Finding pictures with tags without using photos

Question

Level 1

4 points

Finding pictures with tags without using photos

Hi there,

to organize my pictures I don't use photos but have my own file structure. But I was enthusiastic when I discovered the tagging option. So I tagged my pictures, hoping that I could find them afterwards by typing the tag-name in the search bar.

Now it turned out, I can find files (like pages, pdf or number files) using this method but all my pictures are not shown. I can type, press on the tags in the finder nothing shows. I checked the pics again, the tags are shown if you look at them in the finder.

Any ideas why this happens?

Thanks a lot for your suggestions!

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Mar 30, 2016 3:41 AM

Reply

Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

124,310 points

Mar 30, 2016 4:21 AM in response to Bathida

Have you tried the following, either in Spotlight, or the Finder window search, where you omit the brackets, and substitute your various tag names (e.g. blue, Pages '09, Important). Take advantage of the Finder View menu : Show Path Bar to see the filesystem path to the found file by clicking on it.

tag:[tag name]

kind:image name:.jpg tag:red

In System Preferences : Spotlight panel, I have all of the Search Results items checked.

Reply

Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

136,481 points

Mar 30, 2016 4:39 AM in response to Bathida

Try re-indexing Spotlight

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

edit: FWIW, you should be able to click on the tag in the Sidebar or just type the tag name in Finder search and a drop down menu will appear.

Reply

Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,948 points

Mar 30, 2016 5:51 AM in response to Bathida

Are they on an external drive? If so, is it indexed with Spotlight?

Reply

Answer 4

Bathida Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 30, 2016 8:12 AM in response to Bathida

Thanks a lot guys for your suggestions.

I found the problem by trying them - even though it was something entirely different. I couldn't just search for tags in the spotlight but had to change the display options. It still is a little unclear to me what exactly happened that it didn't show me the pics but other files but now it is solved. Thank you for your very quick responses!

Reply