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I can no longer “search” in photos. For example if I wanted a photo from my photos that had something specific like a pumpkin, I could type in pumpkin and all photos I had with a pumpkin would pop up. Now since the new backup, it no longer does it😖 Anyone else hating the way they changed photos. It’s not user friendly to me AT ALL.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 13, iOS 18
I have an iPhone 13 I updated to IOS 18, I restarted. Everything is synced. When I open photos, I go in the upper right corner search, I type in, for example Halloween and usually all of my Halloween photos pop up but I get nothing!
I have an iPhone 13 I updated to IOS 18, I restarted. Everything is synced. When I open photos, I go in the upper right corner search, I type in, for example Halloween and usually all of my Halloween photos pop up but I get nothing!
When we want to search for a caption we can no longer search for a phrase that is somewhere inside the caption, as the second word of the caption or later. We have to type the search phrase from the beginning, including the first word.
For example, I wanted to find a photo tagged "Der Hase" (in German). When I only searched for "Hase" Photos did not show the photo with the caption including the word "Hase". Instead it has shown me pictures of hares, rabbits, foxes, rock hyraxes, photos taken at locations with "Hase" in the name, etc., but not the any photo with "hase" in the title, caption, or keywords.
But searching for "Der Hase" presented the photo in question instantly.
We now have to make sure, that the catch phrases we may want to use in a search are the first word of the caption.
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out in the Apple Community. I understand you're frustrated with the search function in your Photos app since the latest update. It can be annoying when a feature you rely on changes unexpectedly.
First, let's make sure we're on the same page.
Could you clarify which update you're referring to? Knowing your iOS version will help me give you the most accurate advice.
Let's try a few things to get that search working again:
If that doesn't help, tell me more about what happens when you try to search. Any error messages? Does the search bar show up? Can you search by date or location?
I'll do my best to help you get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, remember that Apple's official support channels can provide further assistance if needed.
Just to let you know, I tried searching for "Pumpkin" on my iPhone 12 with iOS 18, and I got a bunch of pumpkins, (and a newspaper clipping about my wife's mother's Halloween party I had scanned from her "Baby Book.") So the search works, but not for you for some reason. It took a few days for it to start work for me after the update-- how long have you been waiting?
Have you tried a forced re-start?
Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
I'm starting to get used to the changes-- they're not as bad as I thought at first…
How long ago did you update to iOS 18? How many photos and videos do you have on the phone?
Depending on the size of your library, it can take iOS 18 a while to build up its search index, particularly on an older phone (which an iPhone 13 is starting to be).
Here was the latest BEST BUYS RESPONSE BLAMES APPLE. THIS IS FROM BEST BUY “I can completely understand your frustration here. While it is not ideal, that is how we would have to process the battery replacement as it is Apple who made this policy.
While I am sorry to hear that you no longer feel comfortable shopping with us, I do hope that you decide to give us a second chance in the future. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us here if you need assistance with anything else.
^Vanessa”
Apple sent me to Best Buy to get my battery replaced. I made the appointment a week ago. I drove 45 minutes to Beat Buy and they didn’t have a battery to put in my phone! I then had to drive all the way to an Apple Store for this repair. The above was the response from Best Buy!! Apple should NOT have them as a place to get phones fixed
I also can no longer search properly on my IPhone 13. I am attempting to search captions on photos. Specific search is for the word “Praymates”. While it finds this specific phrase, it does not return all captions that INCLUDE the word “Praymates”. Until recently, the behavior for search has been an include rather than specific. Seems to me that it is a coding error.
I am now using IOS 18.1. There are no Photos app updates that are not installed.
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.
léonie wrote: … We now have to make sure, that the catch phrases we may want to use in a search are the first word of the caption.
Man, that's crazy!
Going here, now:
Me too on an iphone 13, search completely broken, zero results. I hate updates…….
Same here
My Sympton is unable to search tags.
Unable to search in my 'Photos App' after new update
