Finder search field

[NickBB]

Hi
I have a nagging issue since a recent restart....the search field box does not appear in the Finder window. I cannot find a way to switch it on.
macOS Catalina
Thanks
Nick

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi
I have a nagging issue since a recent restart....the search field box does not appear in the Finder window. I cannot find a way to switch it on.
macOS Catalina
Thanks
Nick

I’m assuming you are referring to the toolbar icon, the magnifying glass? If it does not show up in the toolbar, right-click on toolbar and in the pop-up window, select Customize Toolbar…

If this does not work for you, with a Finder window still open, in the menu bar click on View and select Customize Toolbar…

When the customize window opens, find the icon for Search (box outline with magnifying glass and “Search”), and drag the icon up to the toolbar and click Done. While you’re there, if there are toolbar items that you want to get rid of, just hold down on the Command key and drag the unwanted icon from the toolbar.

If there are other toolbar items you want to activate, do the Customize Toolbar… procedure again.

 

[NickBB]

Thanks, Tony, I get it now.
Nick

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks, Tony, I get it now.
Nick

Way to go, Nick. Glad to be of help.

 

[TonyAguila]

Thanks, Tony, I get it now.
Nick

I forgot to mention this, though: Finder has, even with the 12.2 update, a memory leak bug that consumes RAM like the Cookie Monster whenever you use the Find feature from the toolbar, or by typing ⌘-F in Finder. Invoked often enough, and depending on the amount of RAM your Mac has, Finder will soon become unresponsive, requiring a forced Relaunch (⌘⌥-F).

In order to avoid this, get into the habit of using Spotlight directly. One way to make Spotlight easily accessible is by its menu bar icon from System Preferences -> Dock & Menu Bar -> Spotlight and click on the Show in Menu Bar box. You can then invoke Spotlight by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the menu bar.

In addition, or instead of the above, you can create a key combination to open Spotlight. System Preferences -> Spotlight and click on Keyboard Shortcuts… (bottom left). In the Keyboard preferences window that opens, you can select the key combination you prefer.

While you’re at it, while in the Spotlight preference window, select Search results and deactivate as many categories that you don’t want to search. The less categories are active, the less memory the search will consume.

I’m not aware of this Finder bug in earlier versions of macOS, other than Monterey. Pre-macOS 12.2, Finder even had more memory bugs. The one I described above is the last holdout that, hopefully, will be fixed in macOS 12.3.

In short, try to avoid Finder Find and use Spotlight instead.