How to search your Dropbox files

Updated Aug 02, 2024

This article describes a feature available to customers on all Dropbox plans, unless otherwise specified.

The search function on dropbox.com and the Dropbox desktop app scans your files and folders to match your search query to relevant file names, extensions, and content. You’ll see your search results load as you type.

You can search for the following in Dropbox:

File name
People who have collaborated on the file
Tags
File contents (Dropbox Plus, Family, Professional, Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise customers only)
Image contents (Dropbox Plus*, Family, Professional, Essentials, Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise customers only)
Image properties (such as resolution, date, keywords, copyrights, and other EXIF and IPTC fields)
OCR (Optical character recognition) - text within images (Dropbox Professional, Essentials, Standard, Business, Advanced, Business Plus, and Enterprise customers can opt-in)

Note: The Dropbox search function isn’t case-sensitive, and may auto-correct search queries to find a better match.

How to search your Dropbox files

To search your files on dropbox.com:

Log in to dropbox.com.
Click the search bar at the top.
Type in your search query and press enter or return on your keyboard.

If the result you’re searching for doesn’t appear automatically, you can filter and sort through results using the dropdown menus above your search results.

To search your files in the Dropbox desktop app:

Click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac).
Click the search bar at the top.
Type in your search query. Results that match your query will appear as you type.

You can filter results using the Date and Type dropdown menus.

Note: If you open a file or folder from your search results that’s not locally synced, it'll open on dropbox.com instead of your Dropbox folder in File Explorer/Finder.

To search your files on the Dropbox mobile app:

Open the Dropbox mobile app.
Tap Search all Dropbox at the top.
Type what you’d like to search for.
Tap Search or wait for the results.

How to filter your search results

You can filter your search results on dropbox.com using the following dropdown menus:

Folder: Allows you to select specific folders to search inside.
Type: Check the boxes next to specific content types to return matches for the following formats:
- Images
- Folders
- Videos
- PDFs
- Documents
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
- Audio
- Paper docs
- Other
Last modified: Filters search results from the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, or a custom time period.
People: Filters content by people you’ve collaborated with.
Image date taken: Filters results from the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, or a custom time period.
Image dimensions: Filters images by pixel size.
- Small: 500 x 500 or less
- Medium: 501 x 501 to 1000 x 1000
- Large: 1001 x 1001 to 2000 x 2000
- Extra Large: More than 2000 x 2000

You can also sort your search results by content that is Most relevant, Newest, or Oldest using the dropdown menu to the right of your filter menus.

You can filter search results in the Dropbox desktop app by Date and Type.

Date: Filters results from the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or 12 months.
Type: Filtering by type returns matches for the following formats:
- Images
- Folders
- PDFs
- Videos
- Documents
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
- Audio
- Paper docs
- Other

Using advanced search operators

You can use advanced search operators to help refine your search.

Note: Make sure you’re updated to the latest version of Dropbox Paper to ensure your searches are returning the most accurate results.

You can use the following advanced search operators:

Search operator	Description	Example
Before or after date	You can use dates to find content modified before or after a specific date. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD. Note: The date is when the file was modified in Dropbox and won’t search images.	before: 2022-01-01 after: 2022-12-31
Type	Search by type of content: Image Folder File extensions Video PDFs Documents Spreadsheet Presentation Audio Paper Doc	type: spreadsheet type: .jpg
Title	Search for items by their title. Enclose the title quotations marks for exact phrasing or parentheses for any combination of the phrase. Note: The document title may not be the same as the folder or file name.	title: (December Invoice) title: "December Invoice"
AND	This will narrow search results to only files that include both words in them.	lead AND new
OR	This will narrow search results to only files that include either word in them.	lead OR new
Quotations	Use quotations to search an exact phrase for file names. You must use a minimum of two words.	“find this phrase in the title”