Did you know that it's possible to tell Finder to search the current folder rather than the entire file system?
By default, regardless of the folder you're currently in, using the Search bar (top right corner) will show results across the entire file system (aka This Mac):
To look for results in the current folder, you then need to click on its name (i.e. "Newsflash")
When I search for something whose location I don't know or remember, I'll generally use Spotlight (keyboard shortcut: ⌘ Space) rather than a Finder search.
But when I'm in a Finder window with a lot of files in them, when I use the Search field, it's usually to look for a file within that specific folder.
So, it's always a hassle to have to click on the folder name rather than having the search result right away.
Luckily, it's possible to change this default behaviour via Finder's Preferences pane.
To do that:
Click on the Finder menu
On macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, click on ‘Preferences...’
On macOS 13 Ventura or later, click on ‘Settings…’
Click on the "Advanced" tab
At the bottom, there's the possibility to change where searches are performed by default:
Once "Search the Current Folder" is selected, the next time you'll perform a search within Finder, the search results will be for the active folder and all its sub-folders.
Bonus tip: You can invoke a Finder search from any finder window with the keyboard shortcut Command + F (⌘ F).
If you'd like to have a PDF cheat sheet with 40 keyboard shortcuts for Finder and macOS, just click here
And you, how often do you search for files withing the Finder window?
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