Using Global Search

Feedtracks’ global search helps you quickly find tracks, playlists, and folders across your entire drive without manually browsing through nested folders. Search is especially useful for large libraries where content is organized in deep folder hierarchies.

What Can You Search?

Feedtracks search covers three types of content:

1. Tracks (by Title)

Search finds tracks based on their title field:

• Matches partial titles (substring search)
• Case-insensitive matching
• Example: Searching “summer” finds “Summer Nights”, “summer demo”, and “Endless Summer”

2. Playlists (by Title)

Search finds playlists based on their title field:

• Works the same as track search
• Matches any part of the playlist title
• Example: Searching “client” finds “Client Review Round 1” and “client-final-mixes”

3. Folders (by Name)

Search finds folders based on their name field:

• Matches folder names at any level of your hierarchy
• Useful for finding specific project folders
• Example: Searching “album” finds “Album Masters”, “album-2024”, and “My First Album”

What Search Does NOT Find

It’s important to understand the limitations of the current search implementation:

Not Searched:

• ❌ Comment content: Search doesn’t look inside comments or feedback
• ❌ Track metadata: Artist name, album, genre, BPM, etc. are not searched
• ❌ File descriptions: Description fields are not included
• ❌ Audio content: No audio fingerprinting or content-based search
• ❌ Tags or labels: If you use custom tags, they’re not searchable

Search Scope:

• ✅ Title fields only for tracks and playlists
• ✅ Name field only for folders
• ✅ Nothing else currently

This means search is most effective when you have descriptive titles and folder names.

How to Use Global Search

Accessing Search

Method 1: Search Bar

1. Look for the search bar in the top navigation
2. Click inside the search bar
3. Type your search query
4. Press Enter or click the search icon

Method 2: Keyboard Shortcut (if available)

• Press Ctrl + K (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + K (macOS)
• Type your query
• Press Enter

Entering a Query

The search query can be:

• Single word: “summer”
• Multiple words: “summer nights demo”
• Partial words: “summ” matches “Summer Nights”
• Case doesn’t matter: “SUMMER”, “summer”, and “SuMmEr” all find the same results

Search Results Page

After pressing Enter, you’re taken to:

/drive/search?query={your-query}

The results page shows:

• All matching tracks
• All matching playlists
• All matching folders
• Grouped by type (tracks, playlists, folders)
• Sorted by relevance or modification date

Interacting with Results

From the search results page, you can:

• Click on a track to open and play it
• Click on a playlist to view its contents
• Click on a folder to browse inside
• Use context menus to move, share, or delete items
• Select multiple items for bulk actions

How Search Works Technically

PostgreSQL ILIKE Pattern Matching

Feedtracks uses PostgreSQL’s ILIKE operator for case-insensitive substring matching:

Query pattern:

WHERE title ILIKE '%summer%'

This means:

• % = wildcard matching any characters
• summer = your search query
• %summer% = matches “summer” anywhere in the title

Examples:

• Query: “summer”

  • Matches: “summer nights”, “endless summer“, “Summer Demo”
  • Does not match: “sun”, “humid”, “warm”

• Query: “mix final”

  • Matches: “mix final master”, “final mix v2”, “remix final“
  • Does not match: “mixdown”, “finalized”

Permission Filtering

Search results are filtered by your access permissions:

• ✅ You see tracks/playlists/folders you have access to
• ❌ You don’t see items in shared drives you’re not a member of
• ❌ You don’t see items in folders you don’t have permission for

This ensures you only see content you’re authorized to access.

Case-Insensitive Matching

Search ignores case:

• “Summer” = “summer” = “SUMMER” = “sUmMeR”
• This makes search more forgiving and user-friendly

Search Best Practices

1. Use Descriptive Titles

Since search only looks at titles and names:

• ✅ Good: “Summer Nights Final Mix v3”
• ✅ Good: “Client Review - Album Masters”
• ❌ Bad: “Track 1”, “New File”, “Untitled”

Descriptive titles make your content findable.

2. Include Key Information in Titles

Add searchable keywords to titles:

• Project name: “Moonlight Album - Track 03”
• Client name: “Acme Records - Demo Submission”
• Version info: “Summer Nights - Mix v2 - Mastered”
• Date: “2024-03-15 - Final Mix”

3. Use Consistent Naming Conventions

Establish naming patterns:

• By project: “[Project Name] - [Track Name] - [Version]”
• By client: “[Client] - [Date] - [Description]”
• By status: “[Track Name] - [Status] - [Version]” (e.g., “Summer Nights - Final - v3”)

Consistency makes searching predictable.

4. Search with Multiple Keywords

Narrow results by including multiple keywords:

• Instead of: “mix” (too broad, hundreds of results)
• Try: “summer mix final” (more specific, fewer results)

More keywords = more precise results.

