Searching photos using captions not working (in Photos)

[Loa]

Hello,

In addition to keywords, I've also been using the "captions" field to add some additional info. But the search function doesn't work well. For example, if I have photos that have this caption "Blue Flower" (without the "), I'll find the photos when searching for Flower, but not when searching with Blue.

Any ideas?

 

[0128672]

I can get it to work in Monterey 12.5.1, but I noticed after adding a caption (which was different than the title or keywords just to test) it took about a minute to index. Once that completed I got search results that included a header called Caption and the correct photo.

I tested again with another photo with no title and no keywords, only a caption. Again it took a minute for indexing to occur and the appropriately displayed the right photo under the Captions heading.

The indexing happens in the search window.

Edited to add: I should mention the caption was two words as well.

 

[Loa]

Interesting. The captions have been there for years, and it used to work really well with iPhoto. Photos feels like an ugly step-child to iPhoto, sadly.

 

[0128672]

As a test, what happens if you delete and add back a caption, and then search for it? Do you see the indexing happening? I realize if you have a ton of photos with captions, it's not feasible to re-add them, but just wondering if at least the functionality might work for you.

 

[Loa]

When I tried adding a brand new caption, I didn't see an indexing symbol, but after a few seconds I could search and find the image.

 

[0128672]

The indexing indicator appears below the search characters. So if you had initially typed "re" while starting to search for "red car", you might see Photos indexing below all of the captions, keywords, locations and any other metadata containing "re". Once that brief indexing completed, it should display the appropriate results.

So sounds like this worked for you adding a new caption, but isn't working for the many existing captions you have?

 

[Loa]

As soon as I start typing, the possible results appear immediately, new or old.

But even though Photos finds the newly added caption, it doesn't solve my initial problem: searching for "Blue" doesn't give me the images that have been captioned Blue Flowers, for example. At the same time, searching for "Flowers" will give me all the results that it should (so it will give me the images with "blue flowers" as caption.

It seems that it fails to search the first term in the caption, but not the second??? Very strange.

Removing all the captions and adding them back doesn't solve the problem...

 

[0128672]

I took your example and applied in my photos library. I've got hundreds of photos with blue skies and blue water. When I type the word "blue" into the search bar, lots of photos come up and some are auto-categorized into groups like "Blue Jeans" or moments and titles. Generally I don't take the time to assign titles or captions, so many of these have nothings. I also found it's not case specific.

I also get similar results with the word "green" and "beach" as examples.

Maybe rebuilding the photos library would help. I couldn't say whether it would fix this issue, and I don't know if it alters any metadata, so definitely make a copy of your library first. The command is command-option double click the Photos icon and you'll be prompted to rebuild. I just rebuilt mine and everything seems intact.

How to use the Photos Repair Library tool on your Mac - Apple Support

If your Photos library won't open or if the Photos app behaves unexpectedly on your Mac, the Photos Repair Library tool might help.

support.apple.com