Restoring Saved Searches to Finder Sidebar

[judgejohn82]

Hi guys,

I was having a bit of trouble with my Finder sidebar earlier, so deleted the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file.

Finder is now behaving as normal, but I cannot work out how to restore my saved searches that I previously had.

The saved searches are still on the mac (in Library - Saved Searches), but I cannot drag them into the sidebar.

I have googled this but to no effect.

If anyone can help me out, I would be greatly appreciative!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I just tested the following method in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, as I don't use Saved Searches.

When the Finder window is open and you see the Saved Searches folder, click on one of the saved searches and as you can see, it opens like if you would have clicked on the Sidebar shortcut.
Now hold down the OPTION/Alt key and drag the Saved Searches icon from the top of the Finder window into the Search For area of the Sidebar.

Though it may not work, as I also could drag the saved search I quickly created directly onto the Sidebar, without double clicking it first. Maybe it is a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion "feature".

 

[judgejohn82]

Thanks for the quick response!

Unfortunately neither of these work in Lion. There is no "Search for" in the sidebar and I cannot drag the icon directly onto the sidebar.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks for the quick response!

Unfortunately neither of these work in Lion. There is no "Search for" in the sidebar and I cannot drag the icon directly onto the sidebar.

It works for me like shown in the video below:

 

[jstrom]

Mountain Lion fix possibly Lion as Well

In Finder: In OSX 10.8: Click on the saved search(s) in Library Folder to restore and then File/Add to Side bar or Alt/Option-T works.

 

[Ivan Berka]

Hi, in OS X 10.11 El Capitan select Saved Searches file in the Finder (~Library/Saved Searches) and then choose File » Add to sidebar. Ctrl-Command-T shortcut has the same result.