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Find Any File Changelog

What's new in Find Any File 2.4

Jun 2, 2023
  • Scriptable rules for powerful and complex searches.
  • File content search now finds text inside zip files, including .docx (Word) and .xlsx (Excel) files
  • Support for Default Folder X and BBEdit.
  • Many more improvements.

New in Find Any File 2.3.2 (Dec 30, 2021)

  • Fixes search issues around macOS Catalina, Big Sur and Monterey.
  • Can now search on new Google Drive.
  • Search for inodes and diacritics-insensitive.
  • Customizable Dock icon (ctrl-click on it!).

New in Find Any File 2.3.1 (Jul 15, 2021)

  • Fixes some severe issues with macOS Catalina and El Capitan.

New in Find Any File 2.3 (Jun 16, 2021)

  • Native Apple Silicon (M1) code.
  • Search for Tags
  • Search for and display Date Last Opened and Date Added
  • Works with Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, PopClip etc.

New in Find Any File 2.2.1 (Nov 13, 2020)

  • Fixes a potential crash.
  • The Find window doesn't get excessively wide any more.

New in Find Any File 2.2 (Nov 11, 2020)

  • Ready for macOS Big Sur.
  • You can now save and re-open the results.

New in Find Any File 2.1.1 (Nov 14, 2019)

  • Does not remove Volumes from Login Items any more.
  • Fixes a crash when using the Preview Grid view.
  • Fixes a rare crash inside [SUUpdater checkForUpdatesInBackground]

New in Find Any File 2.1 (Nov 14, 2019)

  • Fixes an issue where searching entire volumes could miss some items, especially on fast network volumes such as Helios AFP servers.
  • Fixes some Spotlight search issues on Synology NAS volumes (called Universal Search there).
  • Searching for text content with non-latin characters (such as the Cyrillic script) does not freeze the app any more.
  • The manual (see Help menu, "Documentation") has been much improved, explaining the search options in more detail.
  • The Edit commands "Copy" and "Copy Names" have been exchanged to match the Finder's commands better, now called "Copy" and "Copy Columns".
  • Fixed: When using the Service "FAF: Search Folder(s)" from the Finder, the search doesn't start on its own any more.
  • Fixes a crash when searching for dates.
  • English wording for some search rules has been updated to match Spotlight's.
  • File names are again painted in their Label colors as it was in version 1.
  • Brings back version 1's ability to search for Owner ID and Group ID (hold down the option key when clicking the "Name" popup).
  • Fixed: After moving or deleting files, FAF now always updates the results accordingly, even on network volumes.
  • Fixes a crash when sorting the column showing the full path.
  • Fixes a crash when using "Make Invisible".
  • Fixes searching "in Finder selection".
  • Brings back all Services in Context menu, like in version 1.
  • During QuickLook, using the cursor keys doesn't close the window any more.
  • Fixes sorting of Kind column.
  • Completes missing localizations in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

New in Find Any File 1.9.3 (May 23, 2018)

  • Fix: Search option "Name equals" can now be performed "fast" on APFS volumes.
  • Fix: Applications can be chosen again when using "Pass Results" search option.
  • Fix: Preferences show again correct state for "Install Hot Key at Login".
  • Fix: Avoids rare crash around "accessibilityIsAttributeSettable" on macOS 10.13 and later.
  • Fix: Update checking works again on pre-10.9 systems.
  • Improved performance of showing file icons in "Preview Grid" view mode.

New in Find Any File 1.9.2 (Dec 5, 2017)

  • Fix: The menu option Automatically Refresh can now be (un)checked at all times.
  • Fix: FAF does not require to be moved out of the Downloads folder any more.
  • Fix: Does not occasionally freeze on quit if "Calculate size…" is enabled in the Preferences.
  • Fix: The FAF Hotkey app gets removed properly on High Sierra when disabling the Hot Key in FAF's Preferences.
  • Fix: No more "Out Of Bounds" error when clicking past the last item in the Preview Grid.

New in Find Any File 1.9.1 (Nov 7, 2017)

  • In rare cases, version 1.9 did not find all items when searching an APFS volume. This has been fixed.

New in Find Any File 1.9 (Nov 4, 2017)

  • Updated for macOS 10.13 High Sierra
  • Brings back "fast search" on APFS volumes
  • Smarter file name search
  • Plain (unformatted) text content search
  • Image Preview mode
  • Many more fixes and improvements

New in Find Any File 1.8.9 (Mar 16, 2015)

  • File Icons are fully opaque again.
  • Makes sure windows appear on-screen when an external monitor gets detached.
  • Fixes an issue where refreshing the Results takes an unusually long time.
  • Solves an issue with OSX 10.10.2 where opening more than six items failed.
  • Fixes issues with deleting items on a network volume.
  • Fixes issues (lockups) with unavailable NFS network volumes.
  • Deleting symlinks doesn't instead delete their destination any more.
  • The shortcuts Cmd-Shift-C and Cmd-Opt-C work again.
  • Changing an item's Label removes all other Tags previously set on that item on OSX 10.9 and later.
  • Does not attempt to auto-mount NFS shares any more.
  • If the command "Delete Immediately" or "Move to Trash" fails, an error message is displayed.
  • Switching between flat and tree views now preserves the selection even if more than one item is selected.
  • When searching a "slow" volume, its name is displayed in the Find window again.
  • Fixes a few rare crash cases.

