Search and filters
The library is built to be searched rather than browsed. If you are scrolling, there is usually a faster way.
Search the library
The search box at the top of Media → Library takes plain language and matches against everything the analysis produced: captions, descriptions, keywords, tags, recognized people, and the text found inside images.
Describe the picture rather than the file:
- outdoor team photo, natural light
- product shot on white background
- conference stage, wide angle
Search does not match filenames, so IMG_4471 returns nothing useful while a loose
description of the shot usually works.
Filters
Filters narrows by the structured facts rather than by the words:
| Album | Files in a particular album. |
| Tags | Your controlled vocabulary. |
| People | Everyone recognized in the file. |
| Quality | Filter out the soft, dark and badly composed. |
| Date | When it was taken, not only when it was uploaded. |
| Type | Photo, video, audio. |
| Flags | Review state, approvals. |
Filters combine with search: search for the subject, filter for the constraints. "Team photo" plus quality: high plus last 12 months returns a much shorter list than "team photo" alone.
The header shows how many filters are active, and Clear filters resets them.
Favorites
Star anything you keep coming back to. The library's Favorites view collects them. Favorites are yours. Starring a file does not star it for your colleagues.
Sorting
The library sorts by Newest First by default. You can also sort oldest first, by name, or by upload date. Note that upload date and date taken are different values, and for anything scanned or imported from an archive they can be years apart.
More like this
Open any file and the Overview tab has More like this, visually and semantically similar files from the library. It is the fastest way to find the rest of a shoot when you have one image from it, and it works even when the files were never tagged as belonging together.
Saved searches
Save a search you run often, name it, give it a color, and it appears as a chip on the library screen. Saved searches are per person, so yours do not appear in anyone else's view.
If the whole team needs the same search, create a smart album instead: the same idea, shared.
When a search returns nothing
Three things to check, in order:
- Is the file analyzed yet? A file uploaded minutes ago may not be described yet. Its Activity tab shows the current state.
- Is a filter still on? The active filter count in the header is easy to miss.
- Is the caption wrong? Find the file by browsing, then correct the caption. See tags and descriptions. It will be searchable from then on.
A very broad search in list view shows only the first page of results, with a note saying so. Narrow with filters rather than scrolling.