Exact Search and Smart Search
Choose wording or meaning, understand search preparation and check folder settings and active filters.
Reviewed
Use Exact Search when you remember the wording in an entry. Use Smart Search when you remember the meaning but not the exact words. Open search from Review and choose the mode that suits your question.
Search for wording
Exact Search finds the words or phrase you enter. Try a distinctive name or short phrase rather than a long description. It matches text without requiring the same capitalization.
On a new device or an account with many entries, the app may still be preparing its entry search index. Let that process finish and try again. Filtered Exact Search also needs to load the relevant entry information. MindDrive is not an offline-first app, and Exact Search is not a promise that the whole app works without a connection.
Search for meaning
Smart Search finds related meaning across folders where AI Chat & Search is on. Short, specific descriptions usually give stronger matches. For example, try “recipe I loved in March” or “house repairs” rather than a very broad word.
Open a result to read the original entry. A relevant match helps you find context; it does not change what you originally wrote.
Check a missing result
- Confirm that the entry was submitted rather than left as a draft.
- Check whether processing or initial search preparation is still running.
- Clear active folder, tag, date and favorites filters.
- For Smart Search, check the folder's AI Chat & Search setting.
- Check your connection, then retry the search.
Archiving does not automatically remove a folder from Smart Search while AI Chat & Search remains on. Read folder settings for the scope of each control.
Choose Clear Search to return to the normal Review list.