Tagged Questions

0
votes
0answers
9 views

What backup methods preserve kMDItemDateAdded?

The attribute kMDItemDateAdded corresponds to the "Date added" column in the Finder, and is especially useful for the Downloads directory. Unfortunately, this attribute is not part of the filesystem ...
0
votes
0answers
16 views

Is there a way to omit certain directories from where Mac OSX finds applications for its Applescript dictionaries et al?

Mac OSX maintains a list of applications for Applescript dictionaries, for the open-with list in finder etc. This list gets collected from local directories (e.g. /Applications) but it finds as well ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views

Finder spotlight tool not “grepping” through all file types?

We've got this development stack that's mostly javascript, and if I'm looking for a variable definition or something I can use Finder's spotlight tool to easily find the file that contains the ...
3
votes
2answers
170 views

How can I do a full text search of plaintext files in my DropBox folder?

I understand that Spotlight will search the full text of files in any folder and will show files that contain instances of the searched text. But I would also like to see highlighted instances of the ...
0
votes
1answer
549 views

Spotlight doesn't work anymore in OS X Mountain Lion

I can't get Spotlight to search for any documents. When I search the Finder for documents, nothing happens and the Spotlight search through the menu bar only shows up web searches.
2
votes
2answers
95 views

Spotlight Cmd+Enter to open containing folder does not work

When you type something in spotlight, highlight a result and hit Command+Enter, it should open the containing folder in finder (For reference). However, it does not work on my OSX 10.8.2 MBPR. The ...
3
votes
2answers
94 views

Non-recursive spotlight search?

When using the Spotlight search at the top right of a finder window, I often want the search to be non-recursive, i.e. only look at files in that specific directory, not any directories within it. Is ...
1
vote
2answers
89 views

Does the search in Finder need spotlight?

I just reinstalled OS X Lion and turned off the spotlight immediately. I noticed that search in Finder stopped working. Is this because of disabling spotlight? Is there a way to get this back without ...
0
votes
0answers
79 views

Document files with incorrect date stamps

Often the document files I create, modify and save show up only to have incorrect date stamps, as if they haven't been indexed correctly (or at all). This happens with any document file type ...
2
votes
1answer
259 views

Xcode doesn't show up in spotlight results, neither search results

I haven't noticed exactly when it happened but previously I was always using spotlight to run Xcode. Now if i'm typing "Xcode" in it, only folders containing this name show up, or some xcode projects, ...
0
votes
0answers
215 views

/.fseventsd (File System Event Store) is empty?

For some reason my /.fseventsd directory (for the File System Event Store) is empty. I suspect this isn't normal, especially because the .fseventsd directory on my external drives have about 15 files ...
1
vote
1answer
227 views

How do I launch shell applications after changing shell to MacPorts bash?

I have installed a current bash version via MacPorts and changed Terminal.app to use /opt/local/bin/bash. Unfortunately shell applications won't launch from Finder and Spotlight anymore. (OSX 10.8.2, ...
3
votes
1answer
607 views

Is “All My Files” slow because of my git and svn repos?

All My Files is often painfully slow, long beach ball spins when I open a new finder window. The thing is I actually like it... and I'm wondering if perhaps it's because of all my GIT and SVN repos ...
7
votes
5answers
604 views

How can I create a Saved Search that excludes a specific folder from the results?

