Files search options the wrong way round?

On Fedora-41 Beta using Files 47.0. Searching - there are two options:

  • Side panel, the tooltip says “Search Everywhere” and the data entry field says the same. It usually doesn’t find anything. That’s probably because a test shows that it only looks in ~.
  • Top bar, the tooltip says “Search Current Folder” and the data entry field says the same. Finds all sorts of surprising stuff. A test shows that that’s probably because it’s searching everwhere on my main disk.

I have found file searches difficult for a while, so I suspect this was also the case with Fedora 40. It looks like the two functions have been mixed up somehow. I don’t think there is a setting that I could have changed which could have done this.

Actually, as I see it, it is working as designed, can be misleading though:

  • Search Current Folder searches, as the name states, in the current folder and its subfolders. However, given that most folders and subfolders within the /home directory are also indexed by tracker3, your search results will also yield results within the files (full text search)[1].
  • Search Everywhere doesn’t actually search literally everywhere (such as the / folder), but rather in all the search locations, as set up in Settings → Search. You can test this by searching everywhere for the “fstab” string for example. Initially it won’t yield any results, but if you go to Settings and add /etc/ to the list of Custom Locations, then the search will return the /etc/fstab file correctly.
  • If someone wants to search for a file/folder in the whole root filesystem, they would need to go to the / folder and search using Search Current Folder option[2]. E.g. searching after the “grub” string will return the files/folders containing that string in the name correctly.

I guess we have to keep in mind that Files is a user-oriented app, hence its focus is on general usage.


  1. In this latter case you can see the "" icon in the search results. Full-text search has to be activated in the contextual search options. ↩︎

  2. Or they could add the root folder to the list of Custom Locations, could affect system performance though. ↩︎

1 Like

Thanks for your thorough and clear explanation.

I think that is an oxymoron. Where is “and its subfolders.” in the Statement Search Current Folder?

Lol! It actually means Search [only locations that you have set up in settings].

So apart from having to tick all the standard locations (Downloads etc) I would have to add everything else as a “Custom Location”/

So far as I can see, the only sensible option is to assume that Search Current Folder means Search [from] Current Folder [downwards] and just use that one.

I am concerned that a new Linux user might be put off by this :slight_smile: .

1 Like

While I find the implementation of the two search functions as being done the right way[1], I agree that their naming is rather unfortunate.

Many of us here on the forums forget sometimes that a desktop environment is (or should be) targeted towards the users at large (and not only developers, sysadmins, tech savvy users etc). And as such, the core functionalities should address the broader needs of those users.

With this approach, I guess we can agree that Files is a tool for browsing files and folders in the user’s home directory and other mounted drives/devices, but not the system folders/files. The average user has no need to access files outside those locations (usually having GUI apps to deal with them, if ever needed[2]). The advanced user, on the other hand, doesn’t use (or is advised against using) a GUI file manager for accessing system files, and uses the terminal instead.

I agree! You might agree with me though, too, that in connection to searching a specific folder, it is understood that subfolders are being searched by default too.

Again, I agree! But your naming is obviously too long to be practical, and I cannot come with something better either. Following the above reasoning, for the average user, Search Everywhere is (almost) correct, “everywhere” meaning Everywhere I, as a user, have interest to do the search with a file manager.

You might want to raise awareness regarding this naming issue with the GNOME team and submit a bug in GNOME Files’ issue tracker.


  1. I share my opinions here as someone who adheres to GNOME’s approach to design and UX guidelines, without being part of the team or otherwise having any motives to agree with them. ↩︎

  2. E.g. the Disks app ca be used to set up partition mounts in /etc/fstab. ↩︎