Did you know that Apple’s built-in search tool called Spotlight doesn’t search the entire hard drive? There are good reasons why Apple does this (which I won’t go into now), but there are also times when you want to be able to search the entire hard drive. When I’m troubleshooting a problem on a client’s Mac, I often need to search through various folders that Spotlight doesn’t search. I use Devon Technologies’ EasyFind or Thomas Tempelmann’s Find Any File.
- How To Search My Entire Mac For A File
- See All Files On Mac
- How To Search Your Mac For A File
- Find Files On Mac
- How To Search My Entire Mac For A File Folder
Both EasyFind and Find Any File have their strengths. Here are some highlights.
How To Search My Entire Mac For A File
But when your computer is connected to a Mac running Tiger, Spotlight will search only file names. Add criteria On the right side of the Finder window’s search bar is a plus-sign button. After you enter your search term if you hold down the Option key, the Find button changes to Find All. When you click Find All you’ll be asked for an administrative user’s password and you’ll then be able to search the entire hard drive as the root user. Full Playlist: more How to Understand Computers videos: http://www.howcast.co. Enter the person’s e-mail address or any text string contained in the message you’re looking for. File and folder names: A simple item name is the classic search favorite. Spotlight searches your entire system for that one file or folder in the blink of an eye.
See All Files On Mac
How To Search Your Mac For A File
EasyFind is very fast. It’s free. It lets you search for files and folders or both at the same time. It can search by file name or content. It lets you use boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT and many others). It displays a file’s location, size, creation and modification date. While it searches most folders, it can only search through folders that you have access to. If you want to be able to search through all folders on the hard drive as the root user, then you should consider Find Any File.
Find Files On Mac
Find Any File’s interface looks a lot like the Classic Mac OS’ Find File application, which was called Sherlock for a while. So if you’re a long-time Mac user and you miss Find File, consider Find Any File. It is free to try but then the developer asks for a modest donation if you continue to use it. After you enter your search term if you hold down the Option key, the Find button changes to Find All. When you click Find All you’ll be asked for an administrative user’s password and you’ll then be able to search the entire hard drive as the root user. You can search by name, size, date, item type, creator code or a number of other file attributes. It can not search by file content. To learn more read this excellent MacWorld review of Find Any File or Find Any File’s own online manual.
How To Search My Entire Mac For A File Folder
I find both applications useful and have both installed on my Mac.