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Finder: How to change default search criteria to look in content?

On my mac Finder used to search into the content of files as well but suddenly (may be after BigSur upgrade or other OS update) it is only showing matching file names.


How can I force it to look into the content of the files as well?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jun 22, 2021 2:36 AM

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Posted on Jun 24, 2021 6:48 AM

Finally it solved by playing with "mdutil" command, basically disabling, removing and re-enabling indexing.


sudo mdutil -ai off

locate .metadata_never_index (delete any bad entry for / etc)

sudo rm /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 (if allowed)

sudo mdutil -ai on

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 24, 2021 6:48 AM in response to azfar

Finally it solved by playing with "mdutil" command, basically disabling, removing and re-enabling indexing.


sudo mdutil -ai off

locate .metadata_never_index (delete any bad entry for / etc)

sudo rm /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100 (if allowed)

sudo mdutil -ai on

Jun 22, 2021 4:24 AM in response to azfar

I guess that presupposes you know you have files with purge in them? A plain search will do both content and file name.

if you were wanting to just do a contents search without finding file names, you could set that up in the search criteria, or you may be able to use content: search term. I’m not at a Mac to check if that search token will work

Jun 22, 2021 4:27 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:

I guess that presupposes you know you have files with purge in them? A plain search will do both content and file name.
if you were wanting to just do a contents search without finding file names, you could set that up in the search criteria, or you may be able to use content: search term. I’m not at a Mac to check if that search token will work

Yes I have many text files with 'purge' string and I want Finder to search for both filename and content as previously.

Jun 24, 2021 6:54 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney-15E wrote:

If you don’t pick a search token, it should be searching content as well. There isn’t a search token for content, it just does if you don’t filter the results with one of the matching search tokens. Is that not happening for you?


But there is...


content:purge


Also, you can use Boolean connectives like


content:purge AND name:stuff

Finder: How to change default search criteria to look in content?

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