Excluded Files feature - Would like a way to show excluded Search results

Feature requests
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1

Right now if you have a file within the Excluded Files feature you have no way of having it show up in Search results. Search is such an important core feature in Obsidian it seems like there needs to be a way of finding/showing search results even if in the Excluded Files. Below are a couple proposals for how this could be done:

  1. Similar to the way the Quick Switcher works where it de-prioritizes the results and adds to the bottom of the list.

    • If Search did that, I think that is a good solution that weeds out the excluded stuff from the noise but still gives you a way to see them if/when you want to.
    • So you could have a separate section at the bottom of Search results (similar to like linked / unlinked references) that shows all results from “Excluded files”. Then you could collapse/expand as necessary.

  2. Maybe there could be a Search toggle/button you could use to “Show excluded results” similar to “Show more context”. Adding a button to the Search results panel to show/hide these excluded results would be a great solution for me.

  3. Another proposal that christian_s from Discord suggested was: A possibility could be to show in search when explicitly specified by "path:[excluded folder here]" command.

Either way, Search is just such a vital feature within Obsidian that I think there should be a way to Search it when you want/need to. It can be a bit confusing if you are searching for something in your vault and it isn’t showing up… then you have to remember “oh yeah I excluded that folder”. 80% of the time I may want it excluded but there should be a way that when needed, I can still find/search something even if in Excluded folder.

*Similar Feature Requests I created recently for this Excluded Files feature:

15 Likes
2

+1!

#2 would be perfect .

OR being able to configure what “excluding” does as in your other request

1 Like
3

+1 … #2 &/or #3 would be awesome

4

+1
Similar to #2, if you could chose what the excluded files are excluded from. e.g. only Graph View. Would be good to still have them searchable - especially for tags

5

For my use case, #3 would be nice but #2 would be just perfect.

1 Like
6

Just to add to this, #2 and/or #3 would also be workable for me.

Use case is my vault contains a folder with a large archive in it. I don’t want files from that archive to clutter things during regular use, but I still need to be able to search it when I want to specifically do so.

1 Like
7

I need exactly this. There was a similar request here I have a couple of folders that I keep in my main vault for linking purposes, but don’t want them gumming up search and quick switcher (daily notes as a scratch pad for ideas and a work folder for all work related things). I’d love to exclude them from search when at all possible UNLESS I decide that I’d like to search them. Manually changing the settings to include them is tedious and time consuming. I’m going to try the workaround of keeping the folders excluded, but using the plugin omnisearch when I need to drill into these folders, but I don’t like having to use two different search tools.

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8

№2 is the best option, I think. You just click one button, if you feel that file was in your vault.

9

same requirement

10

This would be great , especially for files in an “Archive” folder in the PARA organization method. To me, it’s similar to Mail applications that search everything except Trash and Junk folders, but give you the option to search them if you select them.

11

Excactly.

There could be a manner, shortcut or hotkey, which can start a “fresh” search which is not affected by the exclusion option. So that the materials within the archive folder, which is excluded for most of the daily use, can be searched easily.

Now, one have to remove all exclusion options to get a search considering all pathes in the vault and restore these options one by one after the search.

Moreover, it seems that the “Excluded files” option does not affect Quick Switcher core plugin, i.e. one will always see all the files in vault in the Quick Switcher, which I think needs improvement:

  1. making the notes in excluded file(path) more distinctive in the Quick Switcher menu
  2. using an initial letter, for example “/”, separate the 2 modes which represend With Excluded Files and Without Excluded Files, respectively.
  3. additional options in the Quick Switcher setting, indicate which mode will be used by Quick Switch: Prioritizing the file not in the excluded files(paths); Exclude the files in the excluded files(paths);
1 Like
12

I also notice there is a previous FR which is as same as the 2nd proposal in current one.

1 Like