Mac Mini M4
Apple novice
Issue:
I have jpegs on an external drive and am trying to search for them but am having difficulty.
Example:
There is a file named DSC00257.JPG and another called DSC_2570.JPG.
When I search the drive for "257" it finds DSC_2570.JPG [and DSC_2571.JPG and DSC_2572.JPG, etc.], but not DSC00257.JPG.
If I search for "00257" it finds DSC00257.JPG.
Can you help?
Mac mini
Apple's Spotlight expects you to be specific or otherwise, it will match all occurrences of the sequence 257 in image name strings.
kind:jpeg name:0257
finds DSC00257.JPG
kind:jpeg name:_257
finds DSC_2570.JPG, DSC_2571.JPG, and DSC_2572.JPG...
and
kind:jpeg name:_2572
finds just DSC_2572.JPG
Or as rkaufmann87 suggests, the FindAnyFile utility will allow you improvements over Apple's Spotlight.
Apple's Spotlight expects you to be specific or otherwise, it will match all occurrences of the sequence 257 in image name strings.
kind:jpeg name:0257
finds DSC00257.JPG
kind:jpeg name:_257
finds DSC_2570.JPG, DSC_2571.JPG, and DSC_2572.JPG...
and
kind:jpeg name:_2572
finds just DSC_2572.JPG
Or as rkaufmann87 suggests, the FindAnyFile utility will allow you improvements over Apple's Spotlight.
I struggled to find any info on Apple Support as to why my search wasn't working.
I can't find a free version of FindAnyFile.
I found this video on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1cBhIRROAg
[Although the "Raw search" part was beyond my scope and needs]
It seems that cmd+f is the way forward. Using the modifiers it finds all the files containing "257", which the standard Finder search couldn't.
[I still don't understand why the standard search doesn't return files in the results that it knows are there, but I've got to let that go.]
Hope this helps any other Windows converts who might be struggling.
I am now going to try to learn how to set-up Safari. I don't want to take the easy way out of downloading Chrome without at least trying, but Apple aren't making it easy.
Edit:
After learning of the cmd+f keyboard shortcut I searched for whether there was a mouse click for this. The consensus seemed to be that there wasn't.
But if you right click on finder in the dock you get an option 'Find', which brings up the cmd+f window where you can search with the modifiers.
Spotlight does not support regular expressions or wildcards so one must be unique in their specified search pattern. The optional FindAnyFile utility does offer regular expressions and is not dependent upon Spotlight indexing.
As you are new to Apple, you may benefit from any free classes that may be offered at your nearest Apple Store, and there is always the:
Mac User Guide - Apple Support
Try the free version of FindAnyFile it will easily be able to find the files, I prefer using it to Finder as do many other experienced users.
Thank you for your reply.
What I found was that Finder didn't match all the occurrences of the sequence 257.
It found DSC_2570.JPG, etc., but didn't find DSC00257.JPG
Is there an issue to the way I have searched, e.g: not enough characters/format of search string? Or is it just a limitation/fault with Finder, i.e: it's not very good/reliable?
Are there 'wildcard' commands I should have used?
Apologies for questions as I'm new to Apple. Needed a new PC and was tempted over by the Mac mini M4.
Search in Finder not finding files
