FileOctopus Describe supported file properties in everyday words, then inspect the filters FileOctopus creates.
How it works
- Press ⌘F and choose the intended scope.
- Type one of the supported phrases below.
- Check the resulting kind, date, size, or source chips.
- Edit or remove a chip to adjust the search. Unrecognized words continue to match file names.
The interpreter runs locally using finite templates. It does not call an AI service, infer the meaning of arbitrary sentences, or understand the subject of a photo. For example, “photos of my dog at the beach” is not a supported semantic photo query.
Everyday examples
| You want to find | Type | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Last week's screenshots | screenshots last week | Screenshot kind + modification date in the previous calendar week. |
| Large videos | videos larger than 1 GB | Video kind + size greater than 1 binary GB. |
| Recent large PDF files | pdfs from last week over 5 mb | PDF kind + previous calendar week's modification dates + size over 5 MB. |
| Files created yesterday | created yesterday | Creation date in yesterday's calendar day. |
| Reports from a known month | report in March 2024 | Filename term “report” + modification date in March 2024. |
| Files with recorded GitHub origin | downloaded from github | GitHub source metadata. No GitHub account connection. |
| Older archives | archives older than 30 days | Archive kind + modification date older than the relative cutoff. |
| Recent invoices except drafts | invoice ext:pdf mtime:<7d !draft | Filename term, PDF extension, recent modification date, and excluded name term. |
These are query examples, not guaranteed hits. A folder needs files whose metadata matches the filters. Screenshot classification is based on available file information, not visual understanding.
Supported kinds, dates, and sizes
Natural kind words include pdfs, images, photos, screenshots, videos, movies, audio, music, archives, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, code, folders, and apps. Singular pdf, image, and video remain name terms; use plurals or kind:pdf for a kind filter.
Date phrases include today, yesterday, this/last week, month, or year, past 7 days, older than 30 days, and in March 2024. Dates without a modifier refer to modification. Use created/made for creation, or modified/edited/changed/updated for modification.
Last week means the previous calendar week in the current calendar; past 7 days is a relative look-back. Bare years and bare month names remain filename terms. A month phrase without a year uses the most recent applicable year and displays an inferred chip marked with ?; inspect it.
Size phrases include over, under, larger than, smaller than, at least, and at most. Include a unit: over 5 is not a size filter. KB/MB/GB/TB use binary multiples; 1 GB is 1,073,741,824 bytes.
A limited Vietnamese phrase set
Supported examples include tệp PDF tuần trước (PDFs modified last week), ảnh hôm qua (images modified yesterday), and ảnh chụp màn hình 7 ngày qua (screenshots modified in the past seven days). Accents matter. This is a small supported set, not general Vietnamese language understanding.
When words should stay words
Quote phrases you intend as literal name text, such as "last week". Mix recognized phrases with explicit operators for precision. “Downloaded yesterday” does not produce a download-date filter: download dates are not recorded consistently, so the app retains those words as name terms and warns you to use modified or created dates.
For content, use content: and the required content/OCR opt-ins. Natural-language metadata search does not enable content indexing or expand your scope.
Watch: turn a phrase into filters
A real Find session: combine kind, date and size, broaden the query by removing a chip, then try recorded origin and a supported Vietnamese phrase.
Recorded in FileOctopus using fictional files. No audio. Playback is 1.25×. GitHub origins are synthetic metadata in the demo files; no account is connected. Result counts depend on the fixture and recording date.
Read the demo steps
- In Find, use This Mac, which is restricted to the fixture's approved folder in this recording.
- Enter ‘pdfs from last week over 5 mb’. The app creates PDF, Last week and > 5 MB chips. This fixture has no matching files.
- Open the size chip menu and remove that condition. ‘pdfs from last week’ returns seven matching fixture files.
- Enter ‘downloaded from github’. Two files with recorded GitHub origin appear.
- Enter ‘tệp PDF tuần trước’. The PDF and Last week chips return the same seven files as the English date-and-kind query.