How come we still can't search by title/filename in Photos???

[usagora]

This drives me insane. I have hundreds of individual student photos from over 15 years, and on my Mac I can find a person in a second by typing their name in the search field. In Photos in iOS? "No Results"

Why?! This is a basic feature. For years this has been an issue. I try to look up a photo for someone and have to try to remember the year, then browse through all those photos until I find them or I may not remember what they look like so I can't find them at all.

Is not the title and file name part of the embedded image metadata? Why does the title entered in Photos on Mac not transfer over when I sync the photos to my iPhone? I can add a "caption" (seems to be the same as "title" on Mac - not sure why they use different terminology) to photos on my iPhone and those import to my Mac, but titles added to photos on my Mac don't transfer to my iPhone. Makes zero sense. So I have to now manually re-add titles/captions to hundreds of photos on my iPhone in order to be able to search them by title? smh

 

[barbu]

Photos is a database so file names don’t really enter into it. Each photo can be tagged with metadata and that should sync.
Also, the faces feature can work well once it’s trained a bit.

 

[usagora]

Photos is a database so file names don’t really enter into it.

It does with Photos on macOS. Photos on iOS should mirror this.

Each photo can be tagged with metadata and that should sync.

But it doesn't. I can add a title to a photo in Photos on macOS, but when that photo syncs to my iPhone and I look at the photo's info on my iPhone, that title does not appear anywhere.

Here is what the photo info shows on my Mac. The title appears on top and the file name is under that (in this case, they're the same).

Here's what that photo's info shows on my iPhone. Notice the title and file name are missing:

 

[BBDDVV]

I can add a "caption" (seems to be the same as "title" on Mac - not sure why they use different terminology)

... as "title" on Mac doesn't equal 'caption' on iPhone, the Mac dialog you're showing also shows 'Add a Caption' as first entry below the image stats... I'd expect a Caption entered on Mac would transfer to iPhone?

 

[adrianlondon]

It's irritating.

You *can* search by Title on iOS, but they don't actually show anywhere in the Photos app. Give a photo a title in MacOS, wait for it to sync, then search for some text in that title in the iOS Photos app. It'll find it.

When you edit info in iOS Photos, it puts it into the Captions field. And the Captions field doesn't show under the photos in MacOS Photos; the Title does. You need to press "info" to see it. Stupid, huh.

 

[ric_d]

It does with Photos on macOS. Photos on iOS should mirror this.

I agree and it's very annoying. The same thing with Smart Albums - I have a lot of them in macOS Photos that don't show up in iOS Photos.

 

[usagora]

You *can* search by Title on iOS, but they don't actually show anywhere in the Photos app. Give a photo a title in MacOS, wait for it to sync, then search for some text in that title in the iOS Photos app. It'll find it.

But that's precisely what does NOT work. Every single one of my photos in Photos on macOS has a title, yet none of those are indexed in Photos on iOS. For example, the photo I showed in post 3 with the title "Christopher" - here's what happens when I search for it on my iPhone in the Photos app:

Same goes for every other photo as well. So clearly "titles" on macOS are not indexed on iOS for search purposes. This is a huge oversight imo.

Now that @BBDDVV has pointed out that there is indeed a separate "Caption" field in macOS (not sure how I didn't see that before), I guess I'll just have to go in an copy/paste all my titles into the Caption field as well so that they're searchable in iOS and then re-sync them all. Btw, it's also irrirating that there's no option to display or overlay the title in iOS like there is in macOS.

 

[adrianlondon]

Odd. It works for me every time.

 

[usagora]

Odd. It works for me every time.

Are you sure you're thinking about titles and not captions? Apparently captions sync, but titles don't.

 

[usagora]

Ok, bad news - even if I add a caption to a photo in Photos on macOS, it does not carry over to Photos on iOS, and since it's synced, you can't add the caption from Photos on iOS either (it's "read-only" basically). So I guess there's simply no way to properly search photos synced from the Mac. This is utterly ridiculous. I guess I'll just have to use OneDrive for these photos so I can search them by filename.

 

[jav6454]

Mainly due to the fact that the iPhone auto-names photos as IMG_001, IMG_002 and so on.

 

[usagora]

Mainly due to the fact that the iPhone auto-names photos as IMG_001, IMG_002 and so on.

Ones you take with the phone that are in your "camera roll", yes. But ones synced from my Mac all show a forward slash (/) in place of a filename when I view the info (see bottom screenshot in post 3). In any case, Apple could easily make titles and/or captions sync from your Mac to iPhone, regardless of the filename Photos on iOS assigns it. I have no idea why they don't.

EDIT: Well, I notice when I Airdrop synced photos from iPhone to Mac, they do export with a filename (such as IMG_1196.JPG) even though this filename doesn't show up in the info on iPhone like it does for non-synced photos. But again, this shouldn't matter for searching by title or caption - if the app would simply include those when syncing!

 

[jav6454]

That's why Apple allows you to search by places or faces, but not by file name. It'd be crazy considering there is no true "naming picture" feature. That means, that some people will have the search feature working and others not due to having to rename each picture.

In the end, Apple does features that work for the average Joe.

