diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e2a090ea191..a61a78fddcb 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Note that this project **does not** adhere to [Semantic Versioning](https://semv
 - We fixed an issue where the full-text search results were incomplete. [#8626](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/8626)
 - We fixed an issue where search result highlighting was incorrectly highlighting the boolean operators. [#11595](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/11595)
 - We fixed an issue where search result highlighting was broken at complex searches. [#8067](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/8067)
+- We fixed an exception when searching for unlinked files. [#11731](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/11731)
 - We fixed an issue where two contradicting notifications were shown when cutting an entry in the main table. [#11724](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/11724)
 - We fixed an issue where unescaped braces in the arXiv fetcher were not treated. [#11704](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/11704)
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/util/FileNodeViewModel.java b/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/util/FileNodeViewModel.java
index b4d23c1a140..253ea20a69f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/util/FileNodeViewModel.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jabref/gui/util/FileNodeViewModel.java
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ public static String formatDateTime(FileTime fileTime) {
      */
     public String getDisplayText() {
         if (path.toFile().isDirectory()) {
-            return "%s (%s %s)".formatted(path.getFileName(), Localization.lang("%0 file(s)", fileCount));
+            return "%s (%s)".formatted(path.getFileName(), Localization.lang("%0 file(s)", fileCount));
         }
         return path.getFileName().toString();
     }
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ public String getDisplayText() {
      */
     public String getDisplayTextWithEditDate() {
         if (path.toFile().isDirectory()) {
-            return "%s (%s %s)".formatted(path.getFileName(), Localization.lang("%0 file(s)", fileCount));
+            return "%s (%s)".formatted(path.getFileName(), Localization.lang("%0 file(s)", fileCount));
         }
         FileTime lastEditedTime = null;
         try {
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public String getDisplayTextWithEditDate() {
         } catch (IOException e) {
             LOGGER.error("Could not get last modified time", e);
         }
-        return "%s (%s: %s)".formatted(path.getFileName().toString(), Localization.lang("last edited"), formatDateTime(lastEditedTime));
+        return "%s (%s: %s)".formatted(path.getFileName(), Localization.lang("last edited"), formatDateTime(lastEditedTime));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -104,10 +104,9 @@ public boolean equals(Object obj) {
         if (this == obj) {
             return true;
         }
-        if (!(obj instanceof FileNodeViewModel)) {
+        if (!(obj instanceof FileNodeViewModel other)) {
             return false;
         }
-        FileNodeViewModel other = (FileNodeViewModel) obj;
         return Objects.equals(children, other.children) && (fileCount == other.fileCount) && Objects.equals(path, other.path);
     }
 }