Searching for indexed network files

[SteveH]

I have a shared folder located on another Mac. It is indexed and Spotlight finds files on it just fine, but Alfred does not find the files. I've tried listing the share in the search scope, a custom workflow with the share as the only search scope, and another custom workflow with a folder on the share as the only search scope. None of that has worked. If I copy a file from the share to a local folder it will show up in Alfred. Is there something I am missing about the way this is supposed to work?

[Vero]

I have a shared folder located on another Mac. It is indexed and Spotlight finds files on it just fine, but Alfred does not find the files. I've tried listing the share in the search scope, a custom workflow with the share as the only search scope, and another custom workflow with a folder on the share as the only search scope. None of that has worked. If I copy a file from the share to a local folder it will show up in Alfred. Is there something I am missing about the way this is supposed to work?

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

Could you share more details as to what file types you're searching for, their paths, etc? 

 

As you correctly stated, if a file is 1. Properly indexed by Spotlight, 2. The volume is added to Alfred's search scope and is accessible at the time of your search, and 3. you're searching using a scope that includes the file type in question, it should come up in results.

 

I tend to prefer creating file filter workflows for searching network drives, as it means that in 99% of cases where I want to perform a local search on my Mac and don't need to include network results, these files don't clutter results. 

 

With more details, we should be able to help you.  

 

Cheers,

Vero

[SteveH]

I am primarily searching for plain old pdf files, sometimes by name, sometimes by content. Either way works from Spotlight, but not Alfred. The path saved in the search scope is /Volumes/sharename. I got it into the list by dragging the share from my desktop onto the search scope field in the Alfred settings. The shared volume is connected to the other Mac via USB. 

 

I started to think that maybe having a space in the name of the volume might be causing an issue, but using Alfred to find files/folders on it from the Mac it is directly attached to works fine (the search scope entry is identical on both systems).

 

I hardly keep anything locally on this Mac, so having local and network files in the same search does not bother me. Despite that, I tried creating a file filter workflow as you had suggested in another thread, but that did not work either.

[face]

The access for the network shared folder has to be setup as AFP ONLY.

That has solved for me the same issue.

Try it and let us know if it works also for you ... 

Edited February 3, 2016 by face

[SteveH]

The access for the network shared folder has to be setup as AFP ONLY.

That has solved for me the same issue.

Try it and let us know if it works also for you ... 

 

Thanks, face. That seems to have been the issue; however, the fix was not exactly intuitive and may prove problematic in the long term. Since OSX uses SMB as the default sharing protocol (as of Mavericks), I had to jump through some hoops. I had the shares set up as accessible via either AFP or SMB so I could access them from both Windows and Mac systems. Even when I manually connected to the AFP version of the share via the Finder's Connect to Server command or an Apple Script, Alfred would not find the files. I had to completely disable SMB connections on each share in order to get things to work. Since I am using OS X Server on the system with the shares, I used Server.app to modify the settings.

 

For those interested, the steps are:

1. Log in to server.app and go to the File Sharing sheet.
2. Select the share and click the edit button.
3. Uncheck SMB.
4. Repeat for all shares.
5. Restart the client Mac just to clear out everything in memory. This may not be absolutely necessary, but since a reboot takes just a few seconds, no big deal.

 

We'll see what happens when I need to bring my work-issued Windows laptop home. I'm not sure if connecting to AFP will work from Windows 7 -- it used to be next to impossible to connect to AFP from older versions Windows, hence the original dual protocol share. Fortunately, other than the work-issued laptop, I've eliminated PC hardware in my house and switched to running Windows through Parallels VMs for my personal systems. Also, the change seems to have broken all of my iOS connections to the the shares since everything I was using was based on SMB. This last issue, could be a real problem for me.

[Faizan]

Hi, 

 

I am unable to search in the network drive which is connected through windows SMB. 

 

Please can you advise how to set up the network to ensure search function is seamless. I have added the volume in search scope with Alfred but no response. 

 

Regards,

 

Faizan

 

[deanishe]

3 hours ago, Faizan said:

network drive which is connected through windows SMB

 

Is metadata indexing/searching active on the volume? Try running Alfred's troubleshooting on the volume (Alfred Preferences > Help > Troubleshooting).