 

[usagora]

That's why Apple allows you to search by places or faces, but not by file name. It'd be crazy considering there is no true "naming picture" feature. That means, that some people will have the search feature working and others not due to having to rename each picture.

In the end, Apple does features that work for the average Joe.

Ok, forget the filename. You also can't search by title or caption with photos synced from your Mac. I can think of absolutely no good reason why not. So I have about 1200 student photos neatly titled on my Mac that are not searchable by title on iOS. That's ridiculous. Remember, the photo "title" is NOT the filename. So that should sync with Photos on iOS and be searchable, but it's not.

 

[Jim Lahey]

iOS and iPadOS are replete with similar kinds of foibles and incongruous design choices vs. macOS. It’s clear that there needs to be simplification but it sometimes feels as though iPhones & iPads are designed for people who don’t use Macs. I guess the reality is that most consumers probably don’t.

 

[usagora]

iOS and iPadOS are replete with similar kinds of foibles and incongruous design choices vs. macOS. It’s clear that there needs to be simplification but it sometimes feels as though iPhones & iPads are designed for people who don’t use Macs. I guess the reality is that most consumers probably don’t.

I can understand that when it comes to using iOS apps in a standalone fashion, but once they allow syncing with Mac content, this shouldn't be the case. The experience should be fluid, not disparate.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I can understand that when it comes to using iOS apps in a standalone fashion, but once they allow syncing with Mac content, this shouldn't be the case.

Totally agree. Same issues with changing photo album sort orders, or even just custom sorting bookmark lists in Safari. It’s a widespread problem. Or at least it has been for me. It feels like iPad, especially, should run full-fat macOS with a user-switchable GUI layer over the top.

 

[ManuCH]

OK so I just tried this out: if I add a caption on macOS photos, it syncs over to the iPhone via iCloud Photos. The caption can be searched on the iPhone and it also shows under the picture when showing the information. Screenshots attached. It worked right away. Using macOS 12.4 and iOS 15.5.

 

[usagora]

OK so I just tried this out: if I add a caption on macOS photos, it syncs over to the iPhone via iCloud Photos. The caption can be searched on the iPhone and it also shows under the picture when showing the information. Screenshots attached. It worked right away. Using macOS 12.4 and iOS 15.5.

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Well it doesn't work for me. I'll post screenshots tonight. I un-synced an album, added captions on macOS, then re-synced the album. No captions appeared in iOS. I don't use iCloud Photos; I selectively sync them via my Mac, but that shouldn't matter.

 

[ManuCH]

Well it doesn't work for me. I'll post screenshots tonight. I un-synced an album, added captions on macOS, then re-synced the album. No captions appeared in iOS. I don't use iCloud Photos; I selectively sync them via my Mac, but that shouldn't matter.

Oh, I was missing that information. It won't work if syncing from the Mac, inly if you use iCloud Photos.

 

[usagora]

Oh, I was missing that information. It won't work if syncing from the Mac, inly if you use iCloud Photos.

That's the thing - it shouldn't matter. It makes no logical sense. That would be like Apple designing Music on iOS so only Apple Music tracks show track titles, and tracks synced from your Mac show up as track_01, track_02, etc. even though they have titles in macOS. 🤦🏼‍♂️

 

[OhMyMy]

That's the thing - it shouldn't matter. It makes no logical sense. That would be like Apple designing Music on iOS so only Apple Music tracks show track titles, and tracks synced from your Mac show up as track_01, track_02, etc. even though they have titles in macOS. ??‍♂️

This could be due to the “captions” being used by Apple as a tag and maybe not cross-platform. Maybe why they sync via Photos app but while syncing directly to Mac it only syncs standard metadata.
I’m only guessing here. Haven’t used a PC in years to be able to verify that theory.

 

[usagora]

This could be due to the “captions” being used by Apple as a tag and maybe not cross-platform. Maybe why they sync via Photos app but while syncing directly to Mac it only syncs standard metadata.
I’m only guessing here. Haven’t used a PC in years to be able to verify that theory.

Doesn't work with titles either. Not sure how else to do it. In any case, they could easily make it work if they wanted to. I guess until Apple wakes up to this obvious oversight, I will just have to use a cloud-based file-browser app like OneDrive to be able to perform a basic search for a photo ?

 

[jav6454]

Ok, forget the filename. You also can't search by title or caption with photos synced from your Mac. I can think of absolutely no good reason why not. So I have about 1200 student photos neatly titled on my Mac that are not searchable by title on iOS. That's ridiculous. Remember, the photo "title" is NOT the filename. So that should sync with Photos on iOS and be searchable, but it's not.

Then you are within a minority of people. I use albums to organize stuff and it works out fine.

 

[usagora]

Then you are within a minority of people. I use albums to organize stuff and it works out fine.

Just because my situation is different than yours doesn't mean I'm in the minority. I'm sure plenty of people would like the ability to quickly find a specific photo based on a title/caption rather than scroll through hundreds of photos in an album. The fact is, both titles and captions are searchable on Mac, so obviously Apple doesn't consider this some unneeded feature. And captions created for photos on iOS ARE searchable, but not vice versa. That's clearly an oversight on Apple's part.