Visual Studio Code search across files (find in files) is not working - visual-studio-code

Question

I am using Visual Studio Code 1.31.1 in MacOS 10.13.6. I open VSCode, I open a folder of text files, and I press command-option-F, or use Edit -> Find in Files. I search for a string that I know for sure exists in multiple text files in the open folder, and it says it can't find it.
Searching across files works if I have the folder open and have each and every single file open as a tab, which is rather pointless. Is there a way to search across files without actually having them all open as tabs?
I think it was because I opened a folder on Google Drive File Stream. It works fine on local files.

Answer 1

In my case, this was caused by me accidentally toggling the "Search only in Open Editors" option.

Answer 2

Had this same issue, the search functionality was only working for files that were open in the editor. My issue was that VS Code had an update downloaded and ready to update, so I just restarted VS Code, let the update finish and the issue was gone.

Answer 3

It could be that the search is looking into all folders (including node_modules ones), so as it is too big, the search never ends
To fix that, you can list all folders that you want to exclude of the search, to do that, open your vscode settings (ctrl + ,) type "Search: Exclude" in the search box and add your folders. (Btw some are already added by default)
Besides, remember to enable that filter in your search, this is simple, just toggle on the gear button in your search section
If you are still not sure about what to do, take a look in this briefly gif

Answer 4

Had the same issue on Mac, seems like it was related to Google Drive. once I moved the files on my local drive the search worked fine.

Answer 5

Check out your vs code settings. It excludes some folders by default e.g. node modules.

Answer 6

Go to settings, search "Search" , there will be list to exclude folders.
Remove item which might be accidentally got included, which might causing search item in all directory is not working.

Answer 7

I had this problem today. Turns out I had a deprecated setting for advanced RegEx searches "search.usePCRE2": true, Once removed, search started working as expected.

Answer 8

I just had this problem on VS Code 1.58.2 / Mac OS 10.15.7
None of the above solutions worked for me, it still keeps saying 'No results found in open editors' no matter what I do.
But I did get it working by changing the 'Search: Mode' in the settings (for the workspace, or any other scope if needed) from 'view' to 'reuseEditor'.
Yes, this doesn't fix it if you really want the results in the Explorer tab rather than a completely new editor window, but it works.

Answer 9

I had the same issue, i fixed mine by removing files in .gitignore

Answer 10

I had an issue with searching in a project with git submodules and found that the gitlens add-on defaults to ignore searching any submodules:
Setting this to 2 or more may address your problem.

Answer 11

In my case, I had somehow gotten my Explorer set on a subfolder of my project. Closing VS Code and reopening the workspace reset everything and search worked again.

Answer 12

In my case, it was files with no extensions I was not able to find. Once I added those files an extension, I was able to find them via the search feature.

Answer 13

I initially wrote this answer describing a confusing "inverted" behavior of the Search only in Open Editors option/button.
However, after playing around it turns out that what the GUI was showing was not "in sync" with what the search results were returning. Toggling the options a few times appears to have fixed things.
So if your search doesn't appear to be returning any results, I would suggest toggling the Search only in Open Editors and Use Exclude Settings and Ignored Files options.
Otherwise, for information, here is my previous answer:
VS Code has an extremely confusing "inverted" interface when it comes to the option Search only in Open Editors.
There is also another option which affects how search works in a confusing way: Use Exclude Settings and Ignored Files.
The below screenshot shows both:
Note that:
Search only in Open Editors is OFF
Use Exclude Settings and Ignored Files is ON
With these options I get search results back, with them set the other way around - confusingly - I get nothing.
Important to note:
If you turn Use Exclude Settings and Ignored Files OFF, then VS Code seems to stop searching any files, EXCEPT for those which are currently open in tabs. This is very confusing and not the behavior one would expect. The expected behavior would probably be to search the whole opened Folder/Workspace by default.
If you turn Search only in Open Editors OFF, then only open editors will be searched. This is the "inverted" behavior. My current build of VS Code has the indicator "inverted" for this GUI element. When it looks like it is in the "ON" state, it is actually "OFF". When it looks like it is in the "OFF" state, it is actually "ON'.
These two things interact in unexpected ways: (This is the behaviour I observed after toggling both buttons a few times. It is different to what I was seeing a few minutes ago.)
Open Editors (looks like) it is OFF, Use Exclude Settings (looks like) it is ON, search appears to search whole workspace.
Open Editors (looks like) it is OFF, Use Exclude Settings (looks like) it is OFF, search appears to search open tabs only.
Open Editors (looks like) it is ON, Use Exclude Settings (looks like) it is OFF, search appears to search whole workspace.
Open Editors (looks like) it is ON, Use Exclude Settings (looks like) it is ON, search appears to search whole workspace.
I suspect that when typing / editing the search terms, replace option, and files to include/exclude options, VS Code does not check the state of the option buttons before performing the search. This is likely the source of the bug I was seeing earlier.