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I seriously need advanced searching.
Dropbox used to have these features (like search exact phrase) in 2015, but somehow removed them.
So how can I do advanced searching in dropbox?
Like:
List files with age between x and y
Contain the phrase "a b c"
are of type *.pdf
...
To use these operators, login to Dropbox.com, click on the searchbox at the top, and start typing your query. You can learn more about our operators on our help center article here: https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/search
Note that there are some limitations:
- This feature is Web only (for now)
- Searches may return inaccurate results for contents of a file, certain images, and Paper docs if you're using the old release of Dropbox Paper.
- Quotes will only work on file titles, not matches on content (for now)
Try it out and let us know what you think!
Thanks for your patience as we ship new features to improve your overall Dropbox experience!
Rhut
To give you a very simple example: I'd like to search for documents that contain the date "13.10.2020". The normal search returns all documents that have 13, or 10 or 2020 either in the document text or the filenames. Can you imagine how useless this is if you have many documents?
Hannah
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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Hi Hannah,
I do have a paid (business) account.
I know about your full-text search, but as I tried to explain: It is pretty much useless if you have many documents.
This issue is NOT related to the browser.
1. I search for the date "20.03.2021"
2. I expect to get results that have the phrase "20.03.2021" either in the filename, or document contents
3. What I get is ALL files that have either 20, or 03, or 2021 in their filename or contents.
(4. even worse: the documents that have the exact phrase, do not even get a high priority in the matches)
Walter
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support
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The problem exists since you removed the "Advanced Search" feature in 2015!
There are many people complaining about the search
It seems like the logic is
1. Split the user's input at any non-alphanumeric character
2. search for each result individually and return all results merged
you need another example:
search for: b1.pdf
I get every match for "b1" OR "pdf"
I have the exact same issue. I'm trying to find a document with "01.03.2019" in the title and the search returns every document with a 01, a 03 or a 2019 making it completely useless.
This morning I need to find a file with "3-Audio" in the title. I search for "3-Audio" and receive a list of files with 3 in the file name and not the file I need.
This is a MAJOR problem. I'm a paid user and use dropbox to run my music studio. We have thousands of music files and often I need to find the right one and currently I can't.
Does anyone know a way to use WIndows search that does NOT require copying all files to the hard drive?
I am another plus user mystified by poor searching online. Please allow advanced searching again! -- Lee
The current search engine is crap, and Dropbox knows it. The decision to remove the former advance search function was a business one. This probably cost them too much CPU credits. I cannot install Dropbox on my computer because it is not in line with my client's policy when I am working for them. Thus, I can only use it through the browser.
To conclude, this is my last month of using the paid version.
Hi there!
If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for a ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X or Facebook.
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