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5 hours ago, Vero said:

@Michal Bryxí Are Google Spreadsheets real files or do they just take you to the Google Sheets in your browser?

 

If you can choose a real file (such as the example of a text file as @Pearcen used) and you drag it to your Desktop, wait a moment, then drag that to the File Troubleshooting tool, what metadata do you see? And what happens if you try to do the same with your .gsheet file? 

 

I think in your case, it could be a combo of 1. GDFS not allowing Spotlight to index files, and 2. .gsheet potentially not being a file at all. A little more investigating as suggested above will give you more insight into that.

 

Cheers,
Vero

Hello Vero, Google Spreadsheets are "gdoc" files and they are just links to a drive.google.com URL inside of chrome. They don't act as the actual file, and thus one can not search inside of them. A solution for this is to export the document as a DOCX (or XLS), and then upload it again and keeping it a DOCX (google now supports this, before they automatically converted the file to google drive's format). After that, a .docx file would be synced on your computer, and this file can be edited both in Google Drive via browser and locally through word, and it syncs very well.

I also post this in case it works for anyone having issues with GDFS and it's search:

The fact that GFS "mounts" is very inconvenient. Alfred can indeed index files by name (as can spotlight) but I am having issues with searching for content inside the files, for instance, phrases inside a PDF. And this is both from spotlight and from alfred (although alfred uses spotlight's index, so it's the same). This was a deal breaker for me, the ability to search within the files I feel it's extremely important.

The only solution I found was not to use Google Drive File Stream and switch to Google's Backup and Sync. The main difference (that I can see) is that it doesn't offer real time view on Office's products when someone is editing the file on drive.google.com. This isn't a deal breaker for me, I use it mostly as a personal tool. As a note: I don't know how Backup and Sync manages having multiple drives, I don't know if it supports it (I don't use them). Other than that, Backup and Sync actually creates a folder on your Mac, with all content stored locally (as Dropbox or iCloud do). 

This might help anyone, so here's what I did. In case anyone wants more info, here's a comparison between both tools: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en

Cheers!

Hello! October 2020 and still having this issue. The fact that GFS "mounts" is very inconvenient. Alfred can indeed index files by name (as can spotlight) but I am having issues with searching for content inside the files, for instance, phrases inside a PDF. And this is both from spotlight and from alfred (although alfred uses spotlight's index, so it's the same). This was a deal breaker for me, the ability to search within the files I feel it's extremely important.

The only solution I found was not to use Google Drive File Stream and switch to Google's Backup and Sync. The main difference (that I can see) is that it doesn't offer real time view on Office's products when someone is editing the file on drive.google.com. This isn't a deal breaker for me, I use it mostly as a personal tool. As a note: I don't know how Backup and Sync manages having multiple drives, I don't know if it supports it (I don't use them). Other than that, Backup and Sync actually creates a folder on your Mac, with all content stored locally (as Dropbox or iCloud do). 

This might help anyone, so here's what I did. In case anyone wants more info, here's a comparison between both tools: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en

Cheers!

Hello! October 2020 and still having this issue. The fact that GFS "mounts" is very inconvenient. Alfred can indeed index files by name (as can spotlight) but I am having issues with searching for content inside the files, for instance, phrases inside a PDF. And this is both from spotlight and from alfred (although alfred uses spotlight's index, so it's the same). This was a deal breaker for me, the ability to search within the files I feel it's extremely important.

The only solution I found was not to use Google Drive File Stream and switch to Google's Backup and Sync. The main difference (that I can see) is that it doesn't offer real time view on Office's products when someone is editing the file on drive.google.com. This isn't a deal breaker for me, I use it mostly as a personal tool. As a note: I don't know how Backup and Sync manages having multiple drives, I don't know if it supports it (I don't use them). Other than that, Backup and Sync actually creates a folder on your Mac, with all content stored locally (as Dropbox or iCloud do). 

This might help anyone, so here's what I did. In case anyone wants more info, here's a comparison between both tools: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en

Cheers!

6 hours ago, deanishe said:

 

 

Tools are optimised to be used a certain way, and you’ll generally get better results if you use them that way.

 

I don’t care how you use Alfred. I’m just explaining the way it’s designed to be used.

 

 

That is correct. I thought you wanted to do an "in" search by default.

 

If you want to search everything, create a File Filter in a workflow and add kMDItemTextContent (and perhaps a few other things) to the Fields list. Then drag all your drives from Finder into the Scope list. You'll want to connect the File Filter to an Open File action and possibly a Reveal in Finder action, too.

Hello,

I'll look into it. Thanks!

Just now, deanishe said:

 

You can’t. Alfred’s developer cares a lot about performance.

 

You can work around it by creating a workflow, and adding a Hotkey to it that opens Alfred with "in " already in the search box.

 

But ultimately, you’ll probably get more out of Alfred if you use it the way it’s meant to be used, with multiple, tightly-focussed and very fast searches, instead of treating it like a purple Spotlight.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure why you are saying I am treating Alfred as a purple Spotlight. How it is meant to be used is completely relative, I use the features that I like in the way I believe it's appropriate, according to my needs. Some of them I am happy with the default, some of them I rather customize. Not sure why this is an issue. That's why I'm here, asking for the community's help. 

Regarding your suggestion of creating a workflow: sounds great and thanks for mentioning. However as I understand it it won't work properly because it won't search file names, only content. Is this correct? I just made a quick test and with the keyword "in" placed in the search box Alfred ignores file names. 

Any more thoughts?

Thanks,

Hello,

When I need to search the contents of a file, I type this: 

"in rabbit 123"

By using the keyword "in" followed by the search term, alfred knows that it needs to search inside files for the term "rabbit 123".

I need to enable this by default. I don't care for performance, I need Alfred to search anywhere without me having to specify it.

Can someone please help me? I purchased power pack a week ago and so far I am very happy, however this is break dealer for me, and spotlight does it by default.

Appreciate anyone's help.