunes library folder)
- but the standard "smart folder" "all image" search within this very "hidden content"
All that without letting the user know if he does not pay attention to the path.
Look at the screenshot I made and you will see the path is so long that it is hard to keep track were the file actually is.
I talked to user who made the mistake, and their belief, this "all image" folder is "like browsing in iPhoto" or like any "media inspector" window like in iMovie or Keynote. Which in fact, is not at all.
I suggested this discussion because in my opinion, this "all images" "smart folder" is too prone to incident, especially with unexperienced user. Thank you for the feedback.
As suggested by etresoft, I will let Apple know.

Searching Smart Folders and Negating... or not...

Hey, I've been searching the discussions for a bit and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
Basically I have two iTunes Library folders (with a bunch of artist/ album sub folders). I have two smart folders that isolate all the audio files from each library... but from there I'm trying to search the two smart folders to see which files are in one folder and not the other. I was trying to use the kMDItemFSName and the kMDItemPath attributes to find what files had 'Temp Music' in their path names compared to those that don't (as a way to differentiate which libraries the files come from). However I don't think I'm using them correctly with all the sub folders. Is there an easy way to search for "whats here && not in here" on the smart folders?
One music library is on an external drive. Don't think that should make much difference... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The path attribute doesn't actually work. I think the best thing to do is to navigate to the iTunes folder in the Finder, hit Command-F, make sure that the iTunes folder is still selected in the toolbar (it tends to revert to Computer), and fill in a the Name:Contains field and also put the search into List view. Then save the search. Do the same for the other iTunes folder. Bring up both Saved searches and check what you want. For instance, if you want to know if both have a certain song or artist folder you would change the Name:Contains field in both to same thing.
As for what you are trying to do: if you actually have a folder named "Temp Music" in your iTunes Libraries, I'm afraid the easiest approach would be to simply open the two folders in List view and compare them.
Personally, I haven't found any easy way to compare file system stuff using nothing but the Finder. The only good way to compare my two iTunes Libraries that I've found is to use the Analyze function of Chronosync:
http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/Downloads/downloads.html
It is what I use for my incremental backups, so I've found it well worth the $30, especially since you get free updates forever.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Smart Playlist: I want to make a smart playlist that plays songs by artists included in other playlists. How?

Here's an example: I have a smart playlist that only plays songs that have been played 2 or more times (Playlist A). I want to make another smart playlist (B) that plays songs by the artists included on playlist A but that are songs not included on playlist A because they have not been played two times yet.
I could do this by making a smart playlist that says to play:
Any songs
not included on Playlist A
by artists included on Playlist A
But for the life of me, I can not figure out how to do this simple thing. My options for Playlist are only "is" or "is not".
I hope that the reason for this is clear - I want to listen to other tracks by artists who have written songs I know I like.
Thanks for looking!

But I have to say, I don't know why that the "is/is not included in" field would not be an option. They oughtta add it!
The problem is that the Smart Playlist rules, although they look complicated, are really oriented to analyzing individual tracks. So "is this track in Playlist A" is easy to do, but "is this track by an Artist for which there is at least one track in playlist A," is currently undoable. However, you can make suggestions to Apple by using the iTunes Feedback page:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html
Thanks you solved my question.
Enjoy the music!

Major change to how smart folders work?

I'm an ex-PC user and one way I configured the finder to work more like how I was used to working was to color code all my folders red and the half-dozen files I work with on a daily basis green. I had smart folders for both in the Tiger sidebar and they were there all the time. In Leopard they are only there in a finder window and are in the search for area. When I am in a program and want to open a file, that search for section is no longer in the sidebar, so I have to drill down through all folders and sub-folders to find the file I want. Am I going to be limited to launching files directly from the smart folder to easily find the files I need and not open from within the application?
RR

By default when you make a Smart Folder and save it you get it saved into this folder:
"/Users/yourname/Library/Saved Searches"
If you open that folder you should see your Smart Folders. Drag them into the "Places" section of the Sidebar in your open Finder window. They will now show up in the Open dialog window of your application. Of course, you will have them listed twice in the normal Finder window: once in places, so you can see them in the Open window, and once in Search For. Jeez, don't the programmers ever have to talk to each other? Anyway, the sensible thing to do is to have other sorts of things, that you don't need access to from an application, in the Search For section--or just close that section up. This is definitely another "what were they thinking" moment.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Enable Smart Views or Smart Folders in Reminders

I used Reminders to keep track of all my tasks across Mac OS X and my iOS devices. To manage the large number of reminders I have in there, it would be great to have a new feature for "Smart Views" or "Smart Folders" that allow you to see those tasks from different views, e.g.:
- by due date (e.g. all overdue tasks, tasks due this month)
- by flag (e.g. Urgent, Important, Unimportant)
- by priority (High, Medium, Low)
At the moment, the workaround is to create different reminder lists, which is cumbersome and only enables one perspective per task, not multiple.

My guess is that Boolean Search will disappear from all Apple apps.
Notes for Apple Mountain Lion and iCloud are an indication. The iOS app is capable of boolean search, not the versions for iCloud and OS X 10.8, however.
The new iWork for iCloud and Mavericks is another indication. I have a guess as to what the cause could be: Boolean Search is not possible with JavaScript. Something that is not possible with iCloud in a webbrowser by JavaScript will disappear from iOS and OS X.
As well as the practical smart folders that exist nowhere except in Apple Mail.
A sharp step backwards, not to achieve simple operation, but due to technical limitations of a programming language.

Spotlight Comment Missing, But Smart Folders Still Work

I have entered a lot of spotlight comments on files. On about several 100 off them, Apple Command i does not show any spotlight comments. Its not likely that I erased or failed to "save" several 100, say about 600 out of 900 files. I know for a fact that I entered spotlight comments on nearly all of my photo files. For some reason, the smart folders that look for spotlight comments still return the files.
I shut down and rebooted. Still no change. For some reason, I cannot find the way to edit the search criteria in smart folders.
Any ideas?

Well, this is proving to be a tough case. I rebooted with Option, Command P and R, and then rebooted in safe mode and ran disk utility, both verify permissions and check volume on both the upper level drive (the one that has a technical name) and the named volume (the one that has a user-assigned name). I hate to say this, but nothing has changed. <darn>.
I am kind of thinking about paying Apple to furnish and install an upgrade to my OS from 10.4 to 10.6 but am reluctant because of persistent reports that the newer OS has driver problems with Epson photo printers, and other issues with Adobe LightRoom which is a critical app for me.
I did search the forum to see if anybody else has the same kind of problem but did not find anything. It generous of you to offer your expertise, so I hate to keep coming back.
Anyway, is there another approach that I could look into?
Thanks!

Making Smart Folders that only look in certain places

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