# Search is VERY slow when files are big

**URL:** <https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816>\
**Category:** Bear Bug Report\
**Created:** [May 21, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816 "2024-05-21T08:44:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fmaylinch](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/fmaylinch/32/4862_2.png) [@fmaylinch](https://community.bear.app/u/fmaylinch)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816/1 "2024-05-21T08:44:15Z")

</div>

- **Bear Version** : 2.1.9
- **OS Version** : Mac
- **What were you doing** : searching
- **What feature did you use** : search
- **What happened** : it’s very slow
- **What did you expect to happen** : be MUCH faster, like in Obsidian

You start typing something in the search bar, and the characters come out after some seconds of delay.

Please let me know when this is fixed.  
I had to go back to Obsidian because of this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![matteo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/matteo/32/21_2.png) [@matteo](https://community.bear.app/u/matteo)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 8:50am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816/2 "2024-05-21T08:50:13Z")

</div>

Hello! Are you referring to the global search (which shouldn’t be slow as it’s async) or the search inside a note?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fmaylinch](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/fmaylinch/32/4862_2.png) [@fmaylinch](https://community.bear.app/u/fmaylinch)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816/3 "2024-05-25T14:13:24Z")

</div>

Hi, thank you for your fast reply.

I tried it again and it happens in both places.

I will attach recordings of me typing the word “searching” fast.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![krssno](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/community.bear.app/krssno/32/1338_2.png) [@krssno](https://community.bear.app/u/krssno)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 11:48am UTC](https://community.bear.app/t/search-is-very-slow-when-files-are-big/12816/4 "2025-01-12T11:48:43Z")

</div>

I loaded the moby-dick-test-markdownfile into bear. It contains 212.000 words and 1.2 million characters. In comparison to obsidian and ulysses it needs much longer to load. Also the search is by far slower than in the other apps, never mind if global search or in-note-search.

Edit: Ulysses has seemingly the fastest search of all three apps but it needs same time for loading/importing the file as bear. Also I had success to let the ulysses app hang by searching for one letter only. I tested again quickly. Sorry for the misinformation in regard to that point