Search photos

Semantic, natural language search on Copilot+ PCs

For users on Windows 11 on Copilot+ PCs, you can now easily find your photos by simply describing what you're looking for, in your own words. For example, type "sunset at the beach" or "family time" into the search bar, and Photos will look through your photo collection and show matching results.

Semantic search works with any photos stored locally on your device that have been indexed. Learn more about semantic indexing on Copilot+ PCs here including supported languages and file types.

Note that no biometric data is collected, processed, or stored for using the semantic search feature, even if your photos include humans or faces.

Location search 

You can search for photos based on the locations (e.g., city, state, country) where they were taken. 

To turn on the Location Search feature for the first time:

• Click on the search bar at the top of the Photos app

• When prompted to enable location based features, select Allow

To search photos by location:

• Enter the location into the search bar 

• Relevant results will be displayed

To turn on/off Location Search at any point in time:

• Select Settings in the top right corner of the Photos app

• Under Personalization, toggle the Enable Location Based Features​​​​​​​

Name, Date, and File Type search 

You can also search your photos by entering the file name, date on which photo is taken, or file type (e.g., PNG, JPEG).