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Is searching for multiple keywords separated by a space in OSX Photos disabled?

According to "https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/find-photos-by-keyword-pht8d0ad5198/mac",

"You can type multiple words separated by a space to search for multiple keywords"


However on my MacBook Pro OSX v11.2.3, if i search for

brides brazil


I get no results. However if I search for "brides" or "brazil" separately, I get results under the "keywords" section


Is this a bug?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 25, 2021 2:53 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 30, 2021 12:16 AM

The section title "Keywords" is not always shown when I am searching for keywords in the current version of Photos 6.

I am seeing the separate titles for the search result only when searching for a single keyword, not when searching for more than one. The same goes for the categories or titles.


Testing with the keyword "Bird" and "Lighthouse":

Searching for "Lighthouse" or "Bird"separately I am seeing a structured search result with captions, titles, keywords, categories:


Searching for the two keywords combined, I am only getting the "Moments" and Photos", no further structure.


But I can easily filter this result further or filter any album or view with the "Showing" filter.

Setting "Showing only" to "Bird" and "Lighthouse will show the photos with both keywords:


The Filter is showing the keywords of the quick group in the Keywords Browser. I have added my most frequently used keywords to this Quick Group. The Filter is particularly powerful, when filtering a smart album. This way we can combine "Match Any" and "Match All" constraints.


13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 30, 2021 12:16 AM in response to Doc Crumble

The section title "Keywords" is not always shown when I am searching for keywords in the current version of Photos 6.

I am seeing the separate titles for the search result only when searching for a single keyword, not when searching for more than one. The same goes for the categories or titles.


Testing with the keyword "Bird" and "Lighthouse":

Searching for "Lighthouse" or "Bird"separately I am seeing a structured search result with captions, titles, keywords, categories:


Searching for the two keywords combined, I am only getting the "Moments" and Photos", no further structure.


But I can easily filter this result further or filter any album or view with the "Showing" filter.

Setting "Showing only" to "Bird" and "Lighthouse will show the photos with both keywords:


The Filter is showing the keywords of the quick group in the Keywords Browser. I have added my most frequently used keywords to this Quick Group. The Filter is particularly powerful, when filtering a smart album. This way we can combine "Match Any" and "Match All" constraints.


Apr 9, 2021 2:31 AM in response to léonie

For example:

I have defined hierarchical keywords for countries and continents:

eg., Asia, Asia_Nepal, Asia_China, Europe, Europe_France, Europe_Germany.

A picture taken in France will have the keyword Europe_France, a picture taken Germany the keyword "Europe_Germany", but not the keyword "Europe"

When I set the filter to "Europe", Photos will show the photos with the keywords "Europe_France" and "Europe_Germany", even if the keyword "Europe" has not been applied.


The screenshot is showing, that the Filter is set to"Europe". No photo has this keyword, but the filter produces a photo with the keyword "Europe: France" and a photo with the keyword "Europe_Germany".

When I select both photos together, the Info and the Keyword Manager are showing, that "Europe: France" and "Europe_Germany" are set. It seems, with the Filter we can search for hierarchical keywords, if the keywords are starting with the less specific, joint category.


Apr 9, 2021 12:23 AM in response to léonie

Thank you! Altho I shouldn't have click "solved" yet, I still have a question...


First, I complicated my test results by sometimes typing "brides" instead of "bride"... (!!!) Apologies! (the keyword is "bride")


Second, the other issue was caused by the library owner having applied the keyword "Brazil Bride" in addition to "Brazil" and "Bride". Having "Brazil Bride" as a used keyword resulted in a search for Brazil Bride ONLY finding photos with that 2-word keyword.


But I was able to get it to display: photos with both single-word keywords AS WELL AS photos with the 1 two-word keyword this by putting quotation marks around the desired keywords, OR reversing their order without quotation marks:

"Brazil" "Bride" OR Bride Brazil BUT NOT: Brazil Bride

Then it finds keywords with all 3 kinds of keywords ["Brazil" AND "Bride"] OR ["Brazil Bride"]


OR I could simply remove the keyword "Brazil Bride" from all photos.



So am I correct in assuming that the claim "You can type multiple words separated by a space to search for multiple keywords" ONLY if those multiple words do NOT form a phrase that's also being used as a multi-word keyword?


Also, If I can't know which combination of words a future user of this library will use in keyword searches, should I AVOID creating a combo-keyword ("Brazil Bride" or "Bride Brazil") as a keyword - Instead I should use "Bride" and "Brazil"?


Lastly, Is there a way to search for a UNION of keywords rather than an intersection?


Thx!

Apr 9, 2021 1:36 AM in response to Doc Crumble

When I need a keyword consisting of two words, I am always writing them with an underscore instead of a space, for example "Brazil_Bride". It has the advantage, that the keywords will be correctly exported, when we export a photo with keywords. Otherwise the combined keyword may be exported as two keywords.

This used to work in the earlier versions of Photos, but in Photos 6 on Big Sur there is a problem with the filter, when I am using keywords of two words. It is still working in Smart Albums, but the filter will show results for the keyword "Brazil_Brides" as well, when I am filtering for the keyword "Brazil". I would have to write the keyword as "BrazilBrides" to avoid to have it recognised as "Brazil".

On the other hand, it comes in handy as a substitute for hierarchical keywords.

Is searching for multiple keywords separated by a space in OSX Photos disabled?

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