Finding an answer should be as fast as finding a file

Quick start: from install to your first search

Five steps, about three minutes. If you remember only one thing, make it ⌥Space.

1. Install from the Mac App StoreOpen the Locseek App Store page and click Get. That is the only official download channel. Requires macOS 12 or later; Intel and Apple Silicon are both native.
2. Launch and choose what to indexThe first-run flow asks you to grant folders: the free tier offers any combination of Desktop / Documents / Downloads (starting with just one is fine — the other two can be added later), and Pro can take the whole startup disk, any folder, external drives or a NAS. Wherever you point it is what it searches.
3. Tick "Launch at Login" if you like (optional)That checkbox is off by default and only registers if you turn it on yourself. We recommend it: without the app running, the global hotkey does nothing, and file changes accumulate while the process is gone, so the next launch may need to scan a little more. Leaving it off is perfectly fine too.
4. Press ⌥Space and type a nameResults appear as you type — you can search while the initial scan is still running.
5. Space to preview, Return to openConfirm with Quick Look first, then open — or ⌘Return to reveal in Finder.

Permissions and authorization

macOS strictly limits which files an app may reach: what you can search depends on what you granted. This is also where the single most common complaint — "the permission dialog keeps reappearing" — gets solved.

Why do I have to pick folders?

An app installed from the Mac App Store can only reach locations you explicitly grant through the system file picker — grant once and the system remembers, so you are not asked again. That mechanism is precisely what protects you: outside that scope the app cannot touch a single byte at the OS level. Granted locations can be added or removed any time under Locseek's Settings → Index → Index locations, and revoked in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders.

"Locseek wants to access data from other apps" keeps coming back? Try these four in order

On macOS 14+, the system shows this confirmation when an app reaches a protected location or files created by another app. It is system behaviour, not Locseek asking for extra privileges. If you already clicked Allow and it still returns:

1. Toggle App Management off and onSystem Settings → Privacy & Security → App Management. Turn Locseek's switch off, then on, then restart Locseek.
2. Restart your MacThis refreshes the system permission cache and resolves most repeat prompts.
3. Delete and reinstall LocseekReinstall from the App Store and grant your locations again (the index rebuilds automatically).
4. Grant Full Disk AccessSystem Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. Enable Locseek and restart the app; the prompt stops.

Full Disk Access: when it matters

The free tier searches only the Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders you authorize and does not require Full Disk Access. Pro needs Full Disk Access to index protected folders on the startup disk.

It matters in exactly two Pro situations: indexing parts of the startup disk that macOS additionally protects, and allowing the "Cloud file names" and "App private data" default exclusions. Path to grant it: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. Without it, everything else works normally.

To be explicit: FDA only widens which names it can see. The product commitments do not change by a word — no file contents read, no network, no uploads.

Revoking access and erasing data

• Remove one location: Locseek Settings → Index → Index locations, then untick it (free tier) or select it and remove it (Pro). That only changes the index scope; nothing on disk is touched.
• Revoke system permissions: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders / Full Disk Access.
• Drop just the index: Settings → Privacy & Data → "Delete Index…". The app quits and rebuilds on next launch.
• Erase everything: Settings → Privacy & Data → "Reset All Local Data…". It deletes everything Locseek wrote on this Mac — settings and preferences, search and open history, the index, learned ranking data, saved folder access, the login-item registration, caches, window state and crash reports — then quits immediately. Your files are never touched.
• The two things the app cannot delete itself: drag Locseek to the Trash, then use Finder's "Go to Folder" with ~/Library/Containers/ and delete the Locseek entry (all App Store version data lives inside the sandbox container). System privacy grants have to be revoked by you in System Settings.

Search syntax

Beyond keywords, operators narrow everything in one line — or skip the syntax and click in the sidebar. Press Tab to complete an operator (ex → ext:); operators are coloured and shown as visual chips. Forgot the syntax? Clear the search field — "Efficient usage" in the empty state is the same cheat sheet, collapsible.

