# Quick Search: search files from any app on Mac (⌃⌥⌘F)

Quick Search lets you search files from any app on your Mac. Press ⌃⌥⌘F and a small panel appears over whatever you're doing, like Spotlight. Type a name or a plain-English query such as “pdfs on google drive” or “videos over 1 GB”; with Files on, it searches every cloud and folder, including files that live only online. Press ↩ to open, ⌥↩ to show in Finder or ⌘↩ to see the search in Files.

## How to open Quick Search

Press **⌃⌥⌘F** (Control-Option-Command-F) in any app. A panel opens in the middle of the screen with the cursor in the search field. It appears on top of other windows, on every Space and over full-screen apps, so you don't lose your place.

Press **⌃⌥⌘F** again, press **Esc**, or click anywhere outside the panel to close it. You can drag the panel by its background if it's in the way.

The shortcut works whenever OneMacTools is running and activated — the main window doesn't need to be open. To have it ready after a restart, turn on **Open OneMacTools at login** in **Settings › History**.

![OneMacTools Quick Search panel finding four invoices across clouds](https://www.onemactools.com/screens/quick-search.png)
*Quick Search: ⌃⌥⌘F from any app.*

## What Quick Search searches

Quick Search has two modes, and the bottom-right corner of the panel tells you which one you're in.

| Corner label | When | What it searches |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Every file and cloud** | [Files](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/search-all-cloud-files-mac) is turned on | Files' own index of every source you've enabled: This Mac, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box and other folders, including files that are only in the cloud and not downloaded |
| **Spotlight** | Files is off | macOS's Spotlight index of your home folder, the same search [Ask](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/ask-mac-natural-language-commands) uses |

The field's placeholder changes too: **Search every file and cloud** with Files on, **Search your files** without. When Files is off, the empty panel suggests turning it on to search your clouds as well.

Each result shows the file's icon, its name, and where it lives — for example **Google Drive › Clients › Invoices**. A small cloud icon marks files that are online only. Quick Search shows up to 40 results; type more words to narrow them.

## Plain-English queries that work in Quick Search

You can type part of a file name, but Quick Search also understands short phrases. With Files on, each phrase becomes a filter:

| Type | Examples | Finds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A kind of file | pdfs, photos, videos, music, docs, spreadsheets, slides, zips, installers, apps, screenshots | Only that kind |
| A file extension | heic, png, mov, mp3, docx, xlsx, key, psd, svg, epub, json | Only that extension |
| A date | today, yesterday, this week, last month, this year, last 3 days, past 2 weeks, march, march 2025, 2024, older than 2 years, newer than 6 months | Files dated in that period |
| A size | over 5 mb, under 200 kb, bigger than 1 gb; “big” means over 100 MB and “huge” over 1 GB | Files in that size range |
| A cloud or place | icloud, google drive, onedrive, dropbox, box, this mac, photos library | Files in that source |
| Where it came from | gmail, whatsapp, slack, chatgpt, github, canva, telegram | Files downloaded from there |
| A kind of paper | invoice, receipt, statement, payslip, tax, passport, ticket, certificate, resume, contract, medical, insurance | Documents Files has recognised as that kind |
| Any other word | lisbon, budget, acme | Names and paths, then the text Files has read from inside documents |

Combine them freely: “pdfs on google drive”, “invoices from gmail this year”, “videos over 1 GB on this mac”, “screenshots last week”. With Files off, the query is read the way Ask reads it instead (kinds, dates, sources, sizes and words), which covers most of the same phrases.

> **Tip:** The kinds of paper (invoice, payslip, passport and so on) come from Files reading your documents. They work best after Files has finished its first look through your clouds.

## Tips for finding the right file faster

- **Results are newest first.** Both modes list the most recent files at the top, so “invoice” shows this month's invoice before last year's. Add a date (“invoice 2024”, “invoice march”) to reach older ones.
- **Every word must match.** “acme invoice” finds files that match both words, not either. If you get nothing, drop a word.
- **Folder names count.** With Files on, free words are matched against the whole location as well as the name, so “clients invoice” finds invoices inside a Clients folder even if “clients” isn't in the file name.
- **Small words are ignored.** “the”, “my”, “from”, “files” and the like don't narrow anything, so “show me my pdfs from last week” works as well as “pdfs last week”.
- **Text inside documents.** If a word isn't in a name or path, Files checks the text it has read from inside documents, so a contract can be found by the client's name.
- **Too many results?** Only the first 40 are listed. Add a kind, a cloud or a date, or press **⌘↩** to see the full list in Files.

