Wrong results from multiple keyword search

Question

DanSuiter Author

Level 1

15 points

Wrong results from multiple keyword search

I'm new to Photos.

I've just started to gather digital photos from various places (iPhone, iPad, multiple laptops, etc).

I'm willing to go through the effort to tag each picture using keywords in Photo.

However, with a small amount of pictures tagged, I'm getting incorrect search results when using multiple keywords.

I've avoided using spaces in keywords (Magic Kingdom = MagicKingdom, Minnie Mouse = MinnieMouse, etc).

Is there anything that I need to be doing to update some picture-to-keyword database?

Thanks

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12), null

Posted on Oct 12, 2016 8:25 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,699 points

Oct 12, 2016 8:49 AM in response to DanSuiter

In what way are the results wrong? Too many photos found, or too many false positives?

The best way to search for multiple keywords is a smart album with a rule for each keyword, combined by "All" or "Any", depending on how you want to conbine the keywords.

Sometimes the keyword results may be wrong, if you defined the same keyword multiple times, with a different capitalisation. Check the keywords in the Keyword Manager: Window > Keyword Manager, then click "Edit Keywords" and check if you need to renname or merge keywords.

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Answer 2

DanSuiter Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 12, 2016 9:47 AM in response to léonie

In my case, there are not enough returned to match the keyword/combination.

I have checked the keyword manager - that's where I removed the spaces from the keywords (after a few web searches pointed to that as a possible issue...)

Thanks

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Answer 3

DanSuiter Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 12, 2016 10:06 AM in response to DanSuiter

Additionally - I have entered keywords for pictures in 3 different ways...

1) typing them while on the Get Info popup

2) cut and past from one to another (Get Info) popups

3) selecting keywords from the keyword manager when a picture is highlighted

not sure if that make a difference or not....

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

200,699 points

Oct 12, 2016 10:21 AM in response to DanSuiter

In my case, there are not enough returned to match the keyword/combination.

Are you searching with a smart album or by typing the keyword combination into the search field?

Which version of OS X are you running?

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Answer 5

DanSuiter Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 12, 2016 11:16 AM in response to léonie

I am typing the keywords in to the search field.

I want to have great flexibility in the types of searches I do and don't really want to create a lot of smart albums

I'm on macOS Sierra

may not be possible, but I wanted to check....

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Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

200,699 points

Oct 12, 2016 11:26 AM in response to DanSuiter

The search field has never worked reliably in Photos. It is a bit better in Sierra.

If you type two keywords into the search field, the result should be a list of all photos having both keywords. But the search for keywords will not be case sensitive. If you have the same keyword written with different cases all variants of this keyword will qualify.

For me it is working well, if I pick the the result with "Keyword keyword" from the list of search results:

For example, searching for the photos with both keywords "Lighthouse" and "Mirrorlake" will find the six photos I have been looking for:

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