Spotlight cannot find your receipts, here is what works
Sep 30, 2025
You remember the merchant or the amount, not the filename. Receipts live in photos, PDFs, and screenshots. Spotlight usually misses them. When month end arrives, scrolling and guessing kills momentum.
The pain in their words
“I search for the vendor name or amount, Spotlight shows nothing useful.”
“Receipts are trapped inside a 300 page PDF. I just need the right page.”
“I want to type ‘Starbucks 12.40’ and get that exact receipt, not a folder.”
Why Spotlight fails for receipts
It focuses on filenames and basic metadata. Not the content you actually need.
Images inside PDFs are invisible to simple search. Multi page exports stop you at page one.
No visual or semantic understanding. Queries like merchant plus amount or VAT require reading the receipt, not just matching a name.
What works instead, Fenn on Mac
Fenn is an AI powered file search engine for macOS. It reads inside images and PDFs, then opens directly at the exact page or the exact match you need.
Step by step
Index your sources. Choose folders that hold receipts, exports, and downloads.
Search what you remember. Try a merchant, an amount, a VAT value, or an invoice number.
See real snippets. Fenn shows context from inside receipts and long PDFs.
Open at the right spot. Jump straight to the correct page or receipt image. No scrolling.
Why teams choose Fenn
On device by default for privacy.
Optimized for macOS on Apple Silicon.
Precise jumping to the page, frame, or timestamp with contextual snippets.
Mini case
Before, a finance lead spent 20 minutes per expense report. Spotlight missed half the receipts and every PDF opened at page one.
After, they typed “Uber 23.18” in Fenn and opened the exact PDF page in seconds. The rest of the report was finished without context switching.
👉 Stop scrolling. Find the exact receipt page in seconds, privately on your Mac.