How does Advanced Search work in SimpleumSafe 3.9?

Are you looking for an invoice or a contract in your Safe, but cannot remember its exact file name? Advanced Search in SimpleumSafe 3.9 lets you describe the documents you want to find. For example, you can look for files with “Invoice” in their name that you added in the last 90 days. This works on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

How to open Advanced Search

1. Open and unlock the Safe you want to search.
2. Go to the view that shows your files.
3. Look for the symbol shown below in the toolbar, the row of buttons for the file view.

A window opens where you can specify what SimpleumSafe should look for. The next section takes you through a simple search.

Short video: Advanced Search at a glance

Get to know Advanced Search in about a minute.

The video shows the English interface and includes English subtitles.

1. Your first search: find an invoice

A condition describes which files you want to find. To start, you only need one: the file name should contain the word “Invoice”.

1. Under Field, choose File Name. This tells the app to search in the name of each file.
2. Under Operator, choose contains. “Operator” means how the app should search. With “contains”, “Invoice” can be just one part of the file name.
3. Under Value, enter Invoice. In this case, “Value” is the word you want to find.
4. Look at Preview. It shows how many matching files were found. These files are called matches or results.
5. Choose Apply. The file view now shows matching files, such as “Invoice Electricity August.pdf”.

Above the results, you will see Current Search or the name of a saved search. Use the pencil symbol to change the search. Use the cross in a circle to end it and return to your file view without this restriction. Your files are kept.

The regular search field is hidden while Advanced Search is active. It reappears when you end the advanced search.

2. Narrow your search

If you find too many files, use Add Condition to add another detail. For example, you can specify that the file must have been added to the Safe in the last 90 days.

Under Match, choose how several conditions work together:

• All conditions: A file must match every detail. For example: “Invoice” is in the file name and the file was added in the last 90 days.
• Any condition: Matching one detail is enough. For example: a file is labelled “Contract” or “Invoice”.

To start with, All conditions is usually a good choice when you want fewer results.

Use Exclude matches to reverse a condition. For example, if your condition looks for “Draft” in the file name, this option keeps files with that word out of the results.

What can you search for?

The available choices depend on the Field you select. For File Name, you can choose contains, is, or begins with, for example. Is means the name must match exactly. For dates, options include before, on or after, between, and in the last number of days.

Words and your own notes

File Name

Finds a word in the name of a file, such as “Invoice” or “Contract”.

Content

Searches the text of a document, for example for a name in an invoice.

Comment

Searches the notes you added as a comment to a file.

Everywhere

Searches the file name, comment, and searchable text of the file at the same time.

Labels and file formats

Tag

A tag is a keyword you assigned to a file, such as “Tax”. Use it to find files with that label.

File Format

Limits the search to PDF documents, JPEG images, or Word documents, for example.

Kind

Distinguishes files, folders, and packages. Packages are related files that appear as a single item.

Dates, size, and location

Created, Modified, Added to Safe

Searches by the relevant date of the file, rather than a date written inside the document.

Size

Finds large or small files. Enter the file size in megabytes (MB).

Location

Searches a selected folder, optionally including all its subfolders. Learn how to choose where to search.

In Trash

Specifies whether the files should be in the trash.

Example: Tax documents from the last 90 days

If you have already assigned the “Tax” tag to your documents, choose All conditions and set:

1. Tag – contains any – Tax
2. File Format – is – PDF
3. Modified – in the last – 90 days

This finds PDF files labelled “Tax” that were modified in the last 90 days. To find recently filed documents instead, choose Added to Safe for the third condition.

Example: Find contracts and invoices together

If you use the tags “Contract” and “Invoice”, choose Any condition and add:

1. Tag – contains any – Contract
2. Tag – contains any – Invoice

Files with either tag now appear. A file with both tags also matches.

3. Search a folder and its subfolders

Do you remember which folder your documents are in? You can limit the search to that area. Choose whether to search only that folder or also all the subfolders inside it.

1. In a condition, choose Location under Field.
2. Under Operator, choose directly in or inside. The example below explains the difference.
3. Open the folder selection and choose the folder you want.
4. Choose Apply to see the matching files.

Example: Your “Invoices” folder

Your Invoices folder contains an electricity invoice. It also contains a subfolder called 2025, where you keep older invoices.

“Inside” includes the selected folder itself. In this example, the search covers the entire “Invoices” area.

You can combine the folder selection with other conditions. To find only PDFs in that area, for example, add File Format – is – PDF and choose All conditions. Files must then match both the selected folder area and the file format you want.

4. Save a search for later

If you often look for the same documents, you do not have to enter the details each time. Save the search in the Advanced Search window:

1. Complete the conditions you want to use.
2. In the Save Search section, enter a name, such as Recent Tax Documents.
3. Choose Save.
4. Later, find the search under Saved Searches in the sidebar, the navigation area beside your file view. You can also select it under Saved Searches directly in the Advanced Search window and choose Apply to run it.

The app saves your search settings. When you run the search again, SimpleumSafe looks for files that match those settings again.

You can rename saved searches, sort them alphabetically, arrange them yourself, and delete them. A saved search is available only in this Safe on this device. It is not transferred to other devices. Set it up there too if you need it.

5. Help if something does not work

I cannot select “Apply”

Check that every condition has all the details it needs. A search word, file size, or folder selection may still be missing. Once all conditions are complete and valid, you can select Apply.

I cannot find all files containing a word in their text

To find words inside documents, SimpleumSafe first needs to prepare their content for searching. This applies to the Content and Everywhere fields. While that preparation is unfinished or content search is unavailable, some results may be missing. The app tells you when results are incomplete. Matching files found by their name, for example, are still shown.

Searching inside document text is called full-text search. This guide explains how to use and update it:

Guide to full-text search

A folder or tag used in my saved search is missing

The folder or tag may have been deleted since you saved the search. The saved search does not change automatically. Open it for editing and choose another folder or tag. You can also remove that condition.

The regular search field has disappeared

The regular search field is hidden while an advanced search is active. Select the cross in a circle above the results list to end the advanced search. The regular search field then reappears.