Remember, results returned through Spotlight can be cut and copied directly from the menu, which helps to make the Spotlight search tool basically an extension of the broader Mac file system. This will cause Spotlight to return everything that was modified on that specific date.Īgain, you can also use the greater than and less than symbols to narrow down results based upon modification before or after a specific date, like so:

Again, hit Command+Spacebar to summon Spotlight and try the following type of search:įor example, to find files modified on May 14, 2014, you’d specify that date using the following (note if you use international date formats you’d want to adjust the query to accommodate that instead): To search for documents, files, or folders on the Mac that have been modified on a specific date, use the following search operator style in Spotlight. Search for Files Based on Modification Date in Spotlight You can also provide additional operators to show files created before or after a specific date by using the symbols, like so:Īnother helpful trick can be searching for documents based on when they were modified, that is, when they were edited manually or modified by an app or file system. Spotlight will return the list of files, apps, documents, and folders created on that date, looking something like the following: For example, to find files that were created on Augyou’d use the following: This will cause Spotlight to list all files created on the provided date. To try this yourself, you’d want to hit Command+Spacebar to bring up the Spotlight search in Mac OS X, then use the following search syntax: The simplest form of using the creation date modifier is to specify an exact date to Spotlight. How to Search for Files Based on Creation Date on Mac with Spotlight

Find files by date on a mac