Photos search doesn't work

You know, Julia, I was so convinced that I knew what I was saying (and excited when léonie showed how wrong I was) that we never attempted to address you problem. Really sorry!

How long has it been since you loaded the library onto the new Mac? (Sometimes it takes some time to build the database.) Are you using iCloud?

The first things I'd try are these:

• Restart the computer (of course)
• Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon.
• Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it
• Use another library if you have one, or make a small test Library with a few pictures with locations in it and see if the search fails in the new library.
• Start in Safe Mode (different for different computers) This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes.

          Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 

The idea is to find out if the problem is with the Library, with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work is also diagnostic.

Let us know....

After you upgrade to a new system version, Photos needs to scan the library again for locations. This may take a while.

On Ventura, I can search for specific places, but searching for cities or countries does not always work.

I get search results for Stonehenge, for example:

Also some results for New York:

In both cases there are specific locations including the name of the city.

But when I search for "Helsinki" the results are poor I can only find the Airport or the photos I tagged with Helsinki in the Title or keyword:

You may want to search for the name of a place or street, and then use the command "Show photos nearby" for one of the search results.

As far as I know, you can't use the search box in Photos to retrieve pictures by location. I'm not sure about earlier versions, but the thing is, it sounds hard. Would you use latitude and longitude? Is Manhattan the same as New York? State or city? How big a radius? Perhaps that's why location is not a search condition in a Smart Album.

I have certainly wanted to search by location, and for that I've used the map in the Places View. If I want pictures from Bayou Teche in Louisiana, for example, I can scoot the map over there and zoom in, and I find there are pictures from Breaux Bridge, New Iberia, St Martinville, and other places on the Bayou. But could the Teche be a location? I'm just wondering how it would work, since location might have multiple meanings.

You use the phrase "location keyword," and that's a great idea-- I add a keyword to pictures to identify general location. For travel, I may include the general location in the title, as well. So I can search for Coventry, because that's in the keyword list of some Photos. I can go to Louisiana, zoom so that all the Bayou Teche pictures are together, select them all, and add the keyword BayouTeche. Then I can use the search box or a Smart Album to find all the pictures from that location.

By golly, you're right! I had thought that correct results, when I got them, were always because of keywords I had used. But it does work based on location. Now I'm irritated that Location isn't a choice in Smart Albums!

Tell Apple what missing features you'd like restored or new features added in Photos via Feedback - Photos - Apple