Photos: can I search them by the IMG_xxxx.HEIC

I am getting mixed results, when searching for the image number. The results are lightly better, when I omit the filename extension and search only for IMG_0200, but Photos will usually only find some of the photos, but not all.

The reason may be, that Photos is renaming the photos internally with unique file specifiers and the original filename is not always available for the search.

léonie wrote:…I am getting mixed results,

On my phone, search for IMG_6118 or IMG_6118.HEIC is No Results.

On my Mac, search for IMG_6118 results in

It knows the picture exists, knows it has an extension of HEIC, but doesn't show the picture. Weird.

Other pictures do seem to work on the Mac. "mixed results"

My mixed results are depending on the year.

I can find all photos taken with my older iPhone models (depending on the model or the date they have been taken), up to 2022, but none taken with my current iPhone 15 Pro Max.

For example: The iPhone is finding the photos taken in 2008 and 2019, the Mac is finding also the photos taken in 2023,2024, and 2025.