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Search and organize photos in Lightroom for mobile (iOS)

Last updated on Dec 12, 2024

Learn how to organize photos into albums and subsequently into folders. Also, learn to search and filter photos using flags and ratings.

Create an album and add photos

Albums help you organize photographs, grouping and sorting them according to your preferences and requirements. You can create albums and import specific photos of your choice from the Camera Roll or Gallery on your device.

In the Album selection view, select the + Create new button.
From the menu that appears, select Album.
In the Create Album dialog, type a name for the new album, and tap OK.
Tap () icon next to the album name to set up your album.
- Add Photos Allows you to pick and choose photos from your device's Camera Roll, All Photos, and Files.
- Auto Add from device photos Enable this button to add new photos in your Camera Roll to the selected album.
- Store locally Enable this button to store the photos on your device.
- Share & Invite Share your album with friends and family and invite them exclusively to view or add photos to your shared album.
- Only show in Shared Photos Share your photo in Shared Photos album.
- Move To Allows you to move the Album into an existing folder or a new folder.
- Rename Opens a dialog that lets you provide a new name for the album.
- Delete Deletes the album only. Your album photos remain untouched and are not deleted from the device.
Tap the album name to navigate inside the album. Then, tap the add photos icon in the lower-right corner.

Note:

You can also tap to the camera icon to capture a photo using the Lightroom's in-app camera and add it to your album.

From the menu that appears, select Device, Lightroom, Files, or Connected camera/card to add photos.
In the next screen, you can now select the photos and add them to the album.

Quickly select the best photos in an album

Lightroom now automatically picks the best photos in an album for you. To use this feature, do the following steps:

From the Albums panel, open the album that contain the photos you want to shortlist.
Tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner and select Choose Best Photos.
Lightroom analyzes your album and picks the best photos. The analysis is based on photo quality and faces in the photos. The top photos that are picked are displayed in the Chosen section and the rest are shown in the Others section.

Note:

You need to have at least 10 photos in your album for this feature to work.
To have fewer photos in the Chosen section, drag the Quality threshold slider more to the right. Moving the slider to the left will increase the number of Chosen photos.

Move the Quality Threshold slider to the right to have fewer Chosen photos
Long press a photo to view the multi-photo select view. You can then quickly select all the photos in the section by tapping Chosen or Other, depending on which section the selected photo is in.

Before moving the Quality Threshold slider, to keep any photo in the section it is in, long press the photo and tap the first option from the pop-menu in the bottom. You will also choose to move the selected photo to the other section.
Once you're happy with the photos Lightroom has chosen for you, tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner. You can view options to share, export, create another album, or flag the Chosen photos as picked. You can also view options to remove the Other photos from the current album or flag them as rejected.

The three-dot menu options in Best Photos

Copy or move photos between albums

You can copy or move photos between albums. Do one of the following, depending on which screen you are on:

Multiple photos

In the Grid view (viewing photos in an album), long-press a photo to bring up multi-select, and select one or more photos. Tap the Add to or Move to icon at the bottom of the screen.
In the next screen, from the list of albums displayed, tap the album you want to copy or move the photos to and then tap Add or Move.

Single photo

In the Loupe view (viewing a single photo), tap the options icon () at the upper-right corner, and then select Organize > Add to or Move to.
In the next screen, from the list of albums displayed, tap the album you want to copy or move the photos to and then tap Add or Move.

Remove photos from an album

You can remove photos from an album when they are no longer required. Note that any photo removed from an album will continue to be available in the All Photos view.

Multiple Photos

In the Grid view (viewing photographs in an album), long-press a photo to bring up multi-select, and select one or more photos. Tap the Remove icon at the bottom of the screen.
In the Remove Photos dialog, tap Remove From Album to remove the photograph, or tap Cancel to not remove the photo.

Single Photo

In the Loupe view (viewing individual photographs), tap the () icon, and then select Organize > Remove from album from the menu.
In the Remove from album dialog, tap Remove to remove the photo or tap Cancel to not remove the photo.

