Search photos by text

Text search finds photos by meaning, not by file name. Type “a red bike by the sea” and Kura-chan ranks photos by how well their actual contents match.

Before you begin

• Prepare your photos first in Preferences. Only prepared photos can be searched.
• Search is a paid feature. It isn’t available on the free plan.

Search

1. Open Photos → Library and click Search photos in the top-right.

2. Type a description into the search box — for example “sunset at the beach”, “a dog on the sofa”.

3. Results are ranked by similarity, with the closest photos first. Next to the search box you’ll see how many photos are currently searchable.

Write better search terms

• Describe the scene, objects, and colors rather than guessing the file name.
• Mentioning a named person (see Recognize people) also brings up their photos.
• Start broad, then add detail — “cake” → “birthday cake with candles”.

Troubleshooting

• No photos found, or it says some photos aren’t prepared. Open Preferences and run Prepare all remaining, or turn on Auto-prepare.
• The search box is greyed out / prompts to upgrade. Search is a paid feature and needs a plan upgrade.
• Videos don’t show up. Videos aren’t prepared, so they never appear in results.

For the full guide, see Dashboard: Search photos.