Can't find all the photos I want when I use a proper name.

Having trouble when I search for my photos of an ancestor named Lena. When I search for LENA I get a few of the right photos. When I search using LEN I get ALL of the photos I want (plus some I don't––Lenna, Lenexa, Ellen. Same thing happens with PEARL. I have to spell it PEAR to get all the photos I want of this other relative (plus a few photos I don't want of pear trees). And FERN. I spell it fully and I get 2 of my photos of this person. I spell it FER and I get all 8. This seems so weird. I have the full names of these people spelled out in the titles. This did not happen with the old iPhoto program. I just updated recently to Sequoia 15.1. Using MacBook Air.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Jan 9, 2025 6:27 PM

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4 replies

Jan 12, 2025 6:34 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

I'm using the General Search Field. After receiving your reply I tried the search Title Includes Lena and it gave me every photo I needed--even though Lena did not appear in some of the photo titles. As long as Lena was somewhere in the photo information, the search yielded all the photos I wanted. So I'll keep using "Title includes . . ." and hopefully that will work every time. I still don't know why a search for a partial name "Len" rather than "Lena" gives me all the Lena photos (plus many I don't want), but Lena alone does not, but now I have a way around that. Thank you, Richard.Taylor.

Jan 12, 2025 7:54 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you. Absolutely I can add names to the Keyword box. I have not had to do that before. The names I am searching are in two other locations––title, and description of photos. Apple seems to have changed something because, before, I could put in the full first name and get the photos I want. Now, I have to stop short of spelling the whole name––like Len, rather than Lena, or Pear rather than Pearl to get all of the photos to come up. Seems like an odd quirk to me and I'm hoping someone else has noticed this.

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Can't find all the photos I want when I use a proper name.

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