Search on my Mac is pretty much useless

[dmoor 14]

I search for the term "Apple TV" in one of my notebooks and I see a bunch of note titles in the hit list.

I go into one of the notes, do a command F, and am told there are no results.

So what is the purpose of search if it doesn't bring up the notes that have the search term in them?

 

[Mike P 2,978]

The only circumstance I know where this happens is if the search term is in a pdf and the pdf is displayed as title only.

[CalS 5,309]

Or the search term is in the title?

[PinkElephant 8,808]

A search term can technically be hidden in invisible parts of a file as well, for example in a pdf that holds its own search index.

But I think it’s more likely a pdf only shown as attachment.

[dmoor 14]

The places where the searches fail are all web clippings.