How do I use search?

With search in SimpleumSafe, you can find files that contain a search term in their content or file name. You can use individual words, word prefixes, exact phrases, and logical combinations. The following examples show the available inputs and the related search settings.

File-name matches appear first

Files whose file name contains your search term without *, AND, OR, or another operator are also displayed at the top of the results list.

1. Form search queries

Simple text search

Enter a word or phrase. SimpleumSafe displays all files that contain that term in their text.

When you enter text without *, AND, OR, or another operator, SimpleumSafe automatically adds * and performs a prefix search.

Example: project

  • Results: “Project plan.pdf,” “Final project.docx,” “project description.txt,” and others.
  • Not found: substrings in longer words; project does not automatically find superprojective.

Prefix search with *

Add an asterisk * to the end of a word to find all words that begin with that prefix.

Input: banan*

  • banan* finds “banana.txt,” “Bananensplit.pdf,” and “bananatastic.doc.”
  • thr* finds “three.txt,” “throw.png,” and “thrive.md.”

Phrase search

Enclose a group of words in quotation marks "…" to find only exact phrases.

Input: "hello world"

  • Only documents containing the exact phrase hello world are found.
  • “hello beautiful world” is not found.

2. Combine search terms logically

Combine terms with AND, OR, and NOT to refine your search. Capitalization does not matter.

AND

Both terms must occur.

apple AND banana

Finds only files containing both apple and banana.

OR

At least one of the terms must occur.

apple OR pear

Finds files containing apple, pear, or both.

NOT

Excludes files that contain the term.

apple NOT pie

Finds files containing apple, but not pie.

Implicit AND

When you separate multiple words with spaces, SimpleumSafe automatically inserts AND between them.

report budget summary is equivalent to report AND budget AND summary.

Grouping with parentheses

Use parentheses (...) to control the order of evaluation.

Example 1

(apple OR banana) AND cherry

OR is evaluated first, followed by AND with cherry.

Example 2

apple OR (banana AND cherry)

Finds all files containing apple, plus those containing both banana and cherry.

Quick overview of all search types
Simple search
word – Example: project
Wildcard prefix
start* – Example: banana*
Phrase search
"multiple words" – Example: "hello world"
AND / OR / NOT
A AND B, A OR B, A NOT B
Implicit AND
Spaces – Example: one two three
Grouping
(...) – Example: (apple OR pear) AND cherry
File name first
Files containing the search term in their file name are sorted at the top.

3. Configure search

What does “Use full-text search” do?

With full-text search enabled, the app searches not only file names but also the content of all files. This lets you find every match in long PDF or text files, for example. If you disable the option, only file names are searched; file contents are excluded.

When should I disable full-text search?

  • Performance: With very large data sets, indexing and searching may consume more resources.
  • Storage: Full-text indexes require additional disk space.
  • Simplicity: If you primarily search by file name, simple search may be sufficient.

4. Fix missing results

Follow these steps in order when new or modified files do not appear in search results.

  1. First

    Wait for automatic indexing

    The app normally indexes all new and modified files automatically. The index is usually updated in the background as soon as you add or change files.

  2. If results are still missing

    Index missing files

    With “Index Missing Files,” the app adds only files that have not yet been indexed. The feature is intended for situations where individual files have not been captured.

    • You copied files into the repository without the app capturing them automatically.
    • Index entries are missing after restoring from a backup.

    Advantage: This is considerably faster than a full reindex because files that are already indexed are skipped.

  3. Only as a last resort

    Rebuild the entire search index

    “Reindex now” completely deletes the existing search index and rebuilds it from scratch.

    A full reindex is useful when:

    • you have modified or moved several files outside the app,
    • full-text search returns unexpected results, or
    • you have just enabled full-text search and want all content added to the index immediately.

    Note: Depending on the amount of data, reindexing may take some time. Search is limited while it is running.

Order of search results

  1. Matches in file names are displayed at the top.
  2. Matches from file contents follow when full-text search is enabled.

With these search types and settings, search remains up to date and performs well whether you search by file name or by terms in file contents.