Smart Folders: filtering file labels by the NAME of the label

I am using Smart Folders to organize some files. Spotlight searches are quite powerful, but I'd like to know if there's more I can do with file labels.
I am using kMDItemFSLabel values to filter my smart folders, but this presents a small inconvenience: finder's kMDItemFSLabel values for the colors are not obvious (orange = 7, red = 6, yellow = 5 - which is orange higher than red? And green = 2?) and I would prefer use my own priority choice.
Can either:
Finder's values for kMDItemFSLabel associated with each color label be changed? (this sound unwise to me, however)
or
Can I use the text value I attach to each value as a sort? Say rename "red" label to "100" and "orange" to "90" and then filter by THOSE values?
Any ideas?

Thanks for your response. Yeah, I'm aware of that. The problem is that I'd like to do sort or filters with those values, but they aren't very practical. I can assign text values to each label, but I don't seem to be able to use those in sorts.
So kMDItemFSLabel > 4 yields all orange, yellow and red files. Not bad, but the fact that orange is a higher value means I have to work around this odd enumeration.
So I'd like to either: change the system values (not ideal) or find a way to filter or sort the text values I can assign to each label. Any idea if either of these are possible?

Similar Messages

I have just recently bought a MacBook Air. I am looking for an email which I put into a folder on my Mac Pro. The smart folders have come across to the Air, but not the 'On my Mac' folders. Are they lost?

I have just recently bought a MacBook Air. I am looking for an email which I put into a folder on my Mac Pro. The smart folders have come across to the Air, but not the 'On my Mac' folders. Are they lost?

Are you sure that the "On My Mac" folders weren't empty? If all your mail accounts are IMAP, they may have been.

How to find folders and files by its partial name c#

in a specific folder of my hard drive i have stored many other sub folder and files. now i want to list those folders and files name by their partial name.
for example
c webapi xx folder
c mvctutorial xx folder
done webapi xx folder
webapi done folder
webapi.zip file
mvc.iso file
now when i like to search by partial name webapi then i want to get list of files and folders name which has webapi word. i want to show their full folder or file name in grid with their full path and size. like below way.
Name Type location Size
c webapi xx folder c:\test1 2 KB
c mvctutorial xx folder c:\test3 3 KB
done webapi xx folder c:\test1 11 KB
webapi done folder c:\test1 9 KB
webapi.zip file c:\test1 20 KB
mvc.iso file c:\test4 5 KB
i got a sample code which look like for finding files but the below code may not find folder. so i am looking for a sample code which will find files and folders too. so guide me to solve my issue.
the below sample code will find files but not sure does it find files by partial name. here is the code. i am not before dev environment. so could not test the below code.
find files code
static void Main(string[] args)
string partialName = "webapi";
DirectoryInfo hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch = new DirectoryInfo(@"c:\");
FileInfo[] filesInDir = hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch.GetFiles("*" + partialName + "*.*");
foreach (FileInfo foundFile in filesInDir)
string fullName = foundFile.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(fullName);

See code below
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
class Program
static void Main(string[] args)
string partialName = "webapi";
DirectoryInfo hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch = new DirectoryInfo(@"c:\");
FileInfo[] filesInDir = hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch.GetFiles("*" + partialName + "*.*");
foreach (FileInfo foundFile in filesInDir)
string fullName = foundFile.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(fullName);
DirectoryInfo[] foldersInDir = hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch.GetDirectories("*" + partialName + "*.*");
foreach (DirectoryInfo foundFolder in foldersInDir)
string fullName = foundFolder.FullName;
Console.WriteLine(fullName);
// or
List<string> filesInDir2 = hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch.GetFiles("*" + partialName + "*.*").Select(x => x.FullName).ToList();
filesInDir2.AddRange( hdDirectoryInWhichToSearch.GetDirectories("*" + partialName + "*.*").Select(x => x.FullName).ToList());
foreach (string filesFolders in filesInDir2)
Console.WriteLine(filesFolders);
jdweng

Smart folders for file server

A while back I got very excited about Spotlight and created some Smart folders to display my PNG, PSD and FLA files that live on our file server.
Problem is that that when I click on them, they take ages to load. I assume Spotlight is not indexing the file server. If that's the case, can Smart folders ever been of any practical use for me?

Hi, Paul.
Spotlight neither works nor plays well with server / network-attached / shared volumes. See my recent post here for details.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Smart folders with file extensions

I'm trying to create a SF including a couple different file extensions but as soon as add the 2nd file type the search goes empty in finder.....
i want avi, mp4, and flv files in there......

You want to see them all, so you need a logical 'OR' between the file extensions you're seeking.
In the Search Criteria, use Name, Contains, and then enter _.avi OR .mp4 OR .flv_
If you've been trying to do it by adding another criteria with the 'plus' button on the right, then you're using a logical 'AND', and obviously the files should not have two or three file extensions.

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

Smart Folders show icons only in Open Dialog pane

Hi,
I have created a couple of Smart Folders and put them in the side bar. When i select the Smart Folder, it shows the files and their preview icons. When i access the same Smart Folder in an Open Dialog pane from Keynote or another application, it shows regular file icons only, not the preview icons.
Is this how it is supposed to work?

