Windows 10: Can't do wildcard search for file extensions in explorer?

This is weird, I'm trying to find all the *.mov files in my dropbox folder on my C: drive. I seem to be able to find *.JPG (when I use *.jpg lower case), or at least some of them, but *.mov and *.pdf etc doesn't work. The search returns nothing. But I can see them, they are there! WTF is going on? I also tried ext:.mov and ext:mov, no dice.

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:)

 

Wildcard File Search Broken

There is
another thread on this subject, but it is locked.

Some of the information in the above thread is correct, but some is not and the bottom line is that file search is both broken and sorely undocumented.

The most notable problem is that in some circumstances, wildcard searches for filenames will not show any results when the last letter of the extension is typed... for example;

*.pd finds all files where the extension _begins_ with "pd" such as "myfile.pdf"

but

*.pdf returns zero results even if there are hundreds of files with the extension ".pdf"

The problem get's serious when searching for something like python scripts... i.e. "myfile.py" since searching for "myfile.p" using "*.p" will find every file who's extension begins with ".p" but using "*.py" will not find any files that have the extension
".py"

The scenario gets complicated and confusing using qualifiers such as "name:" in order to return only filename and not file content results.

Other options suggested options such as adding ~" to a wildcard string return mixed results and, as far as I can determine these qualifiers are totally undocumented.

Discussion and options requested.

Thanks in advance,

Beverly Howard

 

Using Wildcard to search in windows Explorer

Hi Jerry,

To isolate your concern regarding Wildcard search on
Windows File Explorer, we suggest that you run an SFC
(System File Checker) tool to check for system file corruptions and fix it. Once done, restart your computer and check if the issue persists.

In addition, you can manage the search options to give you the most thorough search by following these steps:

• Click File tab on Windows File Explorer, click
  Change folder and search options.
  
  
• Click Search tab and select Don't use the index when searching in file folders for system files (search might take longer).
  
• You can also select Always search file names and contents (this might take several minutes).
  

Let us know if the solution above works for you.

 

File Explorer Search fails wildcard partial numeric name search.

The indexing trouble shooter did not find any problem.
System File Check result was: Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.10586.0 found No component store corruption detected.

I do not believe that my system has any problem as the wildcard partial numeric name search issue occurs on all Windows 10 systems of family and friends.
I believe the priority of this issue should be raised because the Search Results vary depending on the number of files involved creating confusion and incorrect results. With less than 40 files the wildcard partial numeric name search returns the correct
results. With more than 50 files the wildcard search becomes a whole number search only listing files that have the exact number. With *2345 in the search box and more than 50 files in focus, Search will Not list 123456.txt but will only list 2345.txt.
With less than 40 files in focus All files with any numeric string containing 2345 will be listed.