Back in July 2012 I wrote this post http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/21147/query-to-find-and-replace-text-in-all-tables-and-fields-of-a-mysql-db/21182#21182 It uses the table [**information_schema.columns**][1] to pick up every CHAR, VARCHAR, and TEXT field and perform a textual [**REPLACE**][2]. Please look over my old link and use its paradigm to do a search. As an example, this will create a separate SELECT for each text column in every table SELECT CONCAT('SELECT ''',db,''',''',tb,''',''',col,''',COUNT(1) FieldHasIt ', 'FROM ',db,'.',tb, WHERE ',col,'=''',SearchString,''';') SearchSQL FROM ( SELECT table_schema db,table_name tb,column_name col FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema NOT IN ('information_schema','mysql','performance_schema') AND (column_type LIKE 'char(%'OR column_type LIKE 'varchar(%' OR column_type LIKE '%text' ) A,(SELECT 'Hello' SearchString) B; Create a Giant SQL text file with it. Then, execute that Giant SQL script: SQLSTMT="SELECT CONCAT('SELECT ''',db,''',''',tb,''',''',col,''',COUNT(1) FieldHasIt '," SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} 'FROM ',db,'.',tb, WHERE ',col,'=''',SearchString,''';') SearchSQL" SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} FROM (SELECT table_schema db,table_name tb,column_name col" SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema NOT IN" SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} ('information_schema','mysql','performance_schema') AND" SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} (column_type LIKE 'char(%'OR column_type LIKE 'varchar(%' OR " SQLSTMT="${SQLSTMT} column_type LIKE '%text') A,(SELECT 'Hello' SearchString) B" mysql -uroot -p... -ANe"${SQLSTMT}" > MegaSearch.sql mysql -uroot -p... -AN < MegaSearch.sql > MegaSearchResults.txt Give it a Try !!!. [1]: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/columns-table.html [2]: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/string-functions.html#function_replace