How to Find Files Faster on iPhone and iPad

Advanced search by type, date, size or regex on iOS

Finding a file on an iPhone or iPad is easy when you have a handful of documents. It becomes considerably harder when you're dealing with thousands of files spread across your device, network drives, NAS, cloud storage or external drives.

The trick isn't simply searching for a filename. The more useful question is: what do you know about the file you're looking for?

  • "Find PDFs modified this month."
  • "Find images larger than 100 MB."
  • "Find files containing 'invoice' that aren't in the archive."
  • "Find everything created between two dates."

Search by filename

Search file names and further narrow your search by adding a 'does not contain' parameter to narrow your searches.

Example: Search for "x" and 'does not contain' "x".
Advanced file searching on iOS

Search by file type

Quickly narrow your results to the types of files you're looking for. Choose a category such as Images, Documents, Videos or PDFs, or use the custom option to search for one or more specific file types, such as 'pdf,docx,xlsx'. This makes it easy to focus your search on exactly the files you need.

Use advanced search to limit your files to specific file types on iPad

Search by date

Narrow your search to files or folders modified within a specific period. Choose a convenient preset such as the last 24 hours, week or month, or define your own custom date range when you need more precise results.

Search for files using specific dates on iOS

Search by size

Find files based on their size by setting a minimum or maximum size for your search. This is useful when you're looking for large files that are taking up storage space, or trying to find smaller files within a large collection. Choose from a range of convenient size presets to narrow down your results.

Search for files by size on iPad/iPhone

Search XMP Rating

For photographers working with large image collections, XMP ratings (inside .xmp sidecar files) provide a quick way to find the shots that matter most. Filter your search results by rating to instantly view your 5-star selections, isolate images marked as rejected, or find photographs that haven't yet been rated. This makes it much easier to narrow down a large shoot and focus on the images you want to review, edit or deliver.

Filter search results by XMP ratings

Combine search criteria

For more precise results, you can combine multiple search criteria in a single search. For example, you could search for PDF files larger than 10 MB that were modified within the last 30 days. By narrowing your search using several criteria at once, you can quickly find exactly the files or folders you're looking for, even in large collections.

Use FileBrowser Professional's live searching

Save searches you use regularly

If you have a search you run frequently, save it for quick access later. Saved searches can be run directly from the Search panel in any folder, so you don't have to recreate the same criteria each time.

For example, save a search for PDFs modified in the last 24 hours and run it whenever you need to see the latest documents.

Create and save complex file searches using FileBrowser Professional

Advanced searches using regular expressions

Use regular expressions (regex) to search for specific patterns rather than a set of words. You can match files that begin or end with your search parameter.
A search like this "[0-9]{4}" will return files that have a 4 numbers together in the filename.

Regex examples:

  • [bc]at Match the characters 'b or c' and charcters 'at' for example 'bat' or 'cat'
  • [^bc]at When using a ^ inside brackets it means not including so this example would match 'pat', but not 'bat' or 'cat'
  • [0-9]{4} A group of 4 numbers, change the number in the curly brackets to change how many numbers.
  • [a-z]{4} A group of 4 characters, change the number in the curly brackets to change how many characters.
  • b.t Search for the character 'b' the dot equals a single character then 't' so would return 'bat' or 'bot'. To return 'beet' you would use b..t
  • ^dog the ^ means files starting with so "dog park" but not "bath dog".
  • \.pdf$ the \ means files ending with so "pdf" the $ means that this must be the end of the filename. Otherwise 'doc.pdf.txt' would match.
  • (cat|dog) Matches either word

FileBrowser isn't limited to just these examples. You can use the full list of regex searches.

Searches are not case sensitive.
Use Regex searches to find files using your iPad/iPhone

FileBrowser Professional's Advanced Search is designed for precisely these situations. Rather than limiting you to a simple filename search, you can combine criteria such as name, extension, type, date and size, save searches for later and use regular expressions for more complex searches.

If you regularly work with thousands of files, FileBrowser Professional puts advanced file search alongside your local, network and cloud storage.

Download FileBrowser Professional on the App Store
FAQ
  • Is there an advanced search in the Files app on iOS?

    Currently there is no advanced search in the iOS Files app. However, FileBrowser Professional offers advanced file searches, such as exclude text, limit searches by file types, dates and sizes, regex search. You can also save and load your complex searches for later use.
  • How to perform advanced file searches on iOS?

    Filter your searches to specific file types, sizes and dates, exclude files by matching text or use Regex and other advanced search features with FileBrowser Professional.
  • Can I save searches on iPad/iPhone?

    Because of the amount of options in FileBrowser Professional's advanced search, we added the ability to save and re-use your complex searches.
  • Can I use Regex to search for files on iOS?

    Yes, use regular expressions to search for files either on your iPad or on any location you connect to with FileBrowser Professional (Cloud or Network). You can also save your Regex searches to re-use later.