How to find PDFs from last week on a Mac

Updated 2026-10-18

You know you saved a PDF a few days ago, but not its name or where it went. Finder can list every PDF from a date range in under a minute, as long as you pick the right kind of date. Here is the free way, and a faster one if you do this often.

First, decide which date you mean

Finder keeps several dates for every file, and they answer different questions. Choosing the wrong one is the most common reason a search comes back empty.

Date	What sets it	Use it when
Created	When the file first appeared on this Mac or the disk it came from	You made or downloaded the PDF last week
Modified	The last time the contents changed	You edited, signed or annotated it
Last opened	The last time it was opened on this Mac	You read it last week but did not change it
Date added	When it arrived in its current folder	It landed in Downloads or was moved into a folder

A file copied from another drive or unpacked from an archive often keeps its original dates, so a PDF you received last week can still show a created date from last year. If one date finds nothing, try another.

Search with Finder

Open a Finder window and press Command-F. A search bar appears under the toolbar.
Click This Mac so the search covers every indexed folder, not only the one you started in.
In the first rule, choose Kind, then PDF.
Click the plus button at the right of the rule to add a second one.
Choose Last opened date, Created date or Last modified date, then set it to within last 7 days. You can also pick this week, which starts on the first day of the current week rather than counting back seven days.
Switch to list view with Command-2 and click a column header to sort by date or size.

If a date attribute you need is not in the menu, choose Other at the bottom of the rule menu and search the list. Ticking In Menu keeps it there for next time.

Save it as a Smart Folder

If you look for recent PDFs regularly, click Save at the right of the search bar, give the search a name and leave Add To Sidebar ticked. The Smart Folder is a saved search, not a real folder: it holds no files and updates itself every time you open it, so “PDFs this week” always means this week. See the Smart Folders guide for more recipes.

Check Recents and the app you used

If you opened the PDF rather than just saved it, two quicker places may already have it:

Recents in the Finder sidebar lists files you opened recently. Sort it by Date Last Opened in list view.
Preview keeps a list under File, then Open Recent. Most other apps that open PDFs do the same.

When a PDF does not show up

The folder may be excluded from Spotlight. Finder search relies on the Spotlight index, so excluded folders are never searched. See what to do when Spotlight cannot find a file.
The file may live only in iCloud Drive. It still appears, with a cloud icon, but opening it starts a download.
It may be inside an email. Attachments you never saved stay in the Mail app; search Mail itself for the message.
It may not be a PDF. A scan saved from a phone is sometimes an image, so try Kind is Image with the same date rule.

Do it in one line with FileSift

FileSift lets you type the question instead of building rules: pdfs from last week. It shows the filters it understood, such as a PDF type and a date range, so you can see exactly what was searched and change a filter if it guessed wrong. Results appear as large thumbnails, so you can usually recognise the document by its first page, and pressing Space opens a Quick Look preview. Files that are only in iCloud are marked and are not downloaded in the background.

The same approach works for other questions, such as invoice from last month. FileSift turns the words into filters you can see and edit.

Common questions

Why does Finder show a PDF as created last year when I downloaded it last week?

The created date can come from the original file. Try Date added or Last opened date instead, which reflect what happened on your Mac.

Can I search only my Downloads folder?

Yes. Open Downloads, press Command-F and click the folder name in the search bar instead of This Mac.

FileSift shows your folders as large thumbnails, searches in plain English and clears duplicates. US$19 once, for macOS 14 or later. See what it does.

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