Photos App Search Bar Doesn't Include Album Titles

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Level 1

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Photos App Search Bar Doesn't Include Album Titles

When I search for an album title I do not get the results. Only other results like categories, items, people, locations, etc. Brand new photo album I created doesn't display the title when searching (i.e. Christmas 2018 album) nothing found. Not even Christmas 2017, 2016, 1996, nothing. Only "Christmas Trees", "Christmas Lights", "Christmas Gifts", etc. which are NOT album titles in my library.

It's like they're not indexed or something.

I was getting some album results when searching, then I repaired my library. Now I'm getting none.

Photos v.4.0 on macOS10.14.3 beta

Posted on Jan 5, 2019 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Jan 5, 2019 1:12 PM in response to MikeA05899

Have you entered the full name of the album into the search field?

Photos 4.0 is showing me all albums as a search result, when I ener the complete album name, for standard albums as well as for smart albums.

Is your Christmas 2018 album a standard album? Then make a test and craete a smart album with the rule "Album is ...". Can you select the Christmas 2018 album as an album in the smart album rules?

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Jan 6, 2019 2:13 AM in response to MikeA05899

Then try to recreate one of the legacy iPhoto Events albums this way, but outside the iPhoto Events folder. Does it then show up in the search field?

The iPhoto Events albums have been treated special in some way, and in the early versions of Photos they have been erratic, when moved out of the iPhoto Events folder.

I cannot test with iPhoto Events any longer, because I deleted them all.

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Answer 3

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 5, 2019 4:55 PM in response to léonie

Yes to all. I have 704 standard albums (relics from when iPhoto had "Events")

I am able to create a smart album with "Album is _____" with no problem. The contents of the original album automatically showed up in the smart album.

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Answer 4

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2019 6:11 AM in response to léonie

I'm not exactly sure how to do that. Do I need to install an old version of iPhoto? Is that possible on Mojave?

What is weird, is that yesterday I was able to get search results for some of my albums, but after I repaired the iPhoto library, I cannot anymore.

Do you think it has anything to do with indexing and/or Spotlight? I also have Alfred running. I'd imagine that Photos app has it's own searchable database that Spotlight and Alfred don't get into.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

200,651 points

Jan 6, 2019 6:50 AM in response to MikeA05899

I'm not exactly sure how to do that. Do I need to install an old version of iPhoto? Is that possible on Mojave?

What is weird, is that yesterday I was able to get search results for some of my albums, but after I repaired the iPhoto library, I cannot anymore.

Now i am confused. Are you currently running iPhoto or Photos? Because you keep mentioning iPhoto.

iPhoto 9.6.1 is still running on Mojave, but it cannot help with Photos for Mac.

What I meant is the following - just to test, if you can create working copies of the iPhoto Event albums:

Create a folder "New iPhoto Events"
Inside this folder create the smart album with the rule "Album is <the name of one of your iPhoto Event albums>"
Now select all photos in this new smart album at once with ⌘A
Enter the key combination ⌘N (this will create a new album from the selection in the folder that you are currently viewing). Name the album slightly different from the original, perhaps aadd a suffix New.
Quit Photos to force it to index the albums and launch it again.
Now try to search for the new album.

Can Photos find the new album, that you created outside of the iPhoto events folder?

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Answer 6

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2019 7:04 AM in response to léonie

Ok I actually just tested your method from your directions above and yes - it worked. I am able to search for the new albums (which were created from Smart Albums). I did this for OLD pictures from when I had iPhoto and new pictures that I just imported the other day. It worked both ways.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

215,784 points

Jan 6, 2019 11:21 AM in response to MikeA05899

I am running Photos 4.0 on Mojave. I don't have iPhoto any longer.

Photos doesn't support "Events" like iPhoto did to my understanding so I'm not really sure how to create a new "Event"

This might be of interest to you: Moments in Photos are the New Events

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Answer 8

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2019 12:04 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks for that link. It's a good refresher on some things I haven't thought about in a few years since iPhoto went by the wayside.

Couple of things here...

All of my albums are already in a folder titled "My Albums". Not searchable. I created a new folder within "My Albums" titled "iPhoto Events" and moved an existing album into "iPhoto Events" - not searchable. I am not able to create any folders OUTSIDE of "My albums" folder. Only within.
I don't like Moments, because they are generated by Photos and I don't believe you can adjust any of the parameters on what is included like you can with albums. For example I have photos of my son in 1st grade throughout the entire year. They might be taken in school, on a field trip, or downloaded from Facebook while I'm at work - all with different dates. How would Moments know that they are all part of "1st Grade"?
Still doesn't explain why some albums were searchable the other day and after a library repair they are not - all with the same folder/album structure I've had for years.

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Answer 9

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2019 6:58 AM in response to léonie

I am running Photos 4.0 on Mojave. I don't have iPhoto any longer.

Photos doesn't support "Events" like iPhoto did to my understanding so I'm not really sure how to create a new "Event"

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Answer 10

MikeA05899 Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 6, 2019 7:07 AM in response to MikeA05899

Just deleted the folder of the new albums I made using your method, and tried to search for the same album titles (from the original albums and no results :(

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Photos App Search Bar Doesn't Include Album Titles

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