Unable to search in my 'Photos App' after new update

Below procedure worked for me so try this:

“The detection process requires iPhone to be locked and connected to power. Depending on what tasks are running in the background and the size of your photo library, the process could happen quickly or take up to a few days to complete”

I was wirelessly charging my iPhone 16 Pro for over 2 weeks and the photo search function still wasn’t working. After coming accross the above information, I used my usbc charging cable and physically charged the phone overnight twice in a row, the search function started working the next morning. So I guess the phone does require to be physically connected to power in order for the phone to learn your large photo library. Hope this helps.

Just to let you know, I tried searching for "Pumpkin" on my iPhone 12 with iOS 18, and I got a bunch of pumpkins, (and a newspaper clipping about my wife's mother's Halloween party I had scanned from her "Baby Book.") So the search works, but not for you for some reason. It took a few days for it to start work for me after the update-- how long have you been waiting?

Have you tried a forced re-start?

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

I'm starting to get used to the changes-- they're not as bad as I thought at first…

Exactly🤦🏻‍♀️ I called Apple support they said wait 48 hrs after update & photos will be done re indexing and all should work. I certainly hope so!

Hi All. After my last reply some mos ago today I found this to work for me.

1. Back up Iphone
2. Do hard Reset
3. Reset location privacy
4. Do hard reset
5. i then done the Rest Location Privacy again and now it searches fir everything I type in.
6. The other advice the site said was to leave iPhone locked and power from usb attached and leave all night to Index.

hopes it helps you guys.

big H 👍

Hi All. After my last reply some mos ago today I found this to work for me.

1. Back up Iphone
2. Do hard Reset
3. Reset location privacy
4. Do hard reset
5. i then done the Rest Location Privacy again and now it searches fir everything I type in.
6. The other advice the site said was to leave iPhone locked and power from usb attached and leave all night to Index.

hopes it helps you guys.

big H 👍

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out in the Apple Community. I understand you're frustrated with the search function in your Photos app since the latest update. It can be annoying when a feature you rely on changes unexpectedly.

First, let's make sure we're on the same page.

Could you clarify which update you're referring to? Knowing your iOS version will help me give you the most accurate advice.

Let's try a few things to get that search working again:

• Restart your device.
• Check for Photos app updates in the App Store.
• Make sure iCloud Photos is enabled and fully synced.
• Rebuild your Photos library (but back up your photos first!). You can find instructions on Apple's support website.

If that doesn't help, tell me more about what happens when you try to search. Any error messages? Does the search bar show up? Can you search by date or location?

I'll do my best to help you get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, remember that Apple's official support channels can provide further assistance if needed.

Thank you.

The feedback form isn’t even updated to allow us to indicate we’re using iOS 18.2!

We should encourage everyone with this problem to feedback to Apple. This was a great feature. Thank you Richard for posting the link.

here it is again:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

After waiting for the indexing of my library to complete, the search mentioned in the original post for "pumpkin" is now giving good results.

At least it is finding related vegetables, a picture of a pumpkin patch and a jack-o-lantern. It is just very inconvenient, that there are no longer separate results for Text and categories.

Yep that's the first thing I noticed after updating unfortunately since I used that on the daily, especially the "saved from" filter. I updated my phone a few days ago and my ipad a few months ago - it works like normal on the ipad but doesn't seem to work at all on my phone. So I suppose it comes with time - which is weird because it seems like each new device has to catalogue your entire camera roll again.

When we want to search for a caption we can no longer search for a phrase that is somewhere inside the caption, as the second word of the caption or later. We have to type the search phrase from the beginning, including the first word.

For example, I wanted to find a photo tagged "Der Hase" (in German). When I only searched for "Hase" Photos did not show the photo with the caption including the word "Hase". Instead it has shown me pictures of hares, rabbits, foxes, rock hyraxes, photos taken at locations with "Hase" in the name, etc., but not the any photo with "hase" in the title, caption, or keywords.

But searching for "Der Hase" presented the photo in question instantly.

We now have to make sure, that the catch phrases we may want to use in a search are the first word of the caption.

I have same issue then was working an hour ago and now even if search same query that did work just get the message “Photos is analysing your library to provide accurate search results” it’s obviously a bug that Apple needs to fix as this never happened before

I am on the same page as most of the posts I’ve seen in this thread - VERY FRUSTRATED with the changes to the “search” function on iPhone photos. I used to be able to type in.. snake or.. dog.. and any and all pictures that might have a snake or a dog or whatever.. in them would populate.

However, NOW if I type in search terms the only pictures that populate are photos with text in them that have the exact search word/term in them.

It is a HUGE step backwards in functionality.

Actually, I forgot to add that while the general layout of iPhotos is also a step backwards in functionality and usability - also there is some disconnect with the ALBUMS as well.. I have a TON of photos in iCloud (80k) and I generally only access them through the phone. I break a lot of these photos down into a dozen or so assorted albums, that now, don’t always populate unless I take additional steps and dive “deeper” into photos app.

Again, not great Apple.

léonie wrote: … We now have to make sure, that the catch phrases we may want to use in a search are the first word of the caption.

Man, that's crazy!

Going here, now:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

I also can no longer search properly on my IPhone 13. I am attempting to search captions on photos. Specific search is for the word “Praymates”. While it finds this specific phrase, it does not return all captions that INCLUDE the word “Praymates”. Until recently, the behavior for search has been an include rather than specific. Seems to me that it is a coding error.

I am now using IOS 18.1. There are no Photos app updates that are not installed.