New in Find Any File 1.8.8 (Nov 18, 2013)

  • Fixes a crash on OS X 10.9.
  • Shows new Tags in OS X 10.9.
  • Searching "in Finder selection" now also works when a folder is open without anything selected in it.
  • Dragging found files to a Finder window of the same volume moves them again.
  • Dragging a file into a search field enters the file's name again, not its entire path.
  • Does not consume excessive CPU time any more when showing results.
  • Prevents an occasional crash when moving items to the Trash.

New in Find Any File 1.8.8 Beta 5 (Nov 12, 2013)

  • Does not consume excessive CPU time any more when showing results.
  • Prevents an occasional crash when moving items to the Trash.

New in Find Any File 1.8.8 Beta 4 (Nov 9, 2013)

  • No more crash when using "Find All" on OSX 10.9 (Mavericks).
  • Shows new Tags instead of Label in OSX 10.9 (Mavericks).
  • Searching "in Finder selection" now also works if folder in Finder is open with nothing selected in it.
  • When nothing is found, a notification is shown (OSX 10.8 and later).
  • Dragging found files to a Finder window of the same volume moves them again (was broken in 1.8.7).
  • Dragging a file into a search field enters the file's name again, not its entire path (was broken in 1.8.7).

New in Find Any File 1.8.8 Beta 3 (Nov 5, 2013)

  • Fixes a (harmless) crash report when you use the "Find All" feature, i.e. when you search with the Option (alt) key held down.

New in Find Any File 1.8.7 (Oct 7, 2013)

  • Supports Macs with Retina displays.
  • Search box in Results window now also works in hierarchical (tree) view.
  • The "Reveal" command works with Path Finder if it's set to be the default browser in its preferences.
  • Prevents accidentally deleting network files in FAF that had just been moved by the Finder (formerly, FAF did not refresh its lists for network volumes, and so would keep showing files in their old places, suggesting that the files were still there).
  • "Negate conditions" is now an expert option. To see it, you have to hold the Option (alt) key when clicking on the popup menu.
  • Adding additional search targets by dropping them with the Shift key held down now also works when a single volume is chosen so far.
  • No more crash when control-clicking into the list header to choose the shown columns.
  • "Special Folders" button in Preferences window allows permanent exclusion of volumes and folders from search, as well as suppressing "fast search" on problematic network volumes (certain NAS systems apply).

New in Find Any File 1.8.7 Beta 10 (Oct 2, 2013)

  • Supports Macs with Retina displays.
  • Search box in Results window now also works in hierarchical (tree) view.
  • The "Reveal" command works with Path Finder if it's set to be the default browser in its preferences.
  • Prevents accidentally deleting network files in FAF that had just been moved by the Finder (formerly, FAF did not refresh its lists for network volumes, and so would keep showing files in their old places, suggesting that the files were still there).
  • "Negate conditions" is now an expert option. To see it, you have to hold the Option (alt) key when clicking on the popup menu.
  • Adding additional search targets by dropping them with the Shift key held down now also works when a single volume is chosen so far.
  • No more crash when control-clicking into the list header to choose the shown columns.
  • "Special Folders" button in Preferences window allows permanent exclusion of volumes and folders from search, as well as suppressing "fast search" on problematic network volumes (certain NAS systems apply).

New in Find Any File 1.8.6 (Dec 4, 2012)

  • Stops crashing with "Runtime Error" when accessing inaccessible folders.
  • Improves performance when searching on network volumes.
  • Fixes display issues when resizing the results columns and when using Quick Look.
  • When viewing an item with Quick Look, it can now be opened by pressing Cmd+O.

