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Using Search Filters

Powerful search filters let you easily find specific photos and videos, for example:

  • Persons visible on a picture
  • Objects that are displayed on a picture
  • The main color of a picture
  • The file or folder name of a picture
  • Location where a picture has been taken
  • Other metadata such as camera, lens, chroma...

Just give it a try!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 Maximum distance to position in km
lat decimal lat:41.894043 Position latitude (-90.0 to 90.0 deg)
lng decimal lng:-87.62448 Position longitude (-180.0 to 180.0 deg)
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 & or |
alt string alt:300-500 Altitude (m)
camera string camera:canon Camera make or model
caption string caption:"Lake*" Searches text in captions separated by |, or specify false to find content without a caption
category string category:airport Location category type
city string city:"Berlin" City names, separated by |
codec string codec:avc1 Media codec types separated by |, e.g. jpeg, avc1, or hvc1
color string color:"red|blue" Color name separated by |, e.g. purple, magenta, pink, red, orange, gold, yellow, lime, green, teal, cyan, blue, brown, white, grey, or black
country string country:"de|us" Country codes, separated by |
day string day:3|13 Days 1-31, separated by |
description string description:"Lake*" Searches text in titles or captions separated by |, or specify false to find content without a title or caption
f string f:2.8-4.5 Aperture (F-Number)
face string face:PN6QO5INYTUSAATOFL43LL2ABAV5ACZG Find pictures with a specific face ID, you can also specify yes, no, new, or a face type
faces string faces:yes faces:3 Minimum number of detected faces (yes means 1)
favorite string favorite:true favorite:false Finds favorite content
filename string filename:"2021/07/12345.jpg" File names including path and extension, separated by |
folder string folder:"*/2020" Alias for the path filter
geo string geo:yes Finds content with or without latitude and longitude
hash string hash:2fd4e1c67a2d SHA1 file hashes, separated by |
id string id:123e4567-e89b-... Finds content with the specified Image, Document or Instance IDs, separated by |
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, separated by |
latlng string latlng:49.4,13.41,46.5,2.331 Position bounding box (Lat N, Lng E, Lat S, Lng W)
lens string lens:ef24 Lens make or model
mm string mm:28-35 Focal length (35mm equivalent)
month string month:7|10 Months from 1-12, separated by |
mp string mp:3-6 Resolution in Megapixels (MP)
name string name:"IMG_9831-112*" File names without path and extension, separated by |
near string near:pqbcf5j446s0futy Finds nearby pictures (UID)
olc string olc:8FWCHX7W+ Open Location Code (OLC)
original string original:"IMG_9831-112*" Original file names of imported files, separated by |
path string path:2020/Holiday Path names separated by |, supports * wildcards
people string people:"Jane & John" Subject names, combinable with & or |
person string person:"Jane Doe & John Doe" Subject names, will be matched exactly and can be combined using & or |
s2 string s2:4799e370ca54c8b9 Position, specified as S2 Cell ID
scan string scan:true scan:false Finds scanned photos and documents
state string state:"Baden-Württemberg" State or province names, separated by |
subject string subject:"Jane Doe & John Doe" Alias for person
subjects string subjects:"Jane & John" Alias for people
title string title:"Lake*" Searches text in titles separated by |, or specify false to find content without a title
type string type:image|raw|live Finds specific media types, such as image, raw, live, video, animated, audio, vector, or document, separated by |
uid string uid:pqbcf5j446s0futy Finds content with the specified internal UIDs, separated by |
year string year:1990|2003 Years, separated by |
animated switch animated:yes Finds animated images only
archived switch archived:yes Finds archived content
audio switch audio:yes Finds audio content only
document switch document:yes Finds PDF documents only
error switch error:yes Finds content with errors
hidden switch hidden:yes Finds hidden content (broken or unsupported)
image switch image:yes Finds regular photos and images only
landscape switch landscape:yes Finds landscape pictures only
live switch live:yes Finds Motion and Live Photos only
media switch media:yes Finds live, video, audio, and animated content only
mono switch mono:yes Pictures with few or no colors
panorama switch panorama:yes Finds panorama pictures only (aspect ratio 1.9:1 or more)
photo switch photo:yes Finds regular photos and images, as well as RAW and Live Photos
portrait switch portrait:yes Finds portrait pictures only
primary switch primary:yes Finds primary JPEG or PNG files only
private switch private:yes Finds private content
public switch public:yes Excludes private content
raw switch raw:yes Finds RAW images only
review switch review:yes Finds content in review
square switch square:yes Finds square pictures only (aspect ratio 1:1)
stack switch stack:yes Finds content with more than one media file
stackable switch stackable:yes Finds content that can be stacked with additional files
unsorted switch unsorted:yes Finds content that is not in an album
unstacked switch unstacked:yes Finds content with a file that has been removed
vector switch vector:yes Finds vector graphics only
video switch video:yes Finds video content only
added timestamp added:"2006-01-02T15:04:05Z" Finds content added at or after this time
after timestamp after:"2022-01-30" Finds content created on or after this date
before timestamp before:"2022-01-30" Finds content created on or before this date
edited timestamp edited:"2006-01-02T15:04:05Z" Finds content edited at or after this time
taken timestamp taken:"2022-01-30" Finds content created on the specified date
updated timestamp updated:"2006-01-02T15:04:05Z" Finds content updated at or after this time

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.