REVIEW · DEEP NAME SEARCH
Verdict: Yes, for the right job. Find Any File searches your disks directly, so it finds files Spotlight never indexed: on network drives, inside packages, in System and Library folders and, in root mode, in other users' folders. It searches by name, size, dates and kind, so it helps most when you know those facts about the file.
21 October 2026 · By Ishtiaque Hossain · 5 minute read · reviews Find Any File 2.6.1
Looking for a file you can describe but not name? Try Shlexball. The first 30 searches are free and need no account.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon. 16 GB memory. On a phone? Email yourself the link.
This review is based on Find Any File's own pages, read on 14 October 2026. Every claim links to the page it came from. We are the makers of Shlexball, so we say plainly where Find Any File does better.
| Price | 6 USD shareware; try before you buy; also in the Mac App Store |
| Runs on | Version 2.6.1 for macOS 10.11 to 27; older versions for older Macs |
| What it searches | Name, extension, date range, size, kind; text in plain text, zip, Word and Excel files |
| Without Spotlight | Yes; it searches the disks directly |
| Made by | Thomas Tempelmann |
| Best for | Files Spotlight cannot see: network drives, packages, system folders |
Find Any File, often shortened to FAF, is a Mac program that searches for files on your disks. Its author describes it as search beyond Spotlight: it complements Spotlight rather than replacing it.
Instead of asking an index (the ready-made list of files Spotlight keeps), FAF looks at the disks themselves. That is why it can find files Spotlight does not: on network (NAS) and other external volumes, hidden inside app bundles and packages, and in folders usually excluded from Spotlight, such as System and Library.
You build a search from precise file properties: name, extension, date range, size, kind and more. Its author's advice is simple: if you search by name, size, dates or kind, use FAF, because only then can you be sure everything available is found.
FAF can also find text: in plain text files, inside zip archives (which includes modern Word and Excel files) and in most binary files.
For PDFs it leans on Spotlight. With the option to include Spotlight results, FAF can find text in PDF documents as long as Spotlight has indexed them.
Its author is candid that FAF is not the best tool for metadata stored inside files, such as image sizes, EXIF photo data or GPS coordinates, and he points readers to other apps for that.
Hold the Option key in the Find window and the Find button becomes Find All. After you enter an administrator password, FAF restarts in root mode and can find any file on your Mac's volumes, including files in other users' home folders, which Spotlight will not do. Root mode works on local disks only, not on network mounts.
Results can be shown as a hierarchy of folders (switch with Command-2), which makes hundreds of hits easy to browse, and an image preview helps when you are looking for pictures.
Searches can be saved as files and double-clicked to run again, results can be copied or saved as a list of paths, and FAF works with Alfred, Keyboard Maestro and PopClip. Version 2.6 added AppleScript support, and version 2.5 can search modern Time Machine backups.
FAF can also hide and unhide individual files, and delete user-installed locked files that the Finder will not trash.
Find Any File is shareware. You can download it from the website and try it without paying; if you keep using it, you are expected to pay 6 USD by PayPal or card. It is also sold in the Mac App Store.
If you bought it in the Mac App Store, you can use the website version too without paying again, as long as you have installed and opened the App Store version once on the same Mac.
Version 2.6.1 supports macOS 10.11 to 27, and older versions remain available for much older Macs, down to PowerPC models. On macOS 27, the site notes that the beta version fixes odd text in the Results window.
Buy it if you work with network drives, external disks, app packages or system folders, or if you need certainty that a search covered everything on a disk. For 6 USD it is hard to beat.
Its author also lists alternatives with admirable honesty, from EasyFind to HoudahSpot and Tembo for searching document text through Spotlight.
Find Any File is the tool when you know the facts about a file. When you only remember what a document was about, Shlexball finds files from a plain-English description, searching file and folder names and the text inside files, including PDFs and Word documents.
Shlexball does not show hidden files or find duplicates, so keep FAF for that kind of work. Its language model runs on your Mac, and the first 30 searches are free.
No name to type? Shlexball searches inside documents by meaning: 30 free searches.
▶ DOWNLOAD SHLEXBALLIt is shareware: you can download and try it for free, and you are expected to pay 6 USD if you keep using it. It is also sold in the Mac App Store.
Yes. It searches disks directly, including network and external volumes, app bundles and packages, and folders Spotlight usually excludes, such as System and Library.
Only through Spotlight: with the option to include Spotlight results, it finds text in PDFs that Spotlight has indexed. It searches text in plain text, zip, Word and Excel files on its own.
Yes. Version 2.6.1 supports macOS 10.11 to 27; if the Results window shows odd text on macOS 27, the beta version fixes it.