• Keywords are case-insensitive; multiple keywords are AND: invoice 2026
• Ranking: exact > prefix > word-start > contains, with recent modification breaking ties. Stable and predictable.

Recipes

Keyboard shortcuts

From summon to Finder without touching the mouse. The summon hotkey defaults to ⌥Space and can be rebound to any combination containing ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧.

Sidebar filters

The sidebar on the left groups the current results by location, kind, date and size, each row with a live count. Click to narrow, click again to undo. ⌥⌘S shows or hides it.

• Location: a folder tree you can expand level by level. Until the first index is built it shows an explanation instead.
• Kind: Images, PDFs, Documents, Videos, Audio, Folders, with Archives, Code and Applications under "More…"; pick one to narrow further by extension.
• Date: Today, Yesterday, This Week, This Month, Last 3 Months, Earlier, or a specific date; right-click the group header to switch between modification and creation date.
• Size: Under 1 MB, 1–100 MB, 100 MB–1 GB, Over 1 GB.

Filters you click stay visible under the search field — remove them one by one or with "Clear Filters". Save a set you use often with "Save Filters…" (⌘D) and recall it with ⌥↓. Right-click a group to hide it; reorder groups under Settings → Search → Sidebar.

A file won't show up? Check these four

This is the most common question, and it is almost never a bug. Walk the list in order — usually the first or second item is the answer.

① Is it inside a location you granted?

Locseek only indexes locations you explicitly granted through the system picker. For the free tier that is whichever of Desktop / Documents / Downloads you selected; for Pro, whatever you added. A file outside that scope is not "unfindable", it was simply never collected.
Open Settings → Index → Index locations and look at the list: healthy locations carry no label; "Disconnected" means the drive is unplugged or the network is down (see here); for "Needs Authorization", click "Reauthorize…".

② Does it fall into a default exclusion?

To keep everyday results clean, Locseek ships three default rules. Changing these switches requires Pro; the free tier can read the explanations but not change them (its scope is only those three everyday folders anyway).

Completing startup-disk authorization and Full Disk Access setup in Pro makes the corresponding protected default locations searchable. Review or exclude them in Settings → Rules → Default rules, or add exclusions under My rules. Changes to display rules apply to already-indexed names without rewriting the index; adding an unindexed location still requires scanning. Indexing cloud placeholders never reads or downloads file contents.

③ Has the first scan finished?

Check the status bar: "Building index · N searchable" means it is still scanning and results keep growing; plain "N items" means it has settled. Building the first full-disk index takes time depending on your drive and file count — but your everyday folders are searchable while it runs, so there is no need to wait around.

④ Is the query too narrow?

• Multiple keywords means all of them must match. Try dropping one.
• under: is an exact folder boundary and requires an absolute path; written as ~/… the condition is discarded.
• A query with only exclusions (just !draft, say) returns nothing — it still needs a term to look for.
• hidden: / package: mean "only this kind", not "also this kind" — hidden items and bundle contents are already in scope by default, so you usually do not need them at all.

Still nothing?

Once you have ruled out all four, consider Settings → Index → Index maintenance → "Rebuild index". Search stays available during a rebuild (the old index keeps serving), and the status bar returns to a normal count when it finishes. You only need this when results clearly disagree with the disk and waiting for the automatic update did not fix it.

Other problems

For "a file won't show up", see the previous section. These are the remaining symptoms.

A file I just created or renamed isn't searchable

• Normally a change becomes searchable in about 1 second (internal benchmarking puts the p95 at roughly 1.0 s in the completed 30-minute 1.6.0 (89) FSEvents test). Give it a moment and try again.
• Check whether Settings → Index → Index maintenance → "Pause index updates" is on. While paused, the existing index and search still work, but creates, renames and deletes are not reflected.
• Confirm the file is inside a granted location and not in a default exclusion.
• Still nothing: Settings → Index → Index maintenance → "Rebuild index".

