Find Any File

Find Any File searches your local disks for files by name, creation or modification date, size, or type and creator code (not by content, though).

As there are other tools with a similar search operation, here are the special features unique to Find Any File:

• Has a new hierarchical view of the found items, making it much easier to browse 100s of items (see the screenshot).
• Can run as root user, finding really any file on your disk, even those that are hidden from normal users.
• Can save queries and run them again later.

Unlike Spotlight (i.e., the Finder's Find command), it does not access a pre-built database but searches the chosen volume directly. This allows you to find any file, even those inside packages and others excluded from Spotlight search. Hence it is great for finding system files, for example.

On the other hand, it may take a little longer than Spotlight, and it is only fast on HFS(+) volumes. But even on mounted network volumes of a Mac OS X server it can still be surprisingly fast.

Hence, this is not an entire replacement for Spotlight but it can come handy in certain, if not many, situations.

• Searching with "Name equals" can now perform "fast" on APFS volumes.
• Applications can be chosen again when using "Pass Results" search option.
• Avoids rare crash around "accessibilityIsAttributeSettable" on macOS 10.13 and later.
• Improved performance with showing file icons in "Preview Grid" view mode.

Note: While this is still a 32 bit app, a new 64 bit version is already in the works and will become available before Apple makes 64 bit apps mandatory. See the developer's website for more information.