How can I use content search in Synology Drive to find the files I need?

Purpose

To search file contents in Synology Drive, the files must first be indexed by Universal Search. This article explains how to enable content indexing and use content search to find your files more effectively.

Resolution

Before you start

Enable User Home service or at least enable one of your shared folders to be a Synology Drive Team Folder.

Enable content indexing for newly-created users and Team Folders

Sign in to DSM using an administrator account and launch Synology Drive Admin Console.
Go to Settings > General > Content Indexing, select Enable content indexing for each newly-created user's "My Drive" and newly-enabled Team Folders. This will index all file types in the newly created user’s My Drive or Team Folders by default.

Enable file content indexing for existing folders

Sign in to DSM using an administrator account and launch Universal Search.
Click Preference on the upper-right corner > Index Folder List > Synology Drive (for indexing home folder) or Drive Team Folder (for Synology Drive Team Folder) > select a folder > Edit.
Under Indexed File Content, select the file types you wish to index.
- To search for files generated by document scanning feature on Drive mobile app, select Document and Photo file types.
- To search for text files generated by the Transcribe audio into text feature (only available on iOS) on Drive mobile app, along with their source audio files, select Document and Music file types.
You will see the selected file types listed under the Indexing Scope.
Repeat these steps to enable file content indexing for other folders.

Perform content search in Synology Drive

Sign in to Synology Drive and click the magnifying glass icon on the upper-right corner.
Enter the keyword, select Include file contents search, and adjust other search conditions as needed. Click Search.¹

Notes:

If your search results are often incorrect or empty, it might be due to an index database error. To check the index database, sign in to DSM with an administrator account, go to Universal Search > preference > File Indexing, and click Check Index Database. If any errors are found, re-index the corrupted database and try again.

Was this article helpful?

Yes ／ No