How to index files for Activities Search?

Support GNOME
1

I’ve noticed that searching for files in the Activities View really doesn’t work well at all for me.

For example if i search for a filename I know exists “battery” “bug1” “awarob” - the search will NOT find these files.
It seems that some files are searchable, but the vast majority are not.

If I open a NON searchable file (such as the awarob.jpg i mentioned above) if I open it with Gimp or Gthumb & then exit without saving, now it can be searched for.

Music, via lollypop, seems well indexed in the activities search & works as expected. but files / documents do not.

Using tracker3 info $FILENAME in terminal it looks like the files i search for that are not found, are actually indexed. I dont see anything different in the output of a file that is found vs one that is not.

bug1.jpg is found (because i just opened it with Gthumb), bug2.jpg is not found.

tracker3 info '/home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random pics/bug1.jpg'
Querying information for entity: '/home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random pics/bug1.jpg'
  'file:///home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random%20pics/bug1.jpg'
Results:
  'tracker:extractorHash' = '14aa697c2aff5af87df9512088d50b5e35b696ac3ae79ec91007d612eccbaeb8'
  'nfo:fileLastModified' = '2014-11-13T05:22:05Z'
  'nfo:fileLastModified' = '2014-11-13T05:22:05Z'
  'nfo:fileName' = 'bug1.jpg'
  'nfo:fileName' = 'bug1.jpg'
  'nfo:fileSize' = '693161'
  'nfo:belongsToContainer' = 'urn:bnode:1e5f3fa6-e5d9-4322-9ca0-450f06587238'
  'nfo:fileLastAccessed' = '2021-09-02T14:11:00Z'
  'nie:isPartOf' = 'urn:bnode:1e5f3fa6-e5d9-4322-9ca0-450f06587238'
  'nie:interpretedAs' = 'urn:bnode:84ad2a31-6838-4a87-afc5-b068d86a22d0'
  'nie:byteSize' = '693161'
  'nie:url' = 'file:///home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random%20pics/bug1.jpg'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2014-11-13T05:22:05Z'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2014-11-13T05:22:05Z'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2021-09-02T14:11:00Z'
  'nrl:modified' = '866'
  'nrl:modified' = '866'
  'nrl:added' = '2021-08-14T10:29:03Z'
  'nrl:added' = '2021-08-14T10:29:03Z'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nie#DataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nfo#FileDataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nie#DataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nfo#FileDataObject'


tracker3 info '/home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random pics/bug2.jpg'
Querying information for entity: '/home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random pics/bug2.jpg'
  'file:///home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random%20pics/bug2.jpg'
Results:
  'tracker:extractorHash' = '14aa697c2aff5af87df9512088d50b5e35b696ac3ae79ec91007d612eccbaeb8'
  'nfo:fileLastModified' = '2014-11-13T05:22:42Z'
  'nfo:fileLastModified' = '2014-11-13T05:22:42Z'
  'nfo:fileName' = 'bug2.jpg'
  'nfo:fileName' = 'bug2.jpg'
  'nfo:fileSize' = '897076'
  'nfo:belongsToContainer' = 'urn:bnode:1e5f3fa6-e5d9-4322-9ca0-450f06587238'
  'nfo:fileLastAccessed' = '2021-09-02T14:11:01Z'
  'nie:isPartOf' = 'urn:bnode:1e5f3fa6-e5d9-4322-9ca0-450f06587238'
  'nie:interpretedAs' = 'urn:bnode:c12955d8-55c5-4a34-9ad0-7c1319960f14'
  'nie:byteSize' = '897076'
  'nie:url' = 'file:///home/rico/Pictures/PHOTOS-zzz/random%20pics/bug2.jpg'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2014-11-13T05:22:42Z'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2014-11-13T05:22:42Z'
  'http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/date' = '2021-09-02T14:11:01Z'
  'nrl:modified' = '866'
  'nrl:modified' = '866'
  'nrl:added' = '2021-08-14T10:29:03Z'
  'nrl:added' = '2021-08-14T10:29:03Z'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nie#DataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nfo#FileDataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Resource'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nie#DataObject'
  'rdf:type' = 'http://tracker.api.gnome.org/ontology/v3/nfo#FileDataObject'

What is the issue here?

Manjaro 21.1, Gnome 40

oddly … if i use nautilus & navigate to a folder, I can search & find all direct child files in that folder. for example bug1 & bug2 as above are both found. but it doesnt go to any deeper folders. If I search from /home, only bug1 is found.
Im guessing Activities Search is the same its starting from /home & doesnt go deeper unless a file has been opened with a document viewer of some kind.

2

Is an old thing with the search in activities, tracker works just fine … search will be redesigned

and there is a proposal for something better for local file “search”

1 Like
3

Thanks for that. That does seem to explain it.

Still it is odd how opening files in an app then makes them searchable, no matter the location.

4

I think it finds them, once opened, because go to the last used files history … some like that.

1 Like
5

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