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Forum Discussion

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
File access
View
Web
  • 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

FrankGaz's avatar
FrankGaz
Helpful | Level 7

Hello Rhut, 

 

It doesn't seem as though the new operators do much to help Dropbox search. Without the ability to search for exact phrases within a document, I don't see how any of this helps solve any of the problems that we've been talking about.

 

1. DATES - It's a nice feature, but is only a small step up from sorting and scrolling. 

2 DOC TITLES - This is only a moderate step-up from sorting a folder and scrolling (which may actually be faster). Also, the documentation says 

"Note: The document title may not be the same as the folder or file name". If the "title" I can search for may not be the file name, then I don't see how any user can reliably use the "TITLE" operator to find any specific document. 

3. AND / OR - These are borderline useless, as DB currently ignores word order. So any given search using AND/OR is likely to return countless numbers of documents that are unrelated to what a user is looking for. 

 

The only way these operators become useful is to also add the exact phrases. 

 

Are there plans to add searches for exact phrases? Or is it still a situation in which we'd all be better just switching to another service? 

rhut's avatar
rhut
Collaborator | Level 8
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

  • Koen W.'s avatar
    Koen W.
    Helpful | Level 5
    9 months ago

    Hi all,

     

    It is now March 2024 and it seems exact phrase search for document content is still not working? Can you please give an indication when this will be addressed?

     

    Kind regards,

    Koen

     

    Ps: we have been Pro customer for over 10 years with a group of about 10... 

    • FrankGaz's avatar
      FrankGaz
      Helpful | Level 7
      9 months ago
      Don't hold your breath. Their marketing is misleading and the responses in this thread are inadequate. They just removed it for no good reason.
      • FrankGaz's avatar
        FrankGaz
        Helpful | Level 7
        26 days ago

        I'm commenting again just to bump this. It needs to be fixed. This is ridiculous. 

  • FrankGaz's avatar
    FrankGaz
    Helpful | Level 7
    26 days ago

    This threat should not be marked as solved and this post should not be marked as the solution. It is completely unrelated to issue being discussed. 

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