Searching from within indesign (or any adobe product) since upgrading to high sierra/mojave is broken

Question

At our office we have 2 macs using high sierra or mojave and another offsite also using high sierra. Since upgrading to high sierra the search function has not worked properly at all from within adobe suite. Searching using a single word works kind of, go to import an image, window opens, select image folder, type search term, search immediately switches to main graphics folder instead of images folder and begins searching there, manually click on images folder at top of window, search now switches to images folder and produces result. If we add a number to the search term the search breaks completely, returns nonsense results or nothing at all. Searching from the finder itself (outside of adobe) works fine however. This has only been since high sierra, I have been hunting for a solution for months but so far no joy. Basic, fundamental feature, almost unusable, and we are a graphics shop so having to resort to workarounds is a drag on our workflow. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

DBLjan · Accepted Answer

There was a bug report on the search not working in the OPEN dialog box (which in my testing now works). Colin Flashman referenced it above:

Search field does not work in Open dialogue box – Adobe InDesign Feedback

If you feel it's important you should post one about search in the the PLACE dialog box not working. And I will agree with you about that. The UserVoice website is where the engineers and product managers looks so it's the best place to post it.

If you do so, report back here and others of us can confirm what you've found. The UserVoice website is designed for that.

Since nobody seem to have read my post, it boils down to the MacOS quicksearch. I reported this bug after MacOS jumped from 11 to 12 to both Apple tech-support by telephone, and also on their bugreport-site. I also did this from 12 to 13, as I hoped they would have fixed it. I really cant recommend trying to convince Apple thats something wonky in their product – its useless if it isnt a rooting zeroday iOS thing. But maybe we have a Whale here, whos golfing with Steve Apple…that would be great.

But I dont really blame Adobe for this – you can reproduce it from any App in MacOS, as well native apps and also 3rd-party.

Our workflow heavily relies on searching a server for logos and images, and we have the same problems with the after-search-switch-to-folder-again-where-i-came-from. I tried to script around that like

try{
var pathToPredefinedFolder = Folder('/Volumes/OurServerName/logos/');
app.place(pathToPredefinedFolder.openDlg ('Get some files', '', true)) //prompt, filter, multiselect
}catch (e){}

but maybe you could make "(…), click on images folder from shortcut favorites on left, (…)" obsolete. Also I tried to fire some system events after calling the dialog, which doesnt work.

Also, i can reproduce the different results of using the finder-quicksearch and a quicksearch within e.g. Safari. It seems we have to live with this a while longer.

Test Screen Name · Answer

My guess (wild guess as to Apple's motivations) is that novice users understand little about folders. We constantly hear from users who save files with no idea about folders and where they go, and of course eventually lose their files. (For example, many people are fine until they save their sixth file, and the oldest vanishes from Recent files; they demand to know what Adobe has done with their file and threaten class action). So they go Open and they don't see their file. So they hit SEARCH. What they expect is that search actually searches everywhere. And finds the file they are looking for. Which is the default - search this Mac. A deliberate change for the novices. People with so many files in folders that they need to search within them are a small minority of experienced users. So, working as designed. Just not working as you want.

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