We’ll show how to find photos by text, content, or date in Photos on Mac as well as tips for using the search, filter, and Smart Album features. No matter when, where, or how you captured the photo, these tricks will help you find it.
1. Search photos by date on Mac
One of the best ways to find a photo, if you know when it was taken, is to search by date. It’s helpful whether you know approximately or exactly when you captured the photo.
2. Find photos by location in Photos app
Another easy way to find a picture in the Photos app is to search by location. Apple makes this simple by providing you with a Places album. This is a great way to find photos from a vacation or weekend getaway from home.
3. Search by person
Similar to searching by location using the Places album, you can search for friends and family using the People album. To make the People album even better, you can mark your favorites and name the people.
To mark a favorite, click the heart in the lower right corner on the collection screen. Then, when you open the People album, you’ll see those favorites right at the top. To add a name, either click +Name by hovering over the person in the collection or choose Add Name on the top left if you’re viewing the person’s photos.
When you capture additional photos of people, you’ll see the People album update accordingly. So, you’ll always have new photos you take of a friend or family member in one handy spot.
4. Search photos with keyword
Keywords in Photos give you another terrific way to find the pictures you want. Using the Search box, you can enter a word related to the photo you want. For example, you can search for “dog” and see all photos with your family dog Fluffy. Along with relying on the Photos app for finding pictures based on a word, you can add your own keywords. You can assign a keyword to an individual photo, reuse the keyword for other photos, and manage all of your keywords. Using keywords, you can search more easily and find what you want faster. To quickly add a keyword to a photo, follow these steps:
Use the Photos Keyword Manager
You can view, add, and remove keywords in the Keyword Manager. Select Window in the menu bar and pick Keyword Manager. You’ll see a list of all your keywords. To assign one to a photo, select the photo and then pick the keyword. You can also do the following:
To add or remove keywords, select Edit Keywords. To add a keyword, click the plus sign button and give it a name. To remove one, select it and click the minus sign button. To rename a keyword, select it, click Rename, and enter the new name. To assign a shortcut, select a keyword, click Shortcut, and add the keyboard shortcut. When you finish editing your keywords, click OK to save your changes.
You can also add keywords from the list at the bottom to the Quick Group area at the top. This allows you to quickly tag photos with keywords using shortcuts you set up. Photos also place those keywords in the Filters (described below) and provides them as suggestions when you assign keywords. Just drag a keyword from the list at the bottom to the Quick Group at the top.
5. Search by content
Another way to search in Photos is to enter metadata content in the Search box. You can enter the title, caption, or date of the picture and see suggestions which are additional words that can help you narrow down the results. For example, here, we searched using the name “Tired Bailey,” and here’s our result. Tip: Be sure to use the same letter case as how the title appears on your photo.
6. Use search suggestions in Photos app
When you use the Search box in Photos, whether to add content or a keyword, you’ll see suggestions appear. These suggestions help you narrow down your search results to find the exact photo you want. Let’s walk through an example. You can continue this process to narrow down the photos until you find the picture you want.
7. Find items with filters in Mac Photos app
When you view your Library or a particular album, you can also find photos using Filters instead of the Search field. What’s nice about the filters is that you can also apply more than one. Choose the first filter to see the results, and then pick another filter to narrow them down. You’ll see each filter you apply marked with a checkmark. You can turn off a filter by deselecting it to remove the checkmark or remove all filters by choosing All Items at the top of the list.
8. Set up Smart Albums on Mac
One more way to find the pictures you want in Photos is to use Smart Albums. Using this feature, you set up conditions so that any current or new photos that meet those conditions automatically appear in the Smart Album. This is a super way to go if you are frequently searching for photos based on the date they are added, if they contain a particular keyword, or were captured with a certain camera feature. Because we have a complete tutorial on setting up Smart Albums in the Photos app, we’ll just list a summary of the steps here. Be sure to have a look at that tutorial for complete details and additional options for Smart Albums. Again, when new pictures appear in the Photos app on Mac that match the conditions you set up, those photos automatically appear in the Smart Album for you to view with a click. Find your photos fast! With these handy tips to find images in the Photos app on Mac, locating that picture of your pet or partner should be a quicker and easier process. Let us know which method for searching Photos on Mac works best for you! Read more:
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