While I'm not quite sure what you mean, it sounds to me like you had the Open dialog set for Column view, and at some point changed it to List view. Take a look at the toolbar at the top of the Open dialog window, you should see the back/forward buttons, then a group of three icons representing icon, list and column view. Both icon view and column view will show a preview icon of the selected file. Personally, I like icon view, since you see all the files that fit in the window with custom thumbs, and can pick what you want quickly. If you change the setting, in say Safari, to list view (which makes more sense in Safari), then the Open dialog for, say, TextEdit gets changed too. Just change it back by clicking the little icon in the toolbar at the top of the Open window.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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.

Smart folders keep resetting

Hi everybody
I have made a number of smart folders but they keep resetting the rules that I have made for the folders.
I have a suspicion that it happens every time I sync. with my .mac account. But I am not sure.
Doe’s anyone have a good suggestion that can solve my problem.
Best
Lars Kudsk

Hi Kudsk .
Yes, this looks like a .Mac syncing issue.
First of all, in Address Book do File > Back up Address Book, just in case something goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. It wouldn’t be the first time someone loses his/her entire Address Book because of syncing issues.
Now, set up things the way you want, then go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.

Preparing for Mountain Lion - what folders and files should be saved?

Hi gang,
Although some of you make think this is obvious, it really is not. In preparation for Mountain Lion, I curious what folders and files (other than the obvious) should I move off to another drive? I'm going to do a clean install this time around. I'll probably do an upgrade first to understand any gotcha's when I upgrade my wife's MBP later, then do a clean install.
I'm going to move the documents, my Aperture and iPhoto libraries, but I'm unsure about the iTunes folder and my movies and such. Most of my software has come from the App Store, so I don't need to worry aobut those, and the few other programs I have the software for (iWork, iLife, but we'll probably need new versions of those.
I just preparing a list to make sure that I get everthing.
Thanks, Mark

When doing a clean install OS upgrade I like to swap out the time machine drive, storing/retiring the old time machine as a backup of the old system while keeping it's Time Machine history.
So personally what I do is:
#1 clone my boot drive to an external (at this point I have two backups Time Machine + a clone)
#2 wipe the boot drive and install new OS on it (at this point I still have two copies of my data TM + clone)
#3 verifiy the old time machine is accessible from the new boot drive (sometimes due to ownership/permissions/filevault this is a problem so check even if migrating from clone)
#4 selectively migrate files from clone or TM to new install
#5 Start a new time machine of the new OS drive (sometimes I'll wipe the clone at this point and use it, prefering to keep the old TM as a archived backup)
One note, I've burned myself at least once forgetting that I'd excluded some parts of my old drive from Time Machine drive (usually Podcasts, Movies), so pay attention to that before relying on it.

Super-slow smart folders?

I'm currently using Mail as my default RSS reader. I have a number of Smart Folders set up to organize the feeds into categories (each based on a list of "From" rules). These smart folders, however, are SLOW. They'll update the unread counts and then when I click on them it will take anywhere from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes for the new messages to actually display.
This problem seems to only be related to smart folders that contain RSS feeds - my smart folders that hold mail messages are appropriately zippy, and selecting the RSS feeds themselves rather than the smart folders is perfectly fine.
Ideas? What might be slowing down the smart folders just for RSS feeds?

Try to start *Windows* in safe mode with networking enabled.
- Win8 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-including-safe-mode
- Win7 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode
- XP http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx
Still in Windows safe mode, start Thunderbird in safe mode.
- https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/safe-mode
Does the problem go away?

Photo smart folders not populated

I've gone through the pain of syncing 10,000 photos from 1 MacBook Air and 2 iPhones into 1 icloud Photo library. All good.
Then I went through the pain of converting events into keyword based smart folders. All good on the MacBook.
Not the folders and the photo stream appear on the iphones, but the folders are not populated.
Any ideas?

*Now

Cannot backup my files / copy my files and folders due to error message " The operation can't be completed because an item with the name ".DS_Store" already exists. "

Hi Apple community!
I have a [rather worrying] problem.
When I try to copy all my files from my documents on my mac [or the entire documents folder] into an external drive, I get this error message
" The operation can’t be completed because an item with the name “.DS_Store” already exists. "
I am not given an option to skip this file or anything else.
But I simply cannot complete the operation!
I have tried deleting a few of the .ds_store files, [both in the original and in the destinations]
but no success.
The same thing keeps happening.
At first, this was just happening when I was trying to backup to my dropbox folder [the one on my mac's harddrive, which gets synced to the cloud],
but then I tried to back up my documents to my external hard drive, and I realized it is giving me the same error message.
So effectively, it seems I cannot backup my files anywhere!
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, or by corruption of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

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.

I moved my Backups.backupdb folder to a larger hard drive and the transfer went fine with the space taken was correct but when i open my Backups.backupdb folder and browse there is actually no folders or files, the folder shows 280gig used but empty?

So i draged my time machine Backups.backupdb folder from my external hard drive to a larger external hard drive, the folder size was 280gig and took some time to transfer and once transfered i checked the size on the larger drive and the folder size was correct 280 gig. Job done i thought but the next day (stupidly after formating my oringinal drive) checked the Backups.backupdb i see that there is actually no folders or files in the Backups.backupdb??? when transfer the file it shows the 280 gig and names the files being tranfered but i just can't find them. Any clues how i can acces these files?
Thank you in advance for any help and let me know if any specifics are needed

That is not the proper way to do what you want. You need to use Disk Utility to clone the old backup drive to the new backup drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new backup drive. Source means the old backup drive.

Smart Folders: filtering file labels by the NAME of the label

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for