Articles/Finding

How to find a link you saved months ago

Updated 13 October 2026. 2 minute read.

You saved an article about heat pumps in spring. Now you need it, and you remember almost nothing useful: not the title, not the site, not when. You remember the subject and maybe one detail. Most search boxes are bad at exactly this, because they look for the words in the title, and the title was something like "Why we finally made the switch".

Search by subject, not by name

A saved link becomes findable when something describes its content, not just its headline. That is what summaries and keywords are for.

In Stashy every save is read once on your device. It gets a short summary and a set of hidden keywords, including synonyms. Search then looks through titles, summaries and those keywords. So "heat pump" finds the article above, because the summary says what it was about.

Search by what you do remember

When the subject alone gives too many results, add the scrap you still have:

• The site. The name of the publication or shop narrows things quickly.
• A distinctive word. A brand, a person, a place, a number.
• The kind of thing. If you know it was a PDF or a photo, look at only that type. In Stashy the Library lists saves by type as well as by category.
• Roughly when. A view of what you saved this week or recently unopened is quicker than a search if it was last Tuesday.

Or ask a question

If you cannot think of a search term at all, describe what you need. Stashy's Ask Your Library answers a question from your own saves and shows which ones it used, so you can open the source. See how asking your library works.

Search without opening the app

Your saves also appear in Spotlight. Swipe down on the Home Screen, type a word, and matching saves are listed next to your apps and messages. More in finding saves from Spotlight.

Make the next one easier to find

The best time to help future you is the moment you save.

• Add a line about why. "For the kitchen quote" is the thing you will actually remember.
• Save the article, not the homepage. A link to a front page shows something else next month.
• Save once. If the same page is in three apps, you will search the wrong one first.

If it was in another language

Searching in the language you think in should still find a page written in another. In Stashy it does: see searching your saves in two languages.