Advanced search based on key phrases

[rthrech]

I seriously need advanced searching. 

Dropbox used to have these features (like search exact phrase) in 2015, but somehow removed them. 

So how can I do advanced searching in dropbox?
Like:

List files with age between x and y
Contain the phrase "a b c"
are of type *.pdf

...

[FrankGaz]

Thank you for reaching out and updating us!

[FrankGaz]

Hello Rhut, 

It doesn't seem as though the new operators do much to help Dropbox search. Without the ability to search for exact phrases within a document, I don't see how any of this helps solve any of the problems that we've been talking about.

1. DATES - It's a nice feature, but is only a small step up from sorting and scrolling. 

2 DOC TITLES - This is only a moderate step-up from sorting a folder and scrolling (which may actually be faster). Also, the documentation says 

"Note: The document title may not be the same as the folder or file name". If the "title" I can search for may not be the file name, then I don't see how any user can reliably use the "TITLE" operator to find any specific document. 

3. AND / OR - These are borderline useless, as DB currently ignores word order. So any given search using AND/OR is likely to return countless numbers of documents that are unrelated to what a user is looking for. 

The only way these operators become useful is to also add the exact phrases. 

Are there plans to add searches for exact phrases? Or is it still a situation in which we'd all be better just switching to another service? 

[rhut · Accepted solution]

Hi Dropbox community!  I'm a product manager at Dropbox working on the search experience on dropbox.com.

We took your feedback to heart and are happy to announce that we're adding a few new operators to help you retrieve your files/folders more quickly:

• title:(new lead) => See results with only the specific words in title of the file
• title:"new lead" => See results with exact phrase match in title of the file.  Note that quotes only work with title searches and can't be used to match on content
• type:image => Filter results by a certain types like image, video, document, spreadsheet, etc.
• type:jpg => Filter results by a certain types like file extension like jpg, png, docx, etc.
• before:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content before a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
• after:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content after a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
• lead AND new => AND operators will show results that contain both words.
• lead OR new =>  OR operators will show results that contain either words.

To use these operators, login to Dropbox.com, click on the searchbox at the top, and start typing your query.  You can learn more about our operators on our help center article here:  https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/search

Note that there are some limitations:

  - This feature is Web only (for now)

  - Searches may return inaccurate results for contents of a file, certain images, and Paper docs if you're using the old release of Dropbox Paper.

  - Quotes will only work on file titles, not matches on content (for now)

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Thanks for your patience as we ship new features to improve your overall Dropbox experience!

Rhut

[rhut · Accepted solution]

Hi Dropbox community!  I'm a product manager at Dropbox working on the search experience on dropbox.com.

We took your feedback to heart and are happy to announce that we're adding a few new operators to help you retrieve your files/folders more quickly:

• title:(new lead) => See results with only the specific words in title of the file
• title:"new lead" => See results with exact phrase match in title of the file.  Note that quotes only work with title searches and can't be used to match on content
• type:image => Filter results by a certain types like image, video, document, spreadsheet, etc.
• type:jpg => Filter results by a certain types like file extension like jpg, png, docx, etc.
• before:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content before a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
• after:2022-01-01 => Allows you to see all content after a certain date.  Uses YYYY-MM-DD format.
• lead AND new => AND operators will show results that contain both words.
• lead OR new =>  OR operators will show results that contain either words.

To use these operators, login to Dropbox.com, click on the searchbox at the top, and start typing your query.  You can learn more about our operators on our help center article here:  https://help.dropbox.com/view-edit/search

Note that there are some limitations:

  - This feature is Web only (for now)

  - Searches may return inaccurate results for contents of a file, certain images, and Paper docs if you're using the old release of Dropbox Paper.

  - Quotes will only work on file titles, not matches on content (for now)

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Thanks for your patience as we ship new features to improve your overall Dropbox experience!

Rhut

[rhut]

Great feedback!  Responding to each of your points:

1. Date:  This feature can help more in situations where you'd be looking for files across folders, but agree that sorting and scrolling could work equally well within a folder.

2.  Title:  So we heard from users who had access to image search, full-text search, and OCR wanted the ability to isolate searches to title only.  Again, may be more helpful in situations where you're looking for files across folders.  You can do exact phrase matches on titles, so "q1 quarterly report". or title:"q1 quarterly report".  We can update that help center article -- you'll be searching for the file/folder title and will match on that.  That point was meant more that metadata with "title:" won't match using the title operator.

3.  Fair point on the AND/OR w/o exact phrase match.

I agree this isn't a perfect end state, but wanted to start here and continue iterating on the feature set!  Exact phrase match is definitely on our backlog and requires a larger change on the backend, and I can provide an update as we get closer to launch.

[rhut]

It's ok!  Totally understand your frustration, especially when this has been a long standing issue.  Hoping we can capitalize on the momentum and add the features you need quickly!

[Marco R.11]

Can you please confirm, that text phrase search does not work on Dropbox? 

The entire product is useless without text phrase search

[Hannah]

Hey @Marco R.11, can you please give us some more info as to why the feature is not working for you?

Are you seeing some kind of error message, or do you get no results when searching for key words in your files?

Any additional info would be helpful.

[FrankGaz]

Hello, 

I suspect that Marco is asking about this because searching for exact phrases does not work in Dropbox, which does, in fact, render Dropbox' search function 100% useless. Searching for "The document I want" returns every result with "the" and "document" and "I" and "want." Dropbox' search functionality is a bit of a scam. DB advertises full text search despite the fact that they do not provide the ability to search for an exact phrase, which renders their "full text search" completely useless.

[Koen W.]

Hi all,

It is now March 2024 and it seems exact phrase search for document content is still not working? Can you please give an indication when this will be addressed?

Kind regards,

Koen

Ps: we have been Pro customer for over 10 years with a group of about 10... 

[FrankGaz]

Don't hold your breath. Their marketing is misleading and the responses in this thread are inadequate. They just removed it for no good reason.