Organize albums into folders

In the Album selection view, select the + Create new button.
From the menu that appears, choose Folder.
In the Create folder dialog, type a name for the new album and select OK.
Folder options

(Optional) Tap () icon next to the album name to set up your folder.
- Add album or folder Lets you create a new album or folder inside the current folder.
- Move to Allows you to move the folder into an existing folder or a new folder.
- Rename Opens a dialog that lets you provide a new name for the folder.
- Delete Deletes the folder and the albums in the folder. The photos in the albums are not deleted from the app.
Note:

You can only delete the empty folders.

You can now create subfolders or add albums into the folder as necessary.

View photos as a slideshow

You can view the photographs in your albums as a slideshow. To start a slideshow, do one of the following:

In the Grid view (viewing photos in an album), tap the three-dots () icon at the upper-right corner, and then tap Start Slideshow.
In the Loupe view (viewing individual photos), tap the three-dots icon () at the upper-right corner, and then tap Start Slideshow.

Slideshow options

To specify the type of transition and the duration of each slide:

During a slideshow, tap a photo.
At the upper-right corner of the screen, tap the three-dots () icon.
Modify the slideshow settings as required.
Tap the slideshow icon () at the upper-right corner of the window.

Search photos

Find photos within an album or All Photos view using the Search bar at the top. Aside from searching photos by metadata and keywords, Lightroom for mobile (iOS) can also find and show photos based on the objects in them or facets associated with the photo.

You can type an object name in the search bar to search all photos and show relevant results. For example, you can type kids in the Search bar to quickly search for all photos that have kids in them. To search your photos using facets, type a facet name followed by a colon ':'. For example, you can type camera: to display a list of camera models used. See the list of supported facets below:

keyword:
camera:
lens:
location:
rating:
flag:
flash:
orientation:

iso:
type:
f-stop:
ss:
edited:
media:
focal length:
depth map:

Sort and segment — Sorting, segmentation, and other options for your search results in Lightroom for mobile (iOS)

Find photos using the intelligent online search

You can explore your photo gallery further with auto-complete that displays intuitive suggestions as soon as you type something in the search bar. The terms used in search bar are not case-sensitive.

You can add multiple tokens for search in the Search bar based on objects, facets, or auto-complete suggestions to narrow down your result.

Tap located at the upper-right corner in the Grid view to bring up the context menu and apply segmentation, sorting, slideshow, and other options to the photos from your search result.

Flag and rate photos

Using the Info and Rating panel

In the Loupe view, select icon to access info and rating option. This allows you to quickly give a star rating and flag (pick or reject) your album photos. The Filmstrip in the panel allows you to quickly cycle through the album photos.

Rate a photo

To quickly rate a photo in the Info and Rating panel, flick upward or downward in left-half of the screen. A rating overlay appears showing you the current rating as you flick.

Flag a photo

To quickly flag a photo as pick, rejected, or unflagged in the Info and Rating panel, flick upward or downward in right-half of the screen. A flag overlay appears showing you the current selection as you flick.

Flag photos (iPhone) - In the Info and Rating panel (Loupe view), you can quickly flag and rate your photos on your iPhone devices using the swipe gesture.
Flag photos (iPad) - Flagging photographs can be a quick and easy way to categorize or filter them. On your iPad, you can flag photographs, one at a time, as Pick, Reject, or Unflag in the Loupe view.

The Info panel also allows you to view information related to the photo and easily add a Title, Caption, Copyright, and Keywords to it. Additionally, the Info panel displays the metadata associated with your photo, and see the GPS map location of the photo.

Tip:

Tap and hold any information in the panel to copy it.

Filter photos

Select the icon at the top (next to the Search icon) to quickly filter photos by:

Ratings: Use the icon to view photos rated higher than a certain star rating. For example, you can view photos rated three stars or higher
Flags: Unflagged, Picked, or Rejected
Type: Photo or Video
Camera: Camera make and model options
People: People clusters that are detected in the People view
Location: Locations picked from the metadata of all photos
Keyword: Keywords picked from the metadata of all photos
Edited: Edited or not edited

Note:

The filter options applied while viewing album photos are retained even when you navigate out of the album. To clear the selected filters, tap the cross icon in the filter token displayed at the top of the grid when you open the All Photos view again.

Note:

To learn how to search and organize photos in Lightroom on your Android device or desktop, see Search and Organize photos in Lightroom for mobile (Android), and Organize photos in Lightroom (desktop).

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