How Fenn Helps You Find the Needle in a Haystack on Your Mac

Sometimes, you just need to find a file.
Other times, you need to find the exact moment, phrase, page, or frame inside that file.

That’s where most Mac search tools fall apart. Spotlight gives you a list of filenames and hopes one of them rings a bell. Find Any File digs deep into your system but needs you to remember exactly what you’re looking for. Neither really understands what you're trying to find—let alone where inside the file it lives.

Fenn changes that. And now, it gives you control over how deep you want it to look.

Choose Your Search Intensity

Fenn introduces a feature that’s simple but powerful: Search Intensity Modes.
You decide how hard Fenn should work to find what you’re looking for.

There are three levels:

• Low: Instant results. Perfect for everyday use.

• Medium: Deeper results with more context. Wait around 30 seconds.

• High: Surgical precision for tough searches. Wait a little longer. (Coming soon)

This isn’t just about speed. It’s about finding meaning where other tools can’t.

Fast is Great—Until It’s Not

Most of the time, Low intensity gets the job done. You’re looking for a file, a slide, a note—you type a few words, and Fenn shows you exactly what you need. Fast.

But sometimes, finding the right file isn’t enough.
You need the right page, the right moment, or the right frame inside that file.

Here’s a real-world example:

You remember seeing a flag of France inside a PDF last month. You don’t remember the filename, but you know it’s in there somewhere. You open Fenn and type:
"flag of France"

• Low intensity will surface the right PDF and highlight a range—say, pages 1 through 6. That’s already better than Spotlight, which wouldn’t even know the flag was in there.

• Medium intensity takes it further. It looks inside every page, line, and image. It shows you the exact location: page 5, with the flag visible in an image block.

You don’t have to scroll, skim, or guess. Fenn does the heavy lifting.

Find the Needle, Not Just the Stack

This is what we mean when we talk about "finding the needle in the haystack."
Except this time, you’re not the one digging. Fenn handles that for you.

Medium search mode is like having an intelligent assistant who flips through hundreds of files and says,
“Here’s the sentence you remembered. It’s on page 17.”

That might be inside a 3-hour Zoom recording.
It might be a blurry screenshot with a restaurant name.
It might be a slide in a 100-slide deck with pink neon text.

If you’ve read How Creatives Can Use AI-Powered Search or our guide to Semantic Search, you already know: Fenn doesn’t just look for keywords. It understands ideas.

Search intensity builds on that foundation, giving you granular control.
Need something quick? Stick with Low.
Need something precise? Medium has your back.
Need Fenn to crawl every inch of a complex file library? High is on its way.

Search Should Feel Effortless

We didn’t build Fenn to be another tool you have to manage. We built it to work the way you think.

Your folders might be messy.
Your files might be unorganized.
But the ideas you’re trying to find? They’re still in there.

Fenn finds them—without forcing you to clean up first. If this feels familiar, you’ll want to read Forget Organizing Your Mac: Fenn Finds What You Need Instantly.

Final Thought

Other search tools ask you to change the way you save, name, or file things.
Fenn doesn’t. It adapts to the chaos.

And now, with adjustable search intensity, you get to choose how fast or deep that search should go.
Sometimes you need speed.
Sometimes you need precision.
Fenn gives you both.

Next time you think, “I know I saw that somewhere…”
You don’t need to dig through files or guess at filenames.
Just open Fenn. Choose your intensity. And let it find the needle.

👉 Try Fenn now – the smarter file search engine for Mac.