Photo search does not give results (on both iPhone and on Macbook Pro)

Update:

It got sorted out after 2 days (I have about 12K photos and 500 videos imported)

Key things were:

• on Macbook to close Photos app fully, it indexes things when Macbook is in idle and Photos app is closed (app should not be in background, fully closed), I did the same on iPhone to be sure, but seems that search indexing is in sync between devices
• give it day or two after all the import is done (Automatic Google Takeout to iCloud import took 24h, slow but so simple and all went well, all metas, photos/videos appear in iCloud, simple automated process)

Has to be closed fully, since it was in the background whole day and nothing happened until now when I closed it. As for iPhone, seems most indexing happens on Mac, who knows.

Pity that there is no some "index" button, so it is clear what is going on.

Alright, thanks a lot. I think the key was to quit Photos app, something is going on now. I will write update tomorrow. hope it gets settled soon.

Thanks for the reply.

• I used export from Google Photos library directly to iCloud Photos, this new feature on Google takeout website that automatically exports all the photos to iCloud. Worked well and finished all.

• On iPhone I use ""Optimized Storage" on Macbook I do not since it has 2TB storage. (photos are like 40GB)
• Yes, on all devices I now sync photos with iCloud Photos sync turned on
• One day passed, not sure how much to wait and why, since all photos are imported. There is no any progress/process indicating that indexing is going on, on Google Photos all worked right when I used it before.

[Edited by Moderator]

Ok, I will close Photos app, or keep it in background - not sure where and when this indexing takes place, iPhone or Macbook, where does iCloud performs it, faces detection, object detection, location etc... Hope this search data is global thing, not devices specific.

As for "worked well", I see all the photos imported and got email from both Google and Apple that import completed fully - I see all the meta data is in each photo, dates are correct, all is there etc... What do you mean to transfer photos from another source. All my photos were in Google Photos, I moved them over to iCloud fully.

I will give it a go for a few weeks, if not good, going back to Google Photos which worked well. One more downside, iCloud website does not have search feature for photos, but I can live with that.

Yes, Macbook is the best to manage them, that is why I did import - just search does not work yet. Let me see overnight if some indexing happens.

EDIT: Actually I see some progress - are you sure this search indexing is independent per device, does not sound right to me.

Just now searched for "dog" again, and results are the same on both iPhone and Macbook. I get 145 results, before it was 35 (existing photos). Seems indexing found some pets. Ok, good sign... Just it is way too slow. I will be more patient.