The search sits in the centre of the library bar. Press / to put the cursor there. On a narrow window the field folds to an icon, and / opens it. A search is at most 200 characters.
It searches the place on screen: Home, a phone, a folder, favourites, the archive or the trash. Choosing Photos, Videos or a row under Content keeps the search.
What a search matches
Case and accents are ignored. A search matches any part of:
- a file's name
- the camera or the lens
- the title or the description
- what an AI generator made it with
- place names
Place names join the search once the server has read where the photo was taken. A search for Osaka finds photos taken there.
Not yet
It does not search other text on the photo, and it does not search by what the picture shows. People and faces are planned, and so is finding a place by how far away it is.
Sort
The menu offers four sorts. Each starts in its own direction. Choose the one already selected to turn it the other way.
| Sort | Starts as |
|---|---|
| Date taken | Newest first |
| Date added | Newest first |
| Name | First to last |
| Size | Largest first |
Day headings show only for date taken. The button that shows the date and time hides them, and it is only there for that sort. The other sorts don't head by day.
Where it is kept
The search, the sort and the direction live in the address. They stay as you open a photo or move to another place, and a link opens the same list. Date taken, newest first, is left out, because that is how the library opens:
?search=bay&sort=name&order=desc
Show everything here clears a narrowing (photos or videos, what the picture is, a period) and the search. The sort stays, and so does the look of the grid.
If nothing matches, the page says that nothing matching those words is here.
An assistant
find_assets takes search, sort and order. count_assets takes search. The words are the same as on this page, and still only over the phones' backups. See Tools and limits.