Are Smart Groups Searchable

DEVONthink
1

I ran into a pretty big issue the other day. I have my main subject that I study and work with broken up into a number of groups all in one primary database.

I thought I would make a smart group comprised of some of those groups and then search them etc. I spent hours and hours trying to debug this, trying everything imaginable, to no avail.

So are smart groups really not designed to be searchable? And by searchable I mean all the words in the documents not just Meta information etc.

2

Sure you can search a smart group but no you can’t make a smart group targeting a smart group.
Select a local smart group in the Navigate sidebar or double-click it to open it as the current location, and do your search. Simple!

3

Global smart groups/rules support this too.

4

OK, so in the screenshot I’m trying to use a smart group and I want to search simultaneously a number of actual groups (not smart groups). How do I select more than one group in the database to search?

CleanShot 2025-02-26 at 10.33.00@2x
CleanShot 2025-02-26 at 10.33.00@2x1270×494 55.2 KB

5

You can’t specify more than one target for a smart group. You could replicate items into a smart group and target it.

6

I think this may be what I’m missing. If I have one group that I want to search, why wouldn’t I just search within the group? What would the value of a smart group be then?

But if I’m understanding right I could make a regular or smart group that replicates other groups inside it and then search that.

This is where I have been confused. I’m not sure the point of a smart group if I can’t search a number of groups within it. Otherwise why not just go to the group itself and search.

It might be that what I’m really looking for is to replicate items or other groups into a smart group. Is that best practice?

7

You are not understanding it correctly.

  • If you need to do an impromptu search, use the toolbar search.
  • A smart group is a saved search, intended for future reuse.

But if I’m understanding right I could make a regular or smart group that replicates other groups inside it and then search that.

A smart group will not replicate anything. It merely displays matching items. This is discussed in the Getting Started > DEVONthink Simplified section of the Help and manual.

For a smart group:

  1. Open File > Database Properties and enable Inherit Tags of Groups.
  2. Select a group and add a tag to it, e.g., for search. All the children of the group will also get the tag.
  3. Repeat step 2 with other groups as needed.
  4. Set up a smart group with criteria:
    • Tag is for search
    • Kind is Any Document