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rthrech's avatar
rthrech
Helpful | Level 6
4 years ago

Advanced search based on key phrases

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:  ...
Desktop and Web
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  • rhut's avatar
    rhut
    2 years ago
    Hi Dropbox community!  I'm a product manager at Dropbox working on the search experience on dropbox.com.
     
    We took your feedback to heart and are happy to announce that we're adding a few new operators to help you retrieve your files/folders more quickly:
    • title:(new lead) => See results with only the specific words in title of the file
    • title:"new lead" => See results with exact phrase match in title of the file.  Note that quotes only work with title searches and can't be used to match on content
    • type:image => Filter results by a certain types like image, video, document, spreadsheet, etc.
    • type:jpg => Filter results by a certain types like file extension like jpg, png, docx, etc.
    • before:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content before a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
    • after:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content after a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
    • lead AND new => AND operators will show results that contain both words.
    • lead OR new =>  OR operators will show results that contain either words.

    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

Hannah's avatar
Hannah
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
Hey rthrech, thanks for posting on our Community.

We do offer a feature called full-text search, which allows you to search files by name, extension (file type) or keyword within the file.

If you're on a paid account, you should have access to it and you can read more about it here.

If it's not working as expected, can you please try using a different browser or an incognito window?

If you'd like to have a search function that is not available, you can post about it on our idea board.

Let me know if you have any questions.
LeslieL's avatar
LeslieL
Helpful | Level 5
2 years ago

We have a paid Dropbox for Business account and I've tried the options listed to perform a specific search and it's not working properly.  I need to find a specific phrase contained inside the documents and when I perform the phrase search, every word within the phrase comes up in the search which is totally useless.  I need to be able to perform a search for a very specific phrase, and the phrase must be exactly as searched.

 

Please help..... 

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