Can we search in specific folder

Hello,
When doing a search in DXO it sounds like it searches in all folders. Is there a way to search in specific folder or in a specific projet instead ?
Thx
Chet

Good morning @Chet and welcome to the forum,

Yes, you can limit a search by adding folder name parameter:

DxO.PhotoLab_HrZbdShOqF

But it’s impossible for the project.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

I don’t normally use the library/search functionality but this post prompted me to try it out. I tried to search for an ISO of 400 and, even on the top level folder, I only got half a dozen results when I know I have hundreds of images taken at ISO 400.

I know about indexing but have never explicitly done it because I use .dop files and regularly scrap the database. For the benefit of anyone else with the same question, is indexing necessary before searching can work properly?

Can I also add that it is currently impossible to enter a folder name with only two characters that contains only numeric characters. For example, entering “18” only allows speed, aperture and focal length as possible result types.

Dear @Joanna,

It’s possible on Windows:
DxO.PhotoLab_npPEVTSq2H

so it’s MAC specific issue.

Regards,
Svetlana G.

OK. Will you flag @StevenL or shall I? :wink:

On the same subject of incorrect search results…

Capture d’écran 2021-01-18 à 10.12.10

… the folder exists under my Picture folder…

Capture d’écran 2021-01-18 à 10.13.46

… but search fails to find it

Hi @Joanna,
I’m not sure if the search fails in this case: the search looks for images into the “Patrouille de France” folder, but inside it there are only (I guess) well organized sub-folders. Try putting an image right inside the “Patrouille de France” at the root level, and do a new search.
It should shows “1 result”. If not, this is a bug.

Greetings

I copied an image into that folder…

… and, at first, the search failed…

Capture d’écran 2021-01-18 à 13.32.36

So I visited that folder and after that the search succeeded…

Capture d’écran 2021-01-18 à 13.34.50

As I said, I don’t use the library/search myself because I have written my own image browser that links into PhotoLab.

The big difference with mine is that, after the root folder, the hierarchy is flattened so I can see e.g. everything for one location, regardless of year, month or day; or everything for a given year regardless of month or day; etc.

I was hoping the search in PL would have done the same.

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Just caught another minor niggle…

I deleted the duplicate file from the Patrouille de France folder using Finder.

Even if I visit the, now empty, folder, the search still returns the same one result. Something tells me stuff is being added to the database but not removed :wink:

I had to delete the file from within PhotoLab to ensure that the search returned nothing.

For now, PL does not include subfolders.

Well maybe it should in the near future? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Seriously, I have a photographer friend who is not particularly computer savvy and she loves the idea of being able to see stuff in sub-folders in my browser - then she can drill down as necessary. From that point of view, searching would be so much more useful if it did the same.

Hi All,
Thx for all your comments and feedback.
In my scenario i’m having a Root folder with all my source files (original images) on top of which i’m applying images improvements, tags, etc… and another folder that contains the export of the photos i worked on and which are published on a SYNOLOGY NAS.
As of today when doing a search it searches in both root folders which is what i would like to avoid so that i’m not getting mixed up modifying already handled images vs working on the original ones.
Last comment / answer from StevenL is most likely the perspective of functionality that would answer to my scenario which is to basically secure that when searching for some images to prepare a new project or refine some parameters of the picture i’m well working on the right root folder.
Any plan for getting this implemented in an updated version for PL4 would be great otherwise in PL5 :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I assign keywords using Photo Mechanic. I have found that the same folders in PL must be indexed for the keywords to show up in the keywords panel and search results.

In which case, I will stick to using my own app to add XMP keywords directly to the EXIF data directly in the image files. That way, I can find files by keyword from macOS Finder, PhotoLab and many other apps that use the same standard.

To have like “include subfolders” is just useful when you need it.
This is something that has already been discusses internally :wink:

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Hi @StevenL, There is an old Feature Request (for PhotoLab 2) with 27 votes for this feature:

Regards, Joseph

1 Like