Looking for "Everything for Mac"?
This is probably it
voidtools' Everything defined the gold standard for searching files by name on Windows: instant, exact, lightweight. Locseek reimplements that same philosophy using native macOS technology.
Everything users will recognize all of this
As you type
No submit button, no loading animation. Every keystroke narrows the list — exactly as you are used to on Windows.
Whole disks and external drives
Pro indexes the entire startup disk, external drives, USB sticks, NAS and network shares, all in one instant index.
Query syntax
ext:, under:, hidden: and package: are free; size: date: kind: in:, regex, wildcards, exclusions and OR are Pro. Either way it is one line, not five levels of filter menus — and if you would rather not type, one click in the sidebar narrows by location, kind, date or size.
Rather than ported from Windows
| Dimension | Everything (Windows) | Locseek (macOS) |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing approach | Built for the Windows file system | Built natively for macOS, watching every file change |
| Interface | Classic Win32 interface | Native AppKit: light/dark, increased contrast, VoiceOver, 22 languages |
| Permissions | Typically needs administrator rights | No administrator rights; it indexes only folders you grant through the system picker |
| Cloud placeholder files | Depends on the environment | After startup-disk authorization and Full Disk Access setup in Pro, cloud placeholder names become searchable without downloading contents. You can still exclude these locations in Rules. |
| Price | Free | Free tier free forever; Pro $9.99/year or $24.99 once |
What Everything users ask most
What is the difference between Free and Pro?
The free tier indexes Desktop, Documents and Downloads (any combination, each authorized separately) with up to 1,000 results, using the same search engine as Pro. Free also supports tag: and path fragments such as code/report. Pro unlocks any location (whole disk, any folder, external drives, NAS, network shares) plus advanced queries (kind:, regex, size, date, explicit in: path queries, exclusions, OR, wildcards), a limit configurable up to 30,000, and the ability to change exclusion settings. See the pricing page.
Does it read file contents?
No. Locseek indexes names, paths, sizes and timestamps only — part of why it stays fast and quiet. When you need full-text retrieval, keep using Spotlight.
How long does the first index take?
It depends on your drive and file count — a whole disk can reach the tens-of-minutes range, and we will not quote a fixed cross-machine figure because that would be invented. But you do not have to wait: your everyday folders are searchable while the scan runs. (The "5 million in 3.5 seconds" figure in our internal benchmarking is synthetic index build time on a fixed synthetic dataset, not a real disk's first scan. All the terms are on the measured facts page.)
Get the Everything feel back, on your Mac
Download free, grant access to your everyday folders, and start searching.