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Now I want to search a file exists or not on my mac, when I am using Windows, I can using the everything tool that searching any files less than 50ms on the disk, I was wonder if there is any tool like this in macOS to let me searching any files quickly, I am using this find command, it is too slow. I am using the spotlight but I still not sure it shows all the files on disk.

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  • What kind of research have you done on this (including looking for similar questions on Ask Different)?
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 13:30

3 Answers 3

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Spotlight does not index all files, but is real time and fast.

If you want a graphical tool, use Find Any File there are many alternatives, but this one is superb.

Command line tools:

  • mdfind can do amazing complex tasks if the path is indexed
  • locate exceptionally fast, rebuilds the database index in the background periodically, only cares about filesystem names and paths.
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  • Was about to mention locate command! Also with the versatility of shell you can pipe output to grep for more precise filtering of output.
    – Melonee
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 13:08
  • @melonee Even locate itself understands wildcards :-)
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 13:23
  • How do we know if a path is already indexed?
    – Alper
    Commented Mar 1, 2022 at 22:55
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    I run a search for a specific term that has few or no hits and make a file and seee if it shows up or search for a file I know exists @Alper . Let me know here if you ask that as a proper question and I’ll take a stab at answering
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Mar 2, 2022 at 10:11
  • Find Any File isn't indexed, which means it won't do a search in 50ms like the OP requested. Only indexed searches can do that.
    – Joe B
    Commented Feb 7, 2023 at 23:47
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I've found a software called EasyFind which is very similar to Everything, and the best part is that it's free.

I recommend you to give it a try.

https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/freeware

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OP was looking for a fast, indexed search on Mac OSX. ProFind appears to fit the bill. It's just $6.99.

I've tried all of the free alternatives listed on alternativeto.net, but they're all very slow at indexing, most won't show when a directory matches, and their interfaces are super clunky.

Using a free trial of ProFind, I was able to index 100k files on a network share in under 5 minutes (others took 20+), and do full searching in under a second. It can match to directories that match your search criteria too! (I don't work for them, I just did a long search / testing and wanted to share my results for the next person in my shoes)

http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/profind/index.html

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    Thanks for the recommendation. I had written a large note in a text file, which I was losing my mind that I could not find (was I imagining things?). Finder was completely useless even though I was searching with the name of the text file. Got this tool, typed in the name of the file and 0.5 seconds later, it showed the file. 7 bucks one time is a steal for this tool!
    – saurabhj
    Commented Jul 5 at 4:07

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