Organise and find your photos on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

The Photos app makes it easy to keep your photos and videos organised and accessible. It can even give you a curated view of your photos, and intelligent Search features can help you find exactly what you're looking for quickly.

Photos is organised into Library, For You, Albums and Search. When you turn on iCloud Photos, your collection is kept up to date across your devices. And by using advanced Search features, you can find photos of a person, place, object or event easily.

Before you begin

• Update your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.

• Set up iCloud on all your devices.

• Make sure you’re signed in with the same Apple ID.

Library

Enjoy a curated view of your moments in the Library tab, then browse by years, months, days or all photos. You'll also see Live Photos and videos come to life as you scroll and browse.

• Years: view your entire library of photos and videos you’ve taken each year. Then swipe to scan the highlights.

• Months: see groups of photos and videos taken during each month by memories and locations. Tap the More button to share or play a movie created from your moments.

• Days: browse photos of the day and watch some of your videos play automatically as you scroll. Tap a photo and swipe up to see its location on a map and the people in it.

• All Photos: see your complete photo library, including screenshots and duplicate photos in the order they were taken.

With iOS 14 and later, you can filter what will be displayed, so it's easier to browse through your library. For example, you can choose to show only photos or only videos. To filter what you see:

1. Tap the Library tab.

2. Tap All Photos, then tap the More button in the top right-hand corner.

3. Tap Filters, then choose an option such as Videos or Favourites.

4. Tap Done.

To undo the filter, tap the Filters button near the top of your screen, then choose an option and tap Done.

Live Photos and videos won't autoplay in Photos when Low Power Mode is enabled.

For You

In the For You tab, Photos searches for your photos and videos to find moments that stand out, then presents them in collections called Memories. You can also see Shared Album activity, get ideas for adding effects to selected photos and find Sharing Suggestions, which are collections of photos you can share.

Albums

In the Albums tab, find the albums you’ve created, shared albums you’ve created or joined, and collections of different types of photos and videos, such as Selfies, Portrait and Slo-mo. You can also look at your photos arranged on a world map in the Places album, or browse your photos based on who’s in them in the People & Pets album.

The Recents album will display your entire collection in the order you've added them to your library. When you're using iCloud Photos, the changes you're making to your albums on one device will appear on your other devices too.

Create a new album

1. Open Photos.

2. Go to Albums and tap the Add button.

3. Tap New Album. Type an album name, tap Save, then choose the photos and videos you want to add.

4. Tap Done.

Add to an existing album

1. Open Photos.

2. Tap Select, then tap the photos and videos you want to add.

3. Tap the Share button, then tap Add to Album and choose an album.

Change the name of an album

1. Go to the album and tap the More button.

2. Tap Rename Album.

3. Change the name, then tap Save.

Rearrange your albums

1. Go to Albums, tap See All, then tap Edit.

2. Touch and hold an album and drag it anywhere you want.

3. Tap Done.

Sort photos within an album

In iOS 14 and later:

1. Go to an album, then tap the More button.

2. Tap Sort, then choose a sorting option, such as Custom Order, Oldest to Newest or Newest to Oldest.

Detect and merge duplicate photos

In iOS 16 and later, the Photos app can detect duplicate photos. If you have duplicate photos in your library, a Duplicates album will be created automatically, and you can merge similar images to save space.

Share an album

You can share photos, videos and albums with selected people, then allow them to add their own photos, videos and comments. In the Albums tab, you can see the Shared Albums you've created and joined. Find out more about sharing albums in the Photos app.

Search your photos

Photos makes it easy to find photos of a specific person, place, thing or event. Tap the Search tab, then type what you're looking for in the search bar.

• Moments: search for an event, such as a concert you attended or a trip you took. Photos uses the time and location of your photos along with online event listings to find matching photos.

• People & Pets: find photos in your library of a specific person, a group of people, a cat or a dog. Just keep names and faces organised in your People album.

• Places: see your photos and videos on a map in the Places section. Or type a location name in the Search bar to see photos and videos from that place.

• Categories: Photos recognises scenes, objects and types of location. Search for a term, such as "lake", and select a result to see matching photos.

The Search tab also suggests moments, people, places, categories and groups for you to search. Tap a suggested search, such as One Year Ago or Animals, to explore your photos.

When you search your photos, the face recognition and the scene and object detection are done completely on your device. Find out more about photos and your privacy.