OS X app to quickly search a set folder and its subfolders?

April 4, 2014 10:08 AM

Which launcher app (Alfred, Butler, Quicksilver, etc) or menu bar app can quickly search a defined folder and its subfolders without having to choose the folder each time?

In OS X, I frequently need to search a folder and its subfolders for files. I'd like this to be as quick as possible without having to choose the folder or waste time searching the entire drive.

Is there a launcher app (Alfred, Butler, Quicksilver) or menu bar app where you can define the parameters of the search (location, file type) beforehand and quickly launch it?

posted by bluecore to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Are you searching for just the filename or for content in the file?
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:19 AM on April 4, 2014

You mean you are in Finder, and you want the search field to only search the current folder?
posted by devnull at 10:25 AM on April 4, 2014

Don't underestimate Spotlight either: CMD+Space, then type your filename. Unless you have the same filename in multiple folder trees and you want to search specific trees for a specific copy.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:32 AM on April 4, 2014

If you have the folder open in Finder, start searching for something. Then just below that, in the grey bar, click Search: "Folder Name Written Here", instead of "This Mac", and you will limit the search to the current folder.
posted by devnull at 10:36 AM on April 4, 2014

I use Alfred for a lot of things, this included. Unless you are going to take advantage of Alfred's other features, Finder is certainly a much cheaper route. If you are accessing the same files over and over, or want to look at a recent list, Trickster might be useful.
posted by Silvertree at 10:43 AM on April 4, 2014

Find Any File is what you want. I use Quicksilver to launch Find Any File and go from there.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 12:59 PM on April 4, 2014

If it is just one folder, and always the same folder, you can use Spotlight and use the config setting to limit the search to the folder-tree of interest.

Using the Finder to limit search to the specific folder open in the window is fine, but requires that you first open/switch to that folder.
posted by Good Brain at 1:21 PM on April 4, 2014

Also from the command line you can always do:


$ cd /path/to/search && find . | grep -i [what-you-want-to-search-for]

posted by jeffamaphone at 3:52 PM on April 4, 2014

Without any response to the clarifying questions, I would suggest Leap.
posted by yclipse at 8:10 PM on April 4, 2014