Searching

The best way to find content in M-Files is with the search. There are a few ways to do a search:

  • If you know the vault in which the content is, you can use the quick search, advanced search, or a combination of both. Your search filters remain intact when you move between the different search functions.
  • If you are not sure of the vault, you can use global search to search in all vaults that you have access to.

If you cannot find what you are looking for with your search, you can use the Search filters side panel to further filter the search results. The panel is shown on the left side of the user interface after your search. Your M-Files admin has configured the search filters in the panel for you.

Search result sorting

M-Files shows the search results in a sequence of most frequently or recently used objects. This way, objects that are most related to the user are shown first. M-Files uses the criteria in this list to create the sequence:

  • When the object was created
  • When and how many times the object was edited
  • When and how many times the object was processed
  • How many times the search string is found in metadata or file contents, which includes:
    • The name or title of the object
    • Metadata other than the title
    • File contents

M-Files ignores some metadata that decreases the precision of the search results. For the sequence of the search results, metadata is always more important than the file content.

Disabling relevance sorting

The M-Files system administrator can disable the default relevance settings so that each user can sort the results independently. For more information, see Disabling the Sorting of Search Results by Their Relevance .

Search result grouping

M-Files automatically groups search results by object type.

If there is a large number of search results in a grouping, M-Files only shows a part of the search results. To see more search results, select Next.