Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 15:03

This simple tutorial explains how to search files and folders on Ubuntu. This uses Files, the default file manager on Ubuntu also known as Nautilus.

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Step 1. Run File Manager

Your file manager name is Files. Run file manager by clicking its icon on left panel. Alternatively, open Applications Menu and type file manager and click Files.


Step 2. Open The Place You Want To Search

For example, to search within Documents you first open Documents. Another example, to search within DATA partition (if any), you first open DATA partition. Likewise, adapt it to your situation there.


NOTE: your data partitions (if you have) can be opened from Other Locations to the left-bottom of file manager.


Step 3. Search

Click Magnifier Glass (🔍) button on your file manager and type your search keyword and computer will automatically displays search result on screen. For example, to search for mp3 files, type mp3; to search for files with "assignment" in their names, type "assignment" without quotes. Likewise, adapt it to your needs. Click Magnifier Glass button again to close your search.

Searching for videos in MP4 format

Thumbnail Viewis useful to display all items in spread with previews.
List View
is useful to display all items in list, detailed and easier to sort.

 

Step 4. Advanced Search

Click Magnifier Glass (🔍) button and type your search keyword and switch your search option from Filename to Full Text. This allows you to search, regardless file names, the content of files, similar to what you might often experience with Google on the internet. Good example among others finding what document files containing your name or bank account in your storage. Click Magnifier Glass again to close your search.

Searching which files containing my name "malsasa"

 

Bonus

Several important gestures are:

Ctrl+A select all items on search result.

Ctrl+Shift+Arrows select multiple items after selecting one.

Shift+Delete permanent delete selected item(s).



This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.