## Actions on results: open, show in Finder, show in Files

Use **↑** and **↓** to move through the results; the first one is selected as soon as results appear. The bar at the bottom lists the keys:

| Key | Action |
| --- | --- |
| **↩** | **Open** the file in its default app (double-clicking a result does the same) |
| **⌥↩** | **Show in Finder**, with the file selected |
| **⌘↩** | **Show in Files**: opens OneMacTools on the Files screen with your search typed in, so you can see every match, sort, filter by source, or act on many files at once |
| **Esc** | Close the panel |

Opening a cloud-only file works the same as opening it in Finder: the cloud app downloads it first. Quick Search itself doesn't download anything just to show results.

Quick Search is for finding and opening. To run a tool on what you find — compress, merge, convert — use **⌘↩** to go to Files, or search with [Ask (⌘K)](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/ask-mac-natural-language-commands), which can open a tool with the files already loaded.

## How to turn Quick Search on or off (and change the shortcut)

Quick Search is on by default. To turn the shortcut off or on again:

1. Open OneMacTools and click **Files** in the sidebar under **Your Mac**.
2. Click the **Files** menu (the ⋯ button) in the toolbar.
3. Choose **Quick Search from Any App (⌃⌥⌘F)** to untick or tick it.

The shortcut itself is fixed at ⌃⌥⌘F; there isn't a setting to pick different keys. If another app already uses ⌃⌥⌘F, turn the shortcut off in one of the two apps. You can see all of OneMacTools' global shortcuts in [keyboard shortcuts](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/onemactools-keyboard-shortcuts).

Turning Files off doesn't turn Quick Search off; it switches back to searching with Spotlight.

## Quick Search, Ask, Files and Spotlight: which to use

|  | Quick Search | Ask | Files screen | Spotlight |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open with | ⌃⌥⌘F, from any app | ⌘K in OneMacTools | Sidebar › Files | ⌘Space |
| Cloud-only files | Yes, with Files on | Yes, with Files on | Yes | Only if the cloud app indexes them |
| Understands “last week”, “over 1 GB” | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Runs tools on results | No (⌘↩ goes to Files) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Answers questions | No | Mac and papers | No | No |

In short: Quick Search is the fast way to open one file from anywhere; [Files](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/search-all-cloud-files-mac) is the full browser for every cloud; Ask turns a request into a job. Spotlight remains best for launching apps.

## Privacy and speed

Quick Search runs entirely on your Mac. With Files on, it searches the index Files keeps on your Mac; with Files off, it asks Spotlight. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Files reads names, sizes, dates and — for documents — their text on your Mac to make that index; see [privacy and permissions](https://www.onemactools.com/docs/mac-privacy-permissions-full-disk-access) and the [privacy policy](https://www.onemactools.com/privacy).

Results update as you type, after a very short pause, so typing a long phrase doesn't start a new search for every letter. Because the panel closes as soon as you act on a result or click away, it never leaves a window behind.

## Questions

**How do I search files from any app on Mac without Spotlight?**
With OneMacTools running, press ⌃⌥⌘F. A search panel appears over the app you're in; type a name or a phrase like “pdfs from last week”, then press ↩ to open the file.

**Can Quick Search find files that are only in Google Drive or OneDrive?**
Yes, when Files is turned on in OneMacTools. It searches Files' index of every enabled cloud, including files that aren't downloaded, and marks them with a cloud icon.

**Can I change the ⌃⌥⌘F shortcut?**
No, the keys are fixed. You can turn the shortcut off or on from the Files screen's toolbar menu with Quick Search from Any App (⌃⌥⌘F).

**Why does Quick Search say Spotlight at the bottom?**
That means Files is off, so Quick Search is using macOS's Spotlight index of your home folder. Turn on Files to search every cloud, including online-only files.

**Does Quick Search work when the OneMacTools window is closed?**
Yes. The shortcut works as long as the app is running and activated, even with no window open. Turn on Open OneMacTools at login in Settings › History to keep it available after a restart.

Source: https://www.onemactools.com/docs/quick-search-files-mac (updated 2026-10-24)