External Disks
AnySearch detects external disks as you plug them in and indexes their contents in the background. After the first scan, reconnecting the same disk gives you instant search — no rescan needed.
What disks are supported
- ✅ USB / Thunderbolt portable HDDs and SSDs, USB sticks
- ✅ Portable SSDs and SD cards
- ✅ Network-mounted volumes (depending on filesystem)
- ❌ Internal disks are skipped — they're already covered by the local index
- ❌ Time Machine backup disks are skipped — detected via the
.com.apple.timemachine.supported/Backups.backupdbmarkers, so AnySearch never duplicates your backup volume in its index
First plug-in: authorize and index
- Connect the disk. AnySearch picks it up automatically.
- Open Settings → Index → External Disks. The disk appears with an "Access required" badge.
- Click Authorize. macOS shows a folder picker — select the disk's root and confirm.
- AnySearch begins scanning right away. Progress shows in the main window's status bar.
Mac App Store sandboxed apps need explicit user permission to read external volumes — this one-time step grants that. The grant is stored as a security-scoped bookmark on your machine and never leaves your device.
Plug / unplug behaviour
| Action | What AnySearch does |
|---|---|
| Reconnect a previously authorized disk | Connects automatically — no rescan needed; the existing index is immediately searchable, and FSEvents monitoring resumes to catch any offline changes |
| Plug in a brand-new disk | Listed with "Access required"; waits for you to authorize |
| Unplug a disk | Status flips to "Disconnected"; index is retained; searches automatically exclude offline disks |
| Plug in a Time Machine backup | Skipped — won't appear in the External Disks list |
Filtering by disk in the search bar
When at least one external disk is connected, a Disk dropdown appears next to the Folder dropdown (when no externals are connected the menu is hidden, since the only choices would be "All / Local Only" — meaningless on a single-disk Mac):
- All Volumes: local + every connected external (default)
- Local Only: skip externals, search just the boot disk
- Specific disk name: search only that external
Disk and Folder filters compose, so picking Disk = MyPortable + Folder = ~/Documents/projects scopes the search to that one path on that one disk.
Per-disk management
Each row in Settings → Index → External Disks exposes:
- Authorize — first-time grant, or re-grant if access was revoked. Required before indexing.
- Re-scan — force a full rebuild of that disk's index (only available while connected).
- Remove Index — drop AnySearch's index entries for the disk while keeping the authorization. To search again, reconnect and re-scan.
Remove Index never touches actual files on the disk — it only clears AnySearch's internal search records.
Real-time monitoring
While a disk is connected, AnySearch uses macOS FSEvents to watch it. New files, edits, and deletions land in the index within ~0.5s without any manual action.
FAQ
Why doesn't my disk show up?
- Confirm the disk is actually mounted — check Finder's sidebar or run
diskutil list - Time Machine and internal disks are intentionally skipped
- Wait ~1 second after connecting, then refresh the Settings panel
Will it still recognize a disk plugged into a different port?
Yes. AnySearch identifies disks by volume UUID, not by mount point. Switching between USB-A, USB-C, or Thunderbolt — or moving the disk to another Mac — still resolves to the same disk record.
The disk has millions of files. Will scanning lock up the app?
No — scans run in the background and don't block the UI. First-pass speed depends on disk throughput (a typical USB 3.0 SSD does roughly 50–100k files/second). You can keep using AnySearch normally while it indexes.
Can I search inside documents on the external disk?
Yes. Pick a folder on the external as your Folder filter, then flip the Content toggle. See the Content Search docs for details.