I'm trying to set up a Saved Search of my Mac that will exclude files in a folder called 'XYZ' from the search results. The reason is because I'm getting a ton of false positives from that folder that ...
0
votes
0answers
46 views

“Open in Finder” dock command opens Preview instead

When I use the "Open In Finder" command in any Dock Folder Preview opens and scans the entire folder opening any file it can recognise. The same thing happens when I select an item in from the search ...
1
vote
0answers
210 views

Spotlight Woes! Can't search, can't reindex, can't find

Help! Spotlight stopped working ... if I go to spotlight search (top right), it just hangs. Same with Apple-F in Finder ... it causes Finder to hang for a minute or so. Cannot search. I went to ...
1
vote
1answer
542 views

Finder crashes when searching in spotlight or opening Applications folder

I have a non-admin account (Standard account) that I normally use on my iMac. For the past 2 days I have been having a really strange issue. If I search for "Chrome" or "Firefox" on spotlight, ...
1
vote
1answer
146 views

Smart “Applications” folder

How to create a "smart" Applications folder that unifies the content of other three folders? In my machine I have three versions of OS X installed (for testing purposes) in different partitions, each ...
5
votes
1answer
2k views

Adding tags to files in OS X: How to use, where are tags stored, and will they work on a network?

I've heard it is possible to add tags to a file's meta data in OS X, and have Spotlight search through such tags. In a nutshell, how would one access this feature in Finder – not Spotlight ...
1
vote
3answers
3k views

How do I search all hidden files that are in hidden folders using Terminal?

I need to find some configs buried in some hidden folders and can't recall where they are to navigate to them directly Cmd+Shift+G. I did a sudo find -name Foo* (slow), but none of the returned files ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views

How do so set “date added” metadata in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

The Finder in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion shows a new piece of file metadata, "Date Added," which tracks the date an item was added to a folder. After upgrading to 10.7, none of the items in my ~/Downloads ...
3
votes
1answer
564 views

How do I open a file from Spotlight in Finder?

When I search for something e.g. a PDF file, in Spotlight and has i displayed in the search results list. How can I open the file in Finder? If I click on it, the file is opened e.g. in the pdf ...
1
vote
1answer
555 views

How can I enable search by filename in finder on Lion

Before switching to Lion (on Snow leopard) I used to open a directory (like my Downloads) and start searching using the search box at the top right of the finder window for a file and there was an ...
2
votes
2answers
185 views

How can I alter the spotlight category spreadsheets to include ODS

In Lion, the "All My Files" smart folder in finder is based on spotlight search categories. While I can see how from System Preferences->Spotlight->Search Results I can alter the order of these as ...
0
votes
1answer
114 views

Spotlight can't see renamed label in Lion

Spotlight has an operator, -label, that lets you search for files with a certain color label applied (e.g. Red, Green.) A dropdown auto-populates with label colors when you type the operator into a ...
3
votes
1answer
342 views

Force Spotlight to index a normally un-indexed folder

Spotlight only indexes a limited number of folders and doesn't index all of the files on your system. This makes sense and for the average user this usually isn't a problem. However, I recently ...
2
votes
3answers
699 views

How to create a spotlight search for all files inside a folder?

In Lion, you have All My Files to search everything in your home folder. However, when you activate finder's spotlight, via command + F you can start searching only by first typing something. How can ...
1
vote
6answers
265 views

Is there a way for Spotlight or Launchbar or Quicksilver or similar to just return matching folders not files?

I frequently need to just get a finder window up that's a ton of folders deep. There's only so many favorites you can put in the finder sidebar. I'd happily configure a dedicated launcher to just ...
8
votes
5answers
8k views

Searching by file name (as opposed to name and contents) in Lion

In earlier versions of OSX, when you search in a Finder window, it gave you the choice of searching by contents or file name. In Lion this choice seems to have disappeared, I can only search by ...
1
vote
2answers
220 views

Mac not searching my files

Today I started my Mac (iMac) and when I tried to search in finder or spotlight it produce no results. I think its related to the search cache. I guess it gets corrupted. If this is the case How can I ...
1
vote
3answers
239 views

Alternative to Quicksilver Triggers

Well after using QS for quite some time, it no longer works...Even when loading it on a clean SL build with latest Apple updates. When I set up a trigger they will only work until I reboot. At that ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views

How to use Regex with spotlight [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How Can I Search A Specific Type of File in Mac? How could I use spotlight to search for example for files that end with jar or files that end with doc and at the same ...