Using Search Filters

PhotoPrism's powerful search filters let you easily find specific photos and videos, for example:

• People on the photo
• Objects that are displayed on the photo
• The main color of the photo
• The filename or foldername of a photo
• Location where the photo has been taken
• Other metadata such as camera, lens, chroma...

Just give it a try!

Introduction

The following filters can be set via dropdowns in the search toolbar:

• Country, Year, Month, Order, Camera, Color, Category.

If you set multiple filters, only pictures that meet all filter criteria will be displayed in the search result. Filters can generally be combined unless they contradict each other.

In addition, these and many other filters can be entered into the toolbar search box as follows:

label:cat color:green type:live

A complete overview of the available search filters can be found below.

AND Search

To combine different filters use a space as separator:

mono:true review:false

The search result shows pictures that are monochrome and not in review.

Additionally some filters can be combined with & as follows:

keywords:buffalo&water

or:

keywords:"buffalo & water"

This query will show all photos that have the keywords water and buffalo.

& is supported by the following filters:

• albums, keywords, subject/person, subjects/people.

The label filter does not support &. You can use the keywords filter instead, as all labels are keywords as well.

OR Search

An OR search is possible using |:

label:cat|dog

This will show all photos that have either the label cat or dog.

The following filters work with |:

• albums, color, country, state, city, day, month, year, keywords, label, path, subject/person, subjects/people, title, type, name, filename, original, hash

Wildcard

The * character will act as a wildcard:

name:"IMG_23*"

This will show all photos which name start with IMG_23.

name:"*_23*"

This will show all photos which name contain _23, like IMG_2356.MOV , 2021_02_23.jpg, etc.

Wildcards can be combined with & or |: filename:"*IMG123*|*_22F6FC19.jpg"

Filter Reference

This is a complete list of supported search filters with examples. Filters can generally be combined unless they contradict each other, e.g. results cannot be monochrome and have high color saturation at the same time.

