You can find your photos by scrolling through the Photos app like everyone else, but the search feature makes it even easier. Here are some search tips to help you quickly find photos in iPhone’s native Photos app.
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1 Search for photos using keywords
Using keywords is the fastest way to find photos in the Photos app. Keywords can be anything from people and places to events and things. However, you must tag your face in the Photos app to be searchable by name.
To search for photos using a keyword, tap the search icon at the top of the Photos app and enter your keyword. When you do this, you’ll see item suggestions if available. These suggestions will have an icon to the left to indicate their type. For example, in some cases you’ll see a Live Text icon, a screenshot icon, and in some cases you’ll see a regular search icon.
Additionally, you’ll also see a number to the right of these keyword suggestions indicating how many photos are available for that keyword. Then tap on the suggestion according to your preference and all relevant results will be displayed.
If your search term results in multiple photos, you can narrow your results by adding keywords to your search query. For example, if you combine the keywords “watches” and “citizen,” you can find all photos of Citizen brand watches in your library.
2 Search photos by date
If you want to see all the photos taken on a specific day in a specific month of the year, you can use the Photos app to filter your results using date.
Just go to search. Then enter the date, month, and year, such as “April 18, 2024,” and the Photos app will show all photos from that date.
Similarly, you can find photos from a particular month of the year. Enter the name of the month and choose from the suggestions, and do the same for the year.
3 Search for photos using captions
Another way to quickly find photos in your iPhone’s Photos app is to search for captions. A caption is a text label you add to a photo to make it easier to find later. So, if you’ve added captions to your photos before, you can search for them by entering the caption in search and selecting suggestions with Aa text.
On the other hand, if this is your first time hearing about captions, you must first add captions to your photos so that you can use them to search for photos within the app. You can use a unique caption for each photo or tag similar photos using the same caption.
4 Filter photos using app name
The Photos app’s library displays photos from a variety of sources. Create albums for specific apps, like WhatsApp, but that doesn’t apply to all apps.
Thankfully, you can quickly access your photos by searching for them using the app name. Just enter the app’s name in the search. Then select the suggestion with the App Store icon next to it. You’ll see all the photos you’ve saved to your library from that app.
5 Search photos by device name
Similar to using the app name, Apple’s Photos app also lets you search for photos taken using a specific device. This is useful when you want to quickly search for photos taken with a camera or smartphone.
If you remember taking a photo on another device and saving it to the Photos app, enter the device’s name in the search bar. Here are some suggestions with pictures. Select the relevant one to see all photos.
Just to be clear, this will work as long as the photo has EXIF data. If you previously removed EXIF data from your photos, the Photos app won’t be able to identify the device that captured the image and won’t be able to return relevant results for your searches.
6 Filter photos by image type
In iOS 18, Apple switched to a single view in the Photos app, so all your photos, videos, and other media now appear on one page. This can make finding your photos a little harder, so Apple added the Media Types collection to your library. Categorize all items into different media types such as portrait, long exposure, screenshot, and RAW.
To access these, scroll down until you reach the end of the library and you will see several collections containing media types.
7 Use Utilities to Find Duplicates, Imports, and More
Utility is another collection of photo apps that lists albums such as hidden, recently deleted, duplicates, receipts, and recently edited albums. To find it, scroll to the bottom of the Photos app under Library. It appears just below the Media Types collection. Select a category from here to view all related photos.
Similar to media types, utility collections help you quickly find what you need. My favorites are handwritten notes, QR codes, receipts, and recently saved items.
These tips will help you save time and effort when finding photos from a huge image library. Sure, you might forget to incorporate them into your searches at first, but after doing it a few times, they will become second nature.
