Searching network folders based on entered text

[maahhkus]

I am looking to streamline things in my workplace.
 

Much time is spent here navigating through network directories and subdirectories to find the correct file for a given job, and waiting for files to populate during each step of the process.

 

I would like to be able to quickly navigate to the correct subdirectory based on inputted text. Is this at all possible? 

 

Thanks,

Mark

[Vero]

 

I am looking to streamline things in my workplace.

 

Much time is spent here navigating through network directories and subdirectories to find the correct file for a given job, and waiting for files to populate during each step of the process.

 

I would like to be able to quickly navigate to the correct subdirectory based on inputted text. Is this at all possible? 

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

 

Hi Mark,

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "inputted text" but you can use Alfred's file navigation to navigate to a shared volume.

 

Pop up Alfred, and type / to start navigating from your Mac's root folder. From there, you can choose Volumes and carry on navigating until you find the folder you need by typing a few characters and selecting the next subfolder you need.

 

Alternatively, if the remote volume is indexed by Spotlight, you could create a file filter workflow to search on that particular external volume:

https://www.alfredapp.com/help/workflows/inputs/file-filter/

 

Cheers,

Vero

[maahhkus]

inputted text = text that you input, with a keyboard, by typing 

[deanishe]

We call that the "query" around here

 

That notwithstanding, Vero's answer is 100% accurate.

 

To expand on her "if the remote volume is indexed by Spotlight" remark, OS X only indexes network volumes mounted via AFP. If it's a Windows or NFS network share, it won't be indexed and you can't search it, only browse it, as Vero described.

[maahhkus]

If the volumes are not mounted via AFP, do I have any options? 

[deanishe]

Not entirely sure. You'd need some other indexer for a start.

You could create a locate index of the volume and search that with a workflow (using the locate command). Creating and updating the database is very slow, however, and you can only search on filenames (not metadata).