How to find files on Mac – A Complete Guide

For this:

1. Open Terminal (Applications – > Utilities).
2. Use the find command to search for files. The basic syntax is as follows:

 find [directory] [options] [expression]

[directory] – directory where you want to start your search. To specify the root directory, use / or specify any other directory

[options] – specify search criteria, such as -name or -type 

[expression] – the file or directory name or patterns you want to search for

For example:

 find / -name “test.txt”

Tip: If you search for a file with a partial name or pattern, you need to use wildcards. For example,

                                                  find / -name “*holiday*”

Bonus: Here are some common options you can use with the find command:

• typе – specify whether to search for files (f) or directories (d)
• iname – allow performing a case-insensitive search
• –maxdepth and –mindepth – allow setting the maximum and minimum depth for the search
• user and -group perform a search for files owned by a specific user or group

3. Use mdfind for Spotlight-based search. Unlike the find command, the search is performed instantly. When using mdfind, it will find something if Spotlight indexing is not disabled on this disk/in this folder. By default, it searches across all drives at once. The basic syntax is as follows:

 mdfind [options] query

For example:

mdfind -name test

Tip: Use double quotes if the file/directory contains spaces, for eg: “Winter holidays”.

Bonus: Type man mdfind in the Terminal to get the user manual about this command and what else can be used when finding files on Mac.