How to Create Smart Folders on Mac (Saved Searches)

A Smart Folder isn’t a folder at all — it’s a saved search that re-runs itself every time you open it. Nothing moves; the files stay where they are. Set one up once and “documents I touched this week” or “anything over 1 GB” becomes a permanent, self-updating view in your sidebar.

Create a Smart Folder

1. In Finder, choose File → New Smart Folder (or press Option+Cmd+N).
2. Pick the scope at the top of the window: This Mac searches everywhere; the folder-name button limits the search to the folder you started in.
3. Click the + button on the right side of the search bar to add a criteria row. The first menu picks the attribute (Kind, Last opened date, Name…), the rest refine it.
4. Stack as many rows as you need — every row must match. Choose Other… in the attribute menu to unlock dozens more, including File Size and Tags; tick “In Menu” for ones you’ll reuse.
5. Click Save, name the search, and leave Add To Sidebar checked. Smart Folders are stored in ~/Library/Saved Searches by default.

Need “any of these” instead of “all of these”? Hold Option and the + button becomes …, which inserts a nested group with its own Any / All / None menu. That’s how you build rules like “kind is PDF or kind is image, and modified this month”.

Recipes worth stealing

• This week’s work: Kind is Document + Last modified date is within last 7 days. Your “recent files” view, minus the noise Recents adds.
• Space hogs: Other → File Size is greater than 1 GB, scoped to This Mac. Open it before you buy more storage.
• Screenshot roundup: Kind is Image + Name begins with “Screenshot”. Every screenshot, no matter which folder it landed in.
• Stale downloads: start the search inside Downloads, then Last opened date is not in the last 90 days.

Edit, reuse, or delete a saved search

To change the rules, open the Smart Folder, then right-click its name in the sidebar and choose Show Search Criteria — the criteria rows reappear, and Save updates it in place.

To get rid of one, right-click it in the sidebar and choose Remove from Sidebar — that only removes the shortcut. The saved search itself lives on as a .savedSearch file; to delete it fully, press Shift+Cmd+G, go to ~/Library/Saved Searches, and drag the file to the Trash. Deleting a Smart Folder never touches the files it displayed.

If results look wrong or incomplete

Smart Folders run on the Spotlight index, and that explains most oddities:

• Missing files: anything in a folder listed under System Settings → Siri & Spotlight → Spotlight Privacy… (called Search Privacy… on macOS 15 Sequoia) is invisible to Smart Folders too. External drives also drop out of results whenever they’re unplugged.
• Too many system files: add a criteria row for Kind is Document (or the specific kind you want) rather than searching raw text, and Finder’s “System files aren’t included” default works in your favor.
• Wrong scope every time: whether a new search starts in This Mac or the current folder is a Finder setting — Finder → Settings → Advanced → When performing a search. Set it once and every Smart Folder starts where you expect.

Sharpen the query first

Smart Folders are only as good as the search underneath. Finder understands operators like kind:pdf and date:today typed straight into the search field — learn the syntax in our guide to Finder search operators, then hit Save when a query earns a permanent spot.