New in Find Any File 1.8.5 (Nov 12, 2012)

  • Now excludes the files saved as Recent Searches from the results.
  • The collection of Recent searches can now be cleared and also entirely disabled in the preferences.
  • Copying results to the clipboard now includes all columns (separated by Tab characters), unless Shift or Option is held down when Copying.
  • Using Select All in the hierarchical view does not select the interim folders any more but only the actually searched items.
  • Can now search for the size of resource forks (available only in expert mode)
  • By adding an item named "FindAnyFile" to your keychain, containing an admin user's name and password, FAF won't ask for your login any more when doing Find All.
  • Find All can now be made the default by issuing this command in Terminal: defaults write org.tempel.findanyfile AlwaysFindAll -bool YES
  • Fixes an issue with resizing columns directly after adding a column to the results list.
  • No more crash when opening a saved search (.faf) using the File/Open menu command.
  • No more crash when righting clicking on the path at the bottom of the Results window and then not choosing any of the options.
  • Improves sorting by paths by not taking the file name into account any more.
  • Adds Norwegian, Swedish and Czech localization.

New in Find Any File 1.8.4 (Jun 8, 2012)

  • New: Portuguese localization.
  • New: "Open Recent" menu to re-open previously performed searches.
  • New: Pressing Option or Command key while clicking the "Add Choice" button does not show the menu but adds a new choice immediately, like in pre-1.8 versions.
  • Bug fixes.

New in Find Any File 1.8.3 (Apr 27, 2012)

  • Automatically restores columns in Results window if they got messed up.
  • French text "Traitement des données" corrected.

New in Find Any File 1.8.2 (Apr 12, 2012)

  • Searching for Creator and FileType codes works now in complex (and folder-specific) searches.

New in Find Any File 1.8.1 (Apr 10, 2012)

  • File times aren't off by 1 hr any more if they had a different daylight savings state.
  • Searching on PGP volumes (and possibly other special volumes types) works again.
  • Input field has correct width if prefs option "Increase Input Fields Height" is checked.

New in Find Any File 1.8 (Mar 26, 2012)

  • You can now change the labels of found items.
  • New help texts (tooltips) for various Find options.
  • Bug fixes.
  • Lots of new search options, e.g.:
  • Find file names matching whole words
  • Find file names using a pattern (such as: *.pdf)
  • Find file names with matching case (a ≠ A)
  • Find items with specifc labels
  • New date options "today" and "yesterday"

New in Find Any File 1.7.2 (Dec 13, 2011)

  • Sizes of apps and other bundles (packages) are now getting shown in the results.
  • Bug fixes.

New in Find Any File 1.7.1 (Dec 8, 2011)

  • A progress bar is now shown whilst updating the results list.
  • FileVault volumes are searchable again.
  • Sorting is case-insentive again.
  • Sorting remains intact when columns are re-arranged.
  • Modified files don't appear as any more.
  • FAF doesn't freeze any more if "Move To Trash" failed with an error message from the Finder.
  • No more crash (NilObjectException) after deleting files.
  • No more occasional crash (ThreadAlreadyRunningException) when updating the results list.

New in Find Any File 1.7 (Nov 29, 2011)

  • You can now specify multiple disks and folders to search.
  • New filter entry field lets you browse the results better.
  • New columns showing creation date, label, enclosing folder or entire path.
  • Can show Finder labels in text and color.
  • Restores windows if they got offscreen after switching monitors.
  • Search for Aliases now finds all Symlinks when targeting entire volumes.
  • More responsive during search, especially on network volumes.
  • Significantly faster showing large amounts of found items.

New in Find Any File 1.6 (Jun 16, 2011)

  • New: Hot Key: You can now define a shortcut to launch FAF. Spanisch localization.
  • Bug fixes: OSX's internal volumes "net" and "home" aren't getting listed any more. "Move To Trash" and "Reveal In Finder" work now with non-Roman file names such as Japanese.

New in Find Any File 1.5.5 (Apr 11, 2011)

  • New: Localized to Italian.

New in Find Any File 1.5.4 (Apr 4, 2011)

  • Bug fix: Sorting of dates works again (got broken in 1.5.3).

New in Find Any File 1.5.3 (Apr 1, 2011)

  • Improvements:
  • Localized to French and German.
  • Lots of little user interface improvements.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Now more responsive when slow network volumes (iDisk) are mounted.
  • Searching for names with accented characters (e.g. umlauts) works correctly if searching inside just a folder or using combined criteria.
  • Fixed all other reported issues.

New in Find Any File 1.5.1 (Jan 14, 2011)

  • Bug fixes - Searching for file sizes using units (e.g. "10 MB" work correctly even if searching inside just a folder or using combined criteria.

