Unable to search in my 'Photos App' after new update

Same problem! I DESPISE whatever they did to take this function away! I've restarted, resync'd re-everything! Now I have 18,000 photos that are completely unsearchable - thanks apple for wasting precious time I need to be focusing on other tasks! This is a huge efficiency theft!

But it actually doesn’t. Mine doesn’t pull up all the photos related to that category, frequently less than 50% of the photos that would come up previously for the same search, and you can’t just look through them in the same way. It’s not as user-friendly or as easy to find a photo as it previously was, nor is comprehensive.

I don’t know why Apple feels it always needs to update things that are really successful into something that isn’t as effective.

Apple updated my Photos app on my iPhone 15 pro max without even asking permission.

And now, my favorite feature — the ability to quickly finf (among thousands of photos) specific photo memes by searching for embedded text in the photo — no longer works. It is INFURIATING.

Why did Apple kill this feature?

And why did it completely change the interface to a more cumbersome, user/unfriendly design?

is it possible to delete the app and reinstall the prior version, which had an excellent text-search capability???

This will be my last iPhone if they don’t fix this.

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.

I am on the same page as most of the posts I’ve seen in this thread - VERY FRUSTRATED with the changes to the “search” function on iPhone photos. I used to be able to type in.. snake or.. dog.. and any and all pictures that might have a snake or a dog or whatever.. in them would populate.

However, NOW if I type in search terms the only pictures that populate are photos with text in them that have the exact search word/term in them.

It is a HUGE step backwards in functionality.

Actually, I forgot to add that while the general layout of iPhotos is also a step backwards in functionality and usability - also there is some disconnect with the ALBUMS as well.. I have a TON of photos in iCloud (80k) and I generally only access them through the phone. I break a lot of these photos down into a dozen or so assorted albums, that now, don’t always populate unless I take additional steps and dive “deeper” into photos app.

Again, not great Apple.

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.

Exactly🤦🏻‍♀️ I called Apple support they said wait 48 hrs after update & photos will be done re indexing and all should work. I certainly hope so!

EVERY TIME Apple, or almost ANY App designer does an update, they royally muck things up for the worse. They take the useful things and either eliminate them or make them so obscure, no one can use them anymore. One reason is to make the particular action so it isn't something they can't make money off of. That's where Apple Music, Amazon's many specific fees all arose from. Anything to make, literally, another billion. Another reason is that the coders are out of touch with the end users of their products. In the process of making their OS more User Friendly (Idiot Proof) and right-brained, they take all the logic out of it. Try to store, then find docs or files on an iPad after saving it using the written title app names on the pull down menus, then to retrieve them, find those apps that are not named the same, and could be anywhere, with renamed files for what you saved.

As for the photos, every time I update IOS or sync w/my PC, photos,meven the entire contents of folders disappear on my iPad. Gone for good. The cloud is no better. And with the interface connection changing USB types every other year, thumb drives can't be effectively used on a next gen device...if it worked at all on the first device. It's getting really sloppy and deregulated and we're losing control of it all, with the rich guys at the top making $$$ off of it.

AND...where are the Apple, etc. company's HELP LINES??!! Why do we have to rely on each other for solutions?

Exactly this whole thing is a disaster. I can search for photos from Halloween and I will get 300 photos that have absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. Or then I’ll say hey let’s look up videos taken in Florida. And then it will yield no results OK so then I freak out I’m like did my update delete all 20,000 of my videos. I don’t even know where to find them anymore. It’s insane. This is ridiculous. This is only the photos let’s talk about text messaging. I can legit type out an entire text message And it will no longer yield any results whereas before I could have typed in the first three letters and it would’ve popped up or contacts say my name is Bob. I’m searching contacts for BOB. I have to scroll down for about 10 seconds past everything that has anything not to do with BOB to find the actual BOB I’m wondering if this is maybe just a glitch on my iPhone is this somebody playing a joke on me because I can search my iPhone for contact and it doesn’t even have it in there but when I click contacts and then scroll through manually, I find the same contact that I just searched for that yielded no results This is all Siri talk to text greater example added to this platform here but I’m saying all these updates are doing damage they are destroying the already good things that were. I am about to go back to my Nokia flip phone or something or whatever because I feel like I am on acid every single time I open my photo app.

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.

I have same issue then was working an hour ago and now even if search same query that did work just get the message “Photos is analysing your library to provide accurate search results” it’s obviously a bug that Apple needs to fix as this never happened before

It did not help at all! I’ve been a die hired Apple product user all my life but after this last update and ruining everything about photo search/ layout- I think I am finally ready to go to an android! I pay thousands of dollars each year to go backwards with every update!

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:

• Restart your device.
• Check for Photos app updates in the App Store.
• Make sure iCloud Photos is enabled and fully synced.
• Rebuild your Photos library (but back up your photos first!). You can find instructions on Apple's support website.

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…