On Windows I can do this in File Explorer by searching "NOT *.mp3" for example, to return a search of all files within a directory besides mp3s. I do this routinely to clean up my music library when working on metadata, wondering if there's a mac equivalent - if there is, I can't find it!
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How to search all files *besides* a certain type?
- Thread starter harrisonjr98
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The following article may of help.
www.wikihow.com
How to Search for File Types in Finder on a Mac: 5 Steps
This wikiHow will teach you how to search Finder for files by type on a Mac. Open a Finder window.
www.wikihow.com
I appreciate you taking the time to find and link this, but what I'm trying to do is the inverse. I'm trying to use a rule in the search bar to say show me all of the files EXCEPT a certain type.The following article may of help.
How to Search for File Types in Finder on a Mac: 5 Steps
This wikiHow will teach you how to search Finder for files by type on a Mac. Open a Finder window.
Take a look at this Apple Support Document. Note the highlighted tip which links to what you are looking for.
Narrow your search results on Mac
On your Mac, focus your Spotlight and Finder searches to narrow results by specifying criteria and attributes, or performing Boolean queries.
support.apple.com
Hmm, this is not what I meant either! This is just for excluding certain categories or folders from spotlight searches of the full system, as far as I can tell. What I want to do (and can do in Windows) is to be deep in a finder directory, select a folder full of albums, and then find all non-music files within that folder.
I've been using Macs for 20 years and I don't think I've *ever* had to go into my iTunes (now Music) directory to "manage" my music files. iTunes/Music.app will do exactly what you want with Smart Albums without risking screwing anything up in the directory structure. I know I'm opening myself up to criticism for saying this, but TRUST APPLE to manage your songs within iTunes/Music (and your photos within iPhoto/Photos.app, and your home videos within iMovie). They know what they're doing.
I appreciate that, but I have a more unique setup! Around 200k songs on an external SSD (not sure how Music.app would get along with an external SSD) and then that SSD is backed up for safety. Organizing and pruning my music collection occupies a large chunk of my free time, and I'm pretty entrenched in my current ways. To be fair, if there was a way I could get Music.app to visualize the songs on the external drive when plugged in (read-only!) that would be pretty sick.
Edit 2: I just played around with it and tried "NOT .mp3" directly in the search field of a finder window and that worked for me. Did not need Raw Query.
-initial post below-
Have you looked at Raw Query option? Looks like this might get you what you want
www.macworld.com
Edit: posted wrong syntax link
-initial post below-
Have you looked at Raw Query option? Looks like this might get you what you want
macOS: How to use Spotlight’s query language to create an All My Files-like feature
Apple removed the prefab option, but with a raw query, you can simulate it.
www.macworld.com
Edit: posted wrong syntax link
Last edited:
Wow. this is the coolest tip i've seen in a while. Just tried it and the searching is super fast. Syntax takes a bit of work though ;-)
But before I could try it, I had to first do a normal search in a finder window, pick the + symbol to add a search criteria which starts with a 'name' 'matches' item. pick the name popup menu and at the bottom select 'other' which allowed me to add 'raw query' to the drop down. then selecting that 'raw query' i can use this feature.
For showing contents of a folder -without- mp3's I used the following:
(kMDItemFSName!="*.mp3")
Have fun!
But before I could try it, I had to first do a normal search in a finder window, pick the + symbol to add a search criteria which starts with a 'name' 'matches' item. pick the name popup menu and at the bottom select 'other' which allowed me to add 'raw query' to the drop down. then selecting that 'raw query' i can use this feature.
For showing contents of a folder -without- mp3's I used the following:
(kMDItemFSName!="*.mp3")
Have fun!
Raw query seems to be the answer to what I'm trying to do but a cursory glance at that article seems it is way over my head so I don't know how to proceed. lol
You could try https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/. This app is a GUI front end for Spotlight and makes complex queries easy to create. Just now I created (in all of 5 seconds) a query for all documents with File Extension not PDF.