An external drive or NAS shows "Not connected"

• The names are kept and still searchable. Files on a disconnected location appear dimmed, and the path line at the bottom says "Not connected" when one is selected. To hide them, turn off "Show Files on Disconnected Locations" in Settings → Search; the sidebar leaves disconnected locations out by default, and the same page has "Show Disconnected Locations".
• Plug it back in and you are done. Once the disk is mounted or the network location is reachable again, Locseek resumes indexing by itself and catches up on what changed meanwhile.
• Want to confirm right now? Click "Check Connection". It is in Settings → Index → Index locations, in the locations panel at the bottom right of the main window, and on the banner. While it checks the button reads "Checking…"; if the location is back it simply recovers, otherwise you see “Name” Wasn’t Found. Network locations whose server address is known show "Connect" instead and let macOS connect.
• It says "Needs Authorization": the disk is there but the saved access no longer matches. Click "Reauthorize…" and choose the location again in the panel that opens.

The permission dialog keeps reappearing

See the four-step fix under Permissions: toggle App Management → restart → reinstall → Full Disk Access.

Files in cloud drives (iCloud / OneDrive / Dropbox / Google Drive)

• Cloud name search needs the appropriate authorization. After startup-disk authorization and Full Disk Access setup in Pro, the corresponding default locations become searchable; you can still exclude them in Rules. See scope settings.
• Once allowed, cloud-only placeholder files record only name and path and never trigger a download — you can find them, and the system downloads only when you open one. No bandwidth, no disk.
• Adding "iCloud Drive" straight from Finder works too: the system picker hands back a compatibility subdirectory, and Locseek maps it onto the complete iCloud name space rather than scanning only a few dozen items.

One search suddenly got slow

• A whole-disk regex is a heavy query and seconds are expected; narrow it with a keyword, ext: or under:.
• If ordinary searches stay slow, check whether the index indicator is busy — scanning or consolidation briefly slows things and recovers when done.

Other frequent situations

• Bulk actions cut off at 10 items: that is the free-tier boundary, not a fault. Work in batches or upgrade to Pro.
• The result count sits at the limit: the status bar explains that matches exceeded the limit and only the most relevant N were kept. Clicking a column header sorts within that batch rather than re-drawing from all matches — narrowing the keyword is more effective. The free limit is 1,000; Pro can raise it to 30,000 in Settings.
• ⌥Space does nothing: make sure the app is running (look for the menu-bar icon); if another app already owns the hotkey, Settings → Shortcuts says which one and offers working alternatives — one click to switch. Clicking the menu-bar icon also shows the window.
• Full rebuild: Settings → Privacy & Data → "Delete Index…". The app quits and rebuilds on the next launch. You never need to delete any directory by hand.

Purchases and subscriptions

Every transaction goes through the Mac App Store and is handled by Apple — Locseek never touches your payment details.

• Two ways to Pro, identical features: $9.99/year auto-renewing, or $24.99 once (US reference prices; your region's App Store price applies).
• 14-day free trial: available to eligible new annual subscribers, as shown by the App Store before purchase. To avoid renewal, cancel in the App Store at least 24 hours before the trial ends; otherwise it renews annually.
• Restore purchases (new Mac / reinstall): sign in with the same Apple Account → download Locseek from the App Store → tap "Restore Purchases" on the in-app purchase screen.
• Cancel a subscription: App Store → avatar → Account Settings → Subscriptions → cancel. Pro remains available for the current period.
• Refunds: go to reportaproblem.apple.com and follow Apple's standard policy.
• Switching from annual to lifetime: you can buy Lifetime in the app. If you no longer need the annual subscription, cancel its automatic renewal in the App Store.
• Invoices / receipts: provided by Apple — see your purchase confirmation email or reportaproblem.apple.com.
• What happens if I go back to free: when the subscription expires, searchable locations return to the Desktop, Documents and Downloads folders authorized for Free, with a 1,000-result limit. Settings and location grants remain saved, while Pro features become unavailable.

For the complete tier comparison see the pricing page.

Frequently asked

The most common questions, each answered in about three sentences.