Search by file name instead of full-text search

[Bradex]

Dropbox 'full-text search' is a powerful and convenient feature. However, as I add more and more files to Dropbox, the 'full-text search' feature is becoming more of a hindrance, especially when I don't want to do a 'deep' search.

For instance, I need to find a file with the name 'Apple' on its name. However, the 'full-text search' returns a huge list of files containing the word 'Apple', and the file I need is buried amongst them. 

I request the Dropbox team to make the 'full-text search' an optional feature. That is, for a casual search, Dropbox should search only the file names. If I want a 'deeper' search, I should be able to select/tick 'full-text search' in the next step.

Thanks!

[Walter]

This idea has been delivered! Find out more here. 

Thank you for your support!

[Daphne]

To encourage others to show their support for your idea, we've updated the status!

Your idea will need some more support before we share it with the team.

Thanks!

[seth4]

Daphne, how much more support does this idea need? This isn't the only thread on this forum where it's being discussed. Moreover, I'm not sure how many people realize that this is a function that they've LOST. Previously, we could ONLY search file names, but now with the upgrade, we can search the text within files as well. This seems to have been discussed in different forums here since at least 2018, so I'm guessing one of the reasons it doesn't have more votes is that a lot of people (like me) haven't realized it's missing yet! It's not a feature that I would use that often, but it's such a basic feature that it didn't even occur to me that Dropbox would no longer have it. 

Someone on another thread said it best: 

Since the dawn of disk operating systems, the ability to search by name and by partial filename with wildcards has be enshrined. I have come to rely on dropbox but the lack of this simplest of features concerns me and limits the functionality of your cloud and web services.

As people store more and more files on dropbox, this will become an even bigger issue for them. I spend several hundred dollars on Dropbox every year, and I've been largely happy with it. It concerns me that this functionality isn't available, but what concerns me a LOT more is that the moderators here seem to be acting like this is some weird, fancy feature, instead of something that has been available to me on every other file storage system I've used - including the old version of Dropbox!

[mandrake]

Very well put seth4!

I hope Dropbox takes note and restores this feature which is a basic necessity. This issue is especially relevant and is a big deterrent for business users who tend to store an innumerable number of files in Dropbox.

[wordsouth]

Thanks @seth4 and @mandrake for bringing this back up. As you said, this has been an ongoing request for at least a couple of years. It boggles my mind that a powerful service like Dropbox, which does a great job on many things otherwise, makes it so hard to find what you're looking for. With ~8 TB in our Dropbox for Business account, there's no way I would save all our files locally. If I did, I could rely on the superb MacOS search functionality. But that would defeat much of the reason for using Dropbox. Searching by file name, extension, date range, etc., is so basic, I can't wrap my mind around why Dropbox will not add this simple functionality. We can't even limit the search by including a string of words in quotation marks. The frustration level with this is such that every time I hit a wall I start looking for alternatives to Dropbox — then I think about the hassle of moving so much data, syncing across 30 employees, training, losing our Paper files ... such a heavy lift. Please, Dropbox, please just give us some basic control over searching. Or assemble a working group of Business users and let us develop some guidance for what we need to use your otherwise powerful tool more effectively. Thanks for listening.

[Dmoore1188]

Hi Friends, I Delted this Comment. 

[CindyS]

Dropbox needs to make their online Search function work at least as well as the Finder! And/or, as well as Google! Really. It is nearly impossible to search for a phrase. Unless I am missing something, adding quotes doesn't help; neither do Boolean operators. We want useable search capabilites!

[NBF]

I think the missing features in Dropbox search functionality are too important and not cosmetic. I don’t understand why voting is even required. I mean, if Dropbox is encouraging people to store their documents in the cloud, then making it hassle-free to locate those documents should not require a vote.

Especially that most people who are frustrated by the Dropbox rudimentary search functionality don’t bother to comment on this forum.

It’s like an airline providing water and coffee onboard but asking travelers to vote whether there should be a toilet aboard the plane. 

[johnss23]

I couldn't agree more. I am looking for a file called portfolio... and it gives me thousands of files with that NOT in the name. I'm guessing they have somewhere in the settings that it "portfolio" print orientation... 

I know that this functionality used to exist. The lack of it in 2021 in inexcusable.

[Joan S.18]

Agreed with all of above .... as well as the related comments submitted all the way back to 2015, which got ridiculous robo-answers (explaining the obvious, like where search bar is!).   Why on earth isn't Dropbox listening? We do pay for this service, and when you increased rates, you added NOTHING in terms of functionality. 

PLEASE, Dropbox, do you even pay attention to your users' problems??  You've got some serious user experience issues, and your developers' presumptions about what is helpful are obviously missing the mark.  Start to listen. 

[NBF]

Increasingly I think not providing better search functionality is a business rather than a technical decision. I think DropBox is not being transparent about the reasons it has delayed for years to add better search functionality while it has devoted resources to adding many features that, as least to me, are useless.

Perhaps time to look for alternatives to Dropbox. 

Neil