Filter	Type	Examples	Notes
dist	decimal	dist:50	Distance to Position (km)
lat	decimal	lat:41.894043	GPS Position (Latitude)
lng	decimal	lng:-87.62448	GPS Position (Longitude)
chroma	number	chroma:70	Chroma (0-100)
diff	number	diff:-1 diff:2	Differential Perceptual Hash (000000-FFFFFF)
quality	number	quality:0 quality:3	Minimum quality score (1-7)
album	string	album:berlin	Album UID or Name, supports * wildcards
albums	string	albums:"South Africa & Birds"	Album Names (combinable with & and |)
alt	string	alt:300-500	GPS Altitude (m)
camera	string	camera:canon	Camera Make/Model Name
category	string	category:airport	Location Category
city	string	city:"Berlin"	Location City (separate with |)
color	string	color:"red|blue"	Color Name (purple, magenta, pink, red, orange, gold, yellow, lime, green, teal, cyan, blue, brown, white, grey, black) (separate with |)
country	string	country:"de|us"	Location Country Code (separate with |)
day	string	day:3|13	Day of Month (1-31, separate with |)
f	string	f:2.8-4.5	Aperture (f-number)
face	string	face:PN6QO5INYTUSAATOFL43LL2ABAV5ACZG	Face ID, yes, no, new, or kind
faces	string	faces:yes faces:3	Minimum number of Faces (yes = 1)
favorite	string	favorite:true favorite:false	Finds images by favorite status
filename	string	filename:"2021/07/12345.jpg"	File Name with path and extension (separate with |)
folder	string	folder:"*/2020"	Path Name (separate with |), supports * wildcards
geo	string	geo:yes	Finds pictures with or without coordinates
hash	string	hash:2fd4e1c67a2d	SHA1 File Hash (separate with |)
id	string	id:123e4567-e89b-...	Finds pictures by Exif UID, XMP Document ID or Instance ID
iso	string	iso:200-400	ISO Number (light sensitivity)
keywords	string	keywords:"sand&water"	Keywords (combinable with & and |)
label	string	label:cat|dog	Label Names (separate with |)
latlng	string	latlng:"name"	GPS Bounding Box (Lat N, Lng E, Lat S, Lng W)
lens	string	lens:ef24	Lens Make/Model Name
mm	string	mm:28-35	Focal Length (35mm equivalent)
month	string	month:7|10	Month (1-12, separate with |)
name	string	name:"IMG_9831-112*"	File Name without path and extension (separate with |)
near	string	near:pqbcf5j446s0futy	Finds nearby pictures (UID)
olc	string	olc:8FWCHX7W+	OLC Position (Open Location Code)
original	string	original:"IMG_9831-112*"	Original file name of imported files (separate with |)
path	string	path:2020/Holiday	Path Name (separate with |), supports * wildcards
people	string	people:"Jane & John"	Subject Names (combinable with & and |)
person	string	person:"Jane Doe & John Doe"	Subject Names, exact matches (combinable with & and |)
s2	string	s2:4799e370ca54c8b9	S2 Position (Cell ID)
scan	string	scan:true scan:false	Finds scanned photos and documents
state	string	state:"Baden-Württemberg"	Location State (separate with |)
subject	string	subject:"Jane Doe & John Doe"	Alias for person
subjects	string	subjects:"Jane & John"	Alias for people
title	string	title:"Lake*"	Title (separate with |)
type	string	type:raw	Media Type (image, video, raw, live, animated); separate with |
uid	string	uid:pqbcf5j446s0futy	Limits results to the specified internal unique IDs
year	string	year:1990|2003	Year (separate with |)
animated	switch	animated:yes	Finds animated GIFs
archived	switch	archived:yes	Finds archived pictures
error	switch	error:yes	Finds pictures with errors
hidden	switch	hidden:yes	Finds hidden pictures (broken or unsupported)
landscape	switch	landscape:yes	Finds pictures in landscape format
live	switch	live:yes	Finds Live Photos and short videos
mono	switch	mono:yes	Finds pictures with few or no colors
panorama	switch	panorama:yes	Finds pictures with an aspect ratio > 1.9:1
photo	switch	photo:yes	Finds only photos, no videos
portrait	switch	portrait:yes	Finds pictures in portrait format
primary	switch	primary:yes	Finds primary JPEG files only
private	switch	private:yes	Finds private pictures
public	switch	public:yes	Excludes private pictures
raw	switch	raw:yes	Finds pictures with RAW image file
review	switch	review:yes	Finds pictures in review
square	switch	square:yes	Finds images with an aspect ratio of 1:1
stack	switch	stack:yes	Finds pictures with more than one media file
stackable	switch	stackable:yes	Finds pictures that can be stacked with additional media files
unsorted	switch	unsorted:yes	Finds pictures not in an album
unstacked	switch	unstacked:yes	Finds pictures with a file that has been removed from a stack
vector	switch	vector:yes	Finds vector graphics only
video	switch	video:yes	Finds video files only
after	timestamp	after:"2022-01-30"	Finds pictures taken after this date
before	timestamp	before:"2022-01-30"	Finds pictures taken before this date

Why can't I play live photos or find stacks when I search for specific images?

Our search API and user interface perform a file search. This is intentional since "stacks" can contain files of different types and properties, such as color.

For example, there may be color and monochrome versions. Now, when you search for them or sort them by color, the user interface must display individual files. Otherwise, the results showing a color image/video when you filter by monochrome would make no sense.

Likewise, if you search for filename.mp4.*, you will find only JPEGs without video, because the video file extension is .mp4 without an extra dot at the end.

We recommend using the path: and/or name: filters with wildcards if searching for individual files limits the search results too much. Most users will want to find all related files so that they can be displayed together, e.g. as live photos consisting of a video and an image.

You can combine these filters with other filters such as live to ensure that the results include only pictures with a specific media type. Alternatively, you can use the filename: filter with a more permissive wildcard that excludes the file extension.