Forum Discussion

Phin's avatar
Phin
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago

Searching for a tilde (~) in filenames

One of the pieces of software I use - SketchUp - creates backups with the format "filename~.skp". The normal files just have the "filename.skp" format. I cannot search for the tilde symbol and my Dro...
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Jay's avatar
Jay
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
3 years ago

Hi Phin, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

 

Are you able to search for ~.skp on the site? I've tested this and it brings up the file immediately.

 

Keep me updated with any progress!

  • Phin's avatar
    Phin
    Helpful | Level 5
    3 years ago

    Hi Jay,

     

    I can search for it, but it doesn't pick up the tilde, just the filename suffix (see screenshot)

     

    I've tried renaming a file to be just  ~.skp and leaving it in the root Dropbox directory but it doesn't pick that up either.

     

    If it helps, I'm using Safari Version 16.3 (18614.4.6.1.6) and OS Ventura 13.2.1 (22D68)

     

    Thanks

     

     

     

    • Megan's avatar
      Megan
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      3 years ago

      Hey Phin, thanks for the update! 

       

      Do you notice the same behavior when searching through your files using a different browser too? 

      • Здравко's avatar
        Здравко
        Legendary | Level 20
        3 years ago
        Megan wrote:

        ...

        Do you notice the same behavior when searching through your files using a different browser too? 

        Megan, What behavior are you expecting in different browser? 🧐 No the browser (whatever is in use) decides what symbol how to be treated. It's Dropbox server responsibility! And... there many symbols (including tilde) are treated as words separators and not as a part of the text to be looked for. I'm not aware of any way such symbols to be tagged (so included in the search).

        Did you successfully find out a tilde somewhere? 😁 This may be a good feature request (not only about the tilde, but to any separator tagging)! 🙋

         

        Add: Just few examples of separator symbols that I have a lot in my files/folders, but:

        And at the end:

        Congratulations! 🤦🤷

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