5. Use Partial Words for Flexibility

If you’re unsure of exact spelling:

• “summ” finds “Summer”, “Summary”, “Summertime”
• “alb” finds “Album”, “Albatross”, “Albert”

Partial searches cast a wider net.

6. Organize with Searchable Folder Names

Since folders are searchable, use clear names:

• ✅ “Album Masters 2024”
• ✅ “Client Projects - Acme Records”
• ✅ “Archived - Old Projects”
• ❌ “Folder 1”, “New Folder”, “Stuff”

Search Scenarios

Scenario 1: Finding a Specific Track

Goal: Find the mastered version of “Summer Nights”

Search query: summer nights master

Expected results:

• “Summer Nights - Mastered v2”
• “Summer Nights Final Master”
• Any other tracks with all three keywords in the title

Scenario 2: Finding All Client Work

Goal: Find all tracks and folders related to a client named “Acme”

Search query: acme

Expected results:

• Folder: “Acme Records - Projects”
• Track: “Acme - Demo 01”
• Playlist: “Acme Client Review”

Scenario 3: Finding Old Versions

Goal: Find all v1 versions of tracks

Search query: v1

Expected results:

• “Track Name - Mix v1”
• “Another Track v1”
• Any track or playlist with “v1” in the title

Scenario 4: Finding Project Work

Goal: Find everything related to the “Moonlight” album project

Search query: moonlight

Expected results:

• Folder: “Moonlight Album”
• Tracks: “Moonlight Album - Track 01”, “Moonlight Album - Track 02”, etc.
• Playlist: “Moonlight Album - Final Sequence”

Limitations and Workarounds

Limitation 1: No Full-Text Search

Current: Only title/name fields are searched Workaround: Include searchable keywords in titles instead of relying on descriptions or metadata

Limitation 2: No Comment Search

Current: You cannot search comment content Workaround: If a comment is important, create a playlist or folder with a searchable name that references the comment topic

Limitation 3: No Metadata Search

Current: Artist, album, genre, BPM, etc. are not searchable Workaround: Include important metadata in the track title

• Example: “Summer Nights [120 BPM] [House] - Final Mix”

Limitation 4: No Audio Content Search

Current: Cannot search by audio characteristics (tempo, key, similar sound) Workaround: Use descriptive titles and folders to organize by characteristics

• Folder: “120 BPM Tracks”
• Folder: “Key of C Major”

Limitation 5: Simple Substring Matching

Current: No advanced operators (AND, OR, NOT, phrase matching) Workaround: Use multiple keywords in one query

• Searching “summer final” is effectively an implicit AND (finds titles with both words)

Future Search Enhancements

Feedtracks may add these features in future updates:

Potential Enhancements:

• Metadata search: Artist, album, genre, BPM fields
• Comment content search: Find tracks based on feedback
• Advanced operators: AND, OR, NOT, exact phrase matching
• Filters: Filter by date range, file size, duration, collaborators
• Saved searches: Save common queries for quick access
• Search suggestions: Autocomplete based on your content
• Full-text search: Description fields and all metadata

If you’d like to request specific features, contact support.

Troubleshooting

No results found, but I know the item exists

Possible causes:

• The search term isn’t in the title/name field
• The item is in a shared drive you don’t have access to
• Typo in your search query
• The item is in trash

Solution:

• Double-check the exact title/name of the item
• Try searching for a smaller part of the title
• Verify you have access to the folder/drive where the item is located
• Check trash if you might have deleted it

Search is returning too many results

Possible causes:

• Your query is too generic (e.g., “track”, “mix”, “final”)
• You have a lot of content with similar naming

Solution:

• Add more specific keywords to narrow results
• Use longer search phrases
• Example: Instead of “mix”, try “summer nights mix final”

Search is returning irrelevant results

Possible causes:

• Your search query is matching unintended words
• Substring matching finds partial words

Solution:

• Refine your query with more specific keywords
• Use multiple keywords to narrow down
• Example: Searching “night” might find “midnight”, “nights”, “knight” – try “nights final” instead

Search is very slow

Possible causes:

• Large library with thousands of items
• Database indexing issues (unlikely, but possible)

Solution:

• Use more specific queries to reduce result set
• Contact support if search is consistently slow

Some items appear in results but I can’t open them

Possible causes:

• Permissions changed after the search ran
• Items were moved or deleted after search results loaded

Solution:

• Refresh the search results
• Verify you still have access to the parent folder/drive

Related Articles

• Uploading Your First Track
• Creating Folder Structures
• Making and Managing Playlists
• Understanding Access Levels
• Keyboard Shortcuts