New in Find Any File 1.5 (Dec 21, 2010)

  • Improvements:
  • Search inside a folder of your choice instead of entire disks.
  • Some criteria (name, date and size) can now be repeated for combined conditions.
  • New name criteria "does not contain".
  • Quick Look (only works on Mac OS 10.6 and later).
  • Get Info command to have the Finder show an item's Information window.
  • Sizes can now be entered with units, e.g. 10MB (supported units are: k, m, g).
  • Menu command Save As Defaults remembers the current Find criteria.
  • New Preferences window, where various options can be chosen. Preferences window offers a Reset button to clear all previously made settings (is practically identical to deleting the preferences file).
  • Removed the criteria Negate conditions because it caused confusion and is hardly ever used (if you need it, contact me — there's a secret switch for it).
  • If no items are found, the Results window does not open any more and a beep sound is played instead.
  • Command-F quickly brings you back to the Find window if a Results window is frontmost.
  • Improved the way folders in the hierarchical view expand: Not all contained folders expand fully any more, but instead only those that have no sibling folders, i.e. no alternatives to choose from. That should make diving into folders of interest easier.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Text looks better now on Japanese systems.
  • Several PPC specific fixes: Date searches "within the past" work now with certain other combinations (such as "Name ends in" and "Name begins with"), same for "is folder is false" and for searching for dates.
  • No more internal errors when dropping a file onto the input fields for name, type file, etc.
  • Made the field for entering dates a bit wider.
  • Improved positioning of windows (avoiding overlaps and remembering previous positions).
  • No more unsorted results after a fresh set of preferences.
  • If a found item is re-saved in some app, the file does not vanish any more. And if the item is moved, its new location is opened in the list (trashing an item shows it being in the trash folder right away).
  • If multiple results are selected, a double click will now open all of them instead of just the one clicked on.
  • In the hierarchical list, if items were moved or deleted, the list will not collapse entirely any more but retain its state.

New in Find Any File 1.4.2 (Jan 4, 2010)

  • Bug fix: Position and size of Result windows is again remembered (broken since v1.4).

New in Find Any File 1.4.1 (Jan 4, 2010)

  • Bug fix: Works on multiple accounts again.

New in Find Any File 1.4 (Dec 26, 2009)

  • New features:
  • You can now search for recent changes (i.e. dates within the past X minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/years).
  • You can now tell when you're doing searches as Root (Find All) by looking at the menu bar's app name or at the name in the Dock.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Newly opened windows do not cover existing windows any more. Opening a .faf file does not lose "Name" criteria any more from the leftmost popup menu.

New in Find Any File 1.3.1 (Dec 3, 2009)

  • New features:
  • New name criteria: "Begins with" and "Ends in" - the latter being especially useful to find specific file extensions.
  • Saving a Search provides choice whether to autorun it or not.
  • Added a "Window" menu to the menu bar.
  • Added automatic online check for program updates via Sparkle (Many thanks to Charles Yeomans for making these features, i.e. Window menu and Sparkle, freely available in REALbasic).
  • Sorting choice in result windows is now remembered.
  • Bug fixes: No more occasional endless beeping and freezing during extended searches.
  • Makes sure windows do not disappear any more after switching to a smaller monitor.
  • When dragging items from Results list, their outlines appear now correctly.
  • No more "double free" messages in Console Log.

New in Find Any File 1.3 (Dec 2, 2009)

  • Find extensions with new name criteria ends in.
  • Saving a Search provides choice whether to autorun it or not.
  • Automatic online check for program updates via Sparkle.
  • Sorting choice in result windows is now remembered.
  • New "Window" menu in the menu bar.

New in Find Any File 1.2.1 (May 13, 2009)

  • Fixed a potential "Nil Object" crash (inside FoundItem.Exists) that was introduced in v1.2.

New in Find Any File 1.2 (May 11, 2009)

  • The hovering tooltip in the Results window can be dis-/enabled via the menu (View->Hide Details or Show Details).
  • Files can be dropped onto the search forms to set name, date, size, creator and filetype codes.
  • Changing search criteria between modification and creation date does not reset its value any more.
  • Enhanced display of file sizes.
  • Sorting is retained when the Show hidden and Show package contents options are changed.
  • Search can now even be saved if no valid criteria was entered yet.
  • Text in lists can be made bigger via the View menu; Added option to search remote volumes only.

New in Find Any File 1.1.2 (Mar 31, 2009)

  • No more warnings in Console about bad UTF-8 strings.

New in Find Any File 1.1.1 (Mar 18, 2009)

  • Works around a bug in Mac OS 10.5.6, which caused the search on network volume to repeat itself, sometimes infinitely
  • Preserves its window positions between launches.

New in Find Any File 1.1 (Jan 13, 2009)

  • Can search non-HFS volumes (although not as fast).
  • Options to filter hidden items and package contents.
  • Shows more details of items when mouse hovers over them.
  • Remembers some preferences (window size, view modes).
  • New "Delete Immediately" menu command.

New in Find Any File 1.0.2 (Dec 30, 2008)

  • Move to Trash works now.
  • Volume selection is observed with root search and saved searches.
  • Results update after moving items.

New in Find Any File 1.0.1 (Dec 28, 2008)

  • Fixed date entry crash on PPC.

New in Find Any File 1.0 (Dec 28, 2008)

  • First release.