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Can’t search photo albums in iOS 18

After upgraded to iOS 18, I found that search function was missing for Photo Albums. And the search function in iOS 18 Photos wasn’t able to search for the Photo album name. How to resolve this ?

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 5:03 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 19, 2024 4:50 PM

It’s pretty clear that Apple hired 10-year-old to write iOS 18 and they didn’t test anything. as a longtime iPhone user, I will say without any hesitation whatsoever that this is the absolute worst version of iOS to have ever been released.

63 replies

Nov 18, 2024 8:43 AM in response to Alyssa1441

Below procedure worked for me so try this:


“The detection process requires iPhone to be locked and connected to power. Depending on what tasks are running in the background and the size of your photo library, the process could happen quickly or take up to a few days to complete”


I was wirelessly charging my iPhone 16 Pro for over 2 weeks and the photo search function still wasn’t working. After coming accross the above information, I used my usbc charging cable and physically charged the phone overnight twice in a row, the search function started working the next morning. So I guess the phone does require to be physically connected to power in order for the phone to learn your large photo library. Hope this helps.

Sep 25, 2024 8:58 PM in response to Yeahboyee

@Yeahboyee


After iOS 18 Photos finished full indexing, the search works slightly better but still it is NOT the same experience as in iOS 17 Photos. There is still no Search Bar appeared when you click on the "Albums". And your search is only keyword search so while it can search the Photo Album (if your keyword match with the name of Photo Album) but it also search other photos not photo albums (sometimes you only wanted to restrict the search on photo albums)

Oct 9, 2024 3:42 AM in response to wyatt_wong

I have stored data and named substansive volume s of albums by name with tag numbers.

Before search by an album name was possible such as album xxx NO.1, album xxx NO.2,album xxx NO.3 etc...

I dont understand why album indexing, has been remove from IOS 17.7.

This lack of functionality makes me consider return the smartphone, it make the photo album application useless.

I dont need AI or fancy function to search albums, or limit the search to individual picture, the concept of album naming is to find them all by keyword, make it simple and efficient.

Oct 11, 2024 10:53 PM in response to wyatt_wong

I have hundreds of albums organized for my work with their respective titles. I would use search to locate the album I needed. I just upgraded to the iPhone 16 max with iOS 18 and the search function will NOT include albums. I have to literally scroll through hundreds of albums to find the one I’m looking for. This is so inefficient for my work 😭. Has anyone found a solution? TY!

Oct 13, 2024 9:33 AM in response to wyatt_wong

Mine ended up taking 3 to 4 days to completely índex (?)


At first it would find only a few albums, the next day it would find more, but not in any order I could discern, though it did seem to index the albums with real word names before the ones named with my shorthand.


Since then it has worked fine and can find every album


if you have a massive amount of albums it may just take a while?

Oct 21, 2024 9:46 AM in response to wyatt_wong

I am an iPhone photographer and we are also influencers and I organized all my photos and videos in Albums. How insane is it that they took away the feature to search for an Album by name?


This is so unacceptable and disappointing that Apple would release an IOS that is a downgrade. Aren't they reviewing and testing their IOS before release?


What's going on? I just hung up with tech support who indicated that now with this IOS 18 the videos are looping.


SOS - Apple - I hope you are reading this fix these problems NOW!




Can’t search photo albums in iOS 18

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