--- title: "Finding Markdown notes with Spotlight and Quick Look" author: Pedro Thomaz source: https://coffeetext.app/blog/find-markdown-notes-spotlight-quick-look --- # Finding Markdown notes with Spotlight and Quick Look > Checked November 2026 against Apple's guides to [Spotlight](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1008/mac), [Quick Look](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh14119/mac) and [Login Items & Extensions](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-login-items-extensions-settings-mtusr003/mac). Coffee isn't affiliated with Apple. Press Command-Space and start typing to search with Spotlight, then press the Space bar on a result to preview it, or Return to open it. In Finder, select a file and press the Space bar for Quick Look. Apple's guides don't say how either one treats Markdown specifically, so the rest of this article sets out a quick test for your own Mac, along with what an app such as Coffee can add. ## Searching with Spotlight [Apple's guide](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1008/mac) covers the basics: - **Search:** press Command-Space and type. - **Open:** select a result and press Return, or double-click it. - **Find it on disk:** select a result and hold Command to locate the file in Finder. - **Preview:** select a result and press the Space bar. [Narrowing the results](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchl4d69efd3/mac) helps a lot when you know you want a note. On macOS 27, Command-2 limits Spotlight to files. Apple also lists keywords that you type with a colon, including `kind:`, `name:` and `title:`, as in `title:New York City`. ## Test whether your Markdown is searchable Apple says Spotlight searches files, but its pages don't say whether it reads inside a Markdown file on your Mac. So test it: 1. Pick a rare word that appears only in the body of one note, not its name. 2. Search for it in Spotlight. 3. Search for it in Terminal too, limited to your notes folder: ``` mdfind -onlyin ~/Notes "yourword" ``` Change `~/Notes` to your folder. `mdfind` is the command-line way to ask Spotlight's store, and adding `-name` looks at file names only. If the note comes up, you're fine. If it doesn't, you can still search the files themselves, with no index involved: ``` grep -ril --include='*.md' 'yourword' ~/Notes ``` That reads every file each time, so it always tells the truth, even when an index is behind. ## When Spotlight misses things [Apple's page on indexing](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321) gives two useful facts. Indexing can take hours or even days, depending on how much data you have, so a fresh Mac or a newly synced folder may simply not be ready. It goes faster when the Mac is idle, plugged in and connected. If results stay wrong, you can rebuild part of the index by adding the folder to Spotlight's Search Privacy list and then removing it. Spotlight then indexes that folder again. Adding a folder to that list and leaving it there is also how you stop Spotlight searching it at all. Apple describes the index as local and private: it stays on your device and isn't shared with Apple or your other devices. Notes in iCloud Drive can add a wrinkle. If iCloud has offloaded a note, as described in [syncing with iCloud Drive](https://coffeetext.app/blog/sync-markdown-icloud-drive), an app can only send Spotlight what it's able to read. ## Previewing with Quick Look [Quick Look](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh14119/mac) gives you what Apple calls a fast, full-size preview of nearly any kind of file without opening it. Select one or more items and press the Space bar. You can resize the window, go full screen, and step through several items. Press the Space bar again to close it. What you see for a `.md` file depends on which app has provided a Quick Look extension for Markdown on your Mac. Apple's guide doesn't mention Markdown, so try it. If you see formatted text, something on your Mac is formatting it. If you see the raw symbols, or just an icon, nothing is. ## What Coffee adds to Spotlight Coffee tells Spotlight about your notes directly, so your library doesn't depend on the test above. About 8 seconds after your library settles, it sends over any notes that have changed. Each entry holds the note's title, its text as plain words, up to 200,000 characters, a short summary, and the tags from its front matter as keywords. Choosing a result opens the note in Coffee. A few things follow from how this works: - **Only your library.** Notes in the folder Coffee uses as its library are sent. A file you opened from somewhere else isn't. - **Private notes stay out.** A private note is never sent, and locking a note removes it straight away. Its file name is a separate matter: a private note's title is its file name, which isn't encrypted, so other tools can still see that. - **It stays on this Mac.** Apple's Spotlight index is local. Coffee doesn't send your notes anywhere for this. - **You can turn it off.** In Settings, switch off "Find notes in Spotlight", and Coffee removes what it added. Apple's Space bar and Command tips are written for Spotlight results in general. I can only confirm that choosing one of Coffee's results opens the note, so if you rely on the others, try them. ## What Coffee adds to Quick Look Coffee includes a Quick Look extension for Markdown files, so pressing the Space bar on a note in Finder can show it formatted, with headings, lists and tables. It works in light and dark mode. It has real limits, which come from keeping the preview safe: - **Images show as a placeholder.** The extension runs in a sandbox and can't read other files, so you see a small box marked Image. - **Nothing runs and nothing loads.** A security policy blocks scripts and anything remote, and the extension has no network access. - **Long notes are cut.** Anything above 2 MB is shown up to that point, with a line saying to open it in Coffee for the rest. - **Private notes show only their title** and the words "This note is private", as the preview process has no key. - **Markdown only.** The extension covers the Markdown file type, so `.txt` notes aren't handled by it. ### If another app's extension wins macOS picks one Quick Look extension for each file type. If another app you've installed also claims Markdown, its preview may be the one you see instead of Coffee's. That isn't a fault in either app. Which one gets used is up to macOS and your settings. The place to change that is System Settings, General, then [Login Items & Extensions](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-login-items-extensions-settings-mtusr003/mac), where you may need to scroll down. Click the Info button beside Quick Look, turn extensions on or off, then click Done. Apple's page describes turning them on and off, and doesn't say how macOS chooses between two for one file type. Turning off the one you don't want is the direct approach. If you do want a different app's preview, turn Coffee's off in the same place. ## Finding notes inside Coffee Coffee has its own search as well, which covers your library from an index kept on your Mac, whether or not Spotlight is on. Spotlight is more useful when you aren't in Coffee, or you want one search box for everything. There's more on what Coffee keeps outside your files in [plain local files on a Mac](https://coffeetext.app/blog/markdown-editor-mac-plain-local-files). Coffee is Mac only, for macOS 15 or later, with 14 days free and no card. The [prices are here](https://coffeetext.app/#pricing). ## Questions ### Does Spotlight search inside Markdown files? Apple's guides don't say so specifically. Search for a rare word from the body of one note, or run `mdfind` in Terminal, to see what your Mac does. An app can also add its notes to Spotlight directly, as Coffee does. ### How do I preview a Markdown file without opening it? Select it in Finder and press the Space bar. What you see depends on whether an app on your Mac has added a Quick Look extension for Markdown. ### Why does Quick Look show a different preview from Coffee's? macOS uses one Quick Look extension per file type, so another app's may have priority. Check under General, Login Items & Extensions, Quick Look in System Settings. ### Does Coffee's Quick Look show images? No. It shows a placeholder, because the extension runs in a sandbox that can't read other files. ### Do private notes appear in Spotlight? Not their text. Coffee never sends a private note to Spotlight and removes a note as soon as it's locked. Quick Look shows only the title and "This note is private". --- Written by Pedro Thomaz, who makes Coffee, a Markdown editor for the Mac on macOS 15 or later. It's free for 14 days with no card or account, then €3 a month, €29 a year, or €79 once with two years of updates. More at https://coffeetext.app/llms-full.txt