Author Topic: Any way to search your own drive by metadata? (Read 8042 times)

Fatmanphoto · « **on:** September 29, 2019, 15:20 »

Hi,

my workflow means that I have for years bunged processed photos into folders by Year/Month.

It is a real pain to try and find a particular image when I nee to grab one. Then the other day it occurred to me that EVERY ONE HAS METADATA. Like what our potential clients use.

So it seems a no brainer to be able to use metadata search to locate ones I need.

However a Google seems to show that if your files are on Onedrive or similar, you can search by metadata, there seems to be no solution for ones saved locally.

Is anyone out there able to search local files by Metadata? And if so how do you do it?

Cheers,

Andy

philopenshaw · « **Reply #1 on:** September 29, 2019, 17:15 »

Windows 8 and 10 does it if you have indexing turned on, press the windows key and w together then type 'indexing' 0to configure it. On mac OSX it shpuld do it by default when you type word combinations into the search.

charged · « **Reply #2 on:** September 29, 2019, 17:41 »

If you are on a Mac, as far as I know spotlight (command + space) knows the metadata on all your files, because it has pre-indexed them. So just use spot light to search for what you are looking for.

Else use Adobe Bridge. Navigate to the parent folder of all your photos. Then go to the menu, view > show items from subfolders. Then this will load ALL your images, could take a while if you have a lot. Once loaded go to the top right corner of Bridge app and look for the search bar. Make sure it is set to BRIDGE SEARCH CURRENT FOLDER. Then type in your search. This part might be quick, because Bridge has either finished indexing your images or it is going through them now. At some point Bridge will return the images you searched for.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #3 on:** September 30, 2019, 12:16 »

Wow what a great question and I never thought of trying that, or maybe i just never looked. When I have some more peaceful days, I'll start the 8T drive that I use for backup and see what happens. I suspect I already have indexing on, but if not, that would be good.

By the way, I have filed by year and month and events, but I still can't always find things, because I'd have to remember what year, and some events happen year after year, with the same location and name.

Perseids for example?

DallasP · « **Reply #4 on:** September 30, 2019, 13:56 »

uh ... yup ...

georgep7 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 01, 2019, 01:11 »

Here is an odd semi-offtopic answer.

Guess applies to starters with not at all ports or newbies with small ports like me.
edit (and requires a lot of time actually, I have tried and dropped it quite a few times... TBH)

Adding everything on a local wordpress installation and creating an offline site.
EDIT 2, local to save online hosting fees and all theme, CSS, or Commerse plugins usage etc restrictions that require e.g. a business plan ($25/month).

Assuming you do this, you get a cool instant browsing catalogue of all work with hot links to agencies selling the specific items,
image / video previews, applied categories, ratings, tables, monthly posts with self-reports and full title / description / keyword search.

In a laptop plus a fast external hdd is a really customizable and everyday upgraded portfolio to present to a customer or associate in person.
I mean full high res work without the option to get content hijacked or ending up to the wrong hands.

Using a web spider software (if media watermarked) you can also make an up to date static mirror and zip send as sampling or portfolio.

You can also just brag to friends and family if they don't observe the 127.0.0.1 starting web address...

Back to serious talking: Plus a (just a mind -relief not actual) possibility to bring site to life and try to sell online if everything else goes wrong...

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #6 on:** October 03, 2019, 10:45 »

Quote from: philopenshaw on September 29, 2019, 17:15

Windows 8 and 10 does it if you have indexing turned on, press the windows key and w together then type 'indexing' 0to configure it. On mac OSX it shpuld do it by default when you type word combinations into the search.

Alright I'm slow but I'm finally on my desktop. Go over that again? I hold the windows key and W and get Windows Ink Space. I look in explorer and I see nothing that says search Metadata but if I search for (example two words I know are in the iptc data) "orange flower" I get no matches.

Please tell me what I'm doing wrong. No I don't have Adobe cloud software, I still use Adobe Elements and although I have the last version of Lightroom, I don't want to index 8T of photos.

Probably have some PS stand alone around here somewhere.

But if Windows does this and yes I have indexing on and I don't want to go through some project? How do I search metadata based on my already indexed hard drives?

Lets see, I added E:, I checked file types (all image types were already included) I added properties and data, it was just set for properties. This could be really useful.

Thanks

cascoly · « **Reply #7 on:** October 03, 2019, 13:14 »

Quote

But if Windows does this and yes I have indexing on and I don't want to go through some project? How do I search metadata based on my already indexed hard drives?

open a folder eg /this pc/pictures and enter search term in upper right

MotionDesign · « **Reply #8 on:** October 03, 2019, 15:13 »

win 10 search, or adobe bridge (i use the latter)

hatman12 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 03, 2019, 23:37 »

Quote from: cascoly on October 03, 2019, 13:14

Quote
But if Windows does this and yes I have indexing on and I don't want to go through some project? How do I search metadata based on my already indexed hard drives?

open a folder eg /this pc/pictures and enter search term in upper right

This is the correct and excellent answer.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #10 on:** October 07, 2019, 10:56 »

Quote from: hatman12 on October 03, 2019, 23:37

Quote from: cascoly on October 03, 2019, 13:14
Quote
But if Windows does this and yes I have indexing on and I don't want to go through some project? How do I search metadata based on my already indexed hard drives?

open a folder eg /this pc/pictures and enter search term in upper right

This is the correct and excellent answer.

Does that search metadata? Mine doesn't, or I'm doing something wring. Like not actually having the drive indexed!

I'm using File Explorer, right?

When I click on tags: add a word, nope, doesn't find in description or keywords.

So lets assume I'm the problem. (which I support) How do I set indexing on if I haven't?

cascoly · « **Reply #11 on:** October 07, 2019, 11:41 »

yes it searches metadata when indexing on - try leaving off 'tags' &* just search the word you want

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #12 on:** October 08, 2019, 11:35 »

Quote from: cascoly on October 07, 2019, 11:41

yes it searches metadata when indexing on - try leaving off 'tags' &* just search the word you want

Finding nothing, I must not have indexing enabled. Thanks

Fatmanphoto · « **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2019, 13:59 »

Many thanks for your replies, especially philopenshaw.

I indexed the drive I store my port on, and then realised to search, you then need to put in the search box tag:<keyword> for example tag:railway.

This is going to save me a lot of time in the future.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #14 on:** October 14, 2019, 10:20 »

Quote from: Fatmanphoto on October 13, 2019, 13:59

Many thanks for your replies, especially philopenshaw.

I indexed the drive I store my port on, and then realised to search, you then need to put in the search box tag:<keyword> for example tag:railway.

This is going to save me a lot of time in the future.

Yeah, it works tag:keyword

I also had to go into settings and add the drives to include, so just added the 8T external which will make finding things, maybe, easier. I have way too many files named IMG_#### that have been bulk keworded, for the events or the shoot, before I selected the best of them to edit.

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Author Topic: Any way to search your own drive by metadata? (Read 8042 times)

Fatmanphoto

philopenshaw

charged

Uncle Pete

DallasP

georgep7

Uncle Pete

cascoly

MotionDesign

hatman12

Uncle Pete

cascoly

Uncle Pete

Fatmanphoto

Uncle Pete

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