How to find files on a mapped network drive containing tags

Hello Richard Curtis,

The reason this worked on your old setup but not now really comes down to one thing: Windows Search doesn't index network or NAS drives by default, so when you search the mapped P: drive, it can't see the tags you applied — tag-based searching depends on the index, and the index simply isn't covering the NAS. That's also likely why Everything didn't get you there; it's brilliant at matching file names and paths instantly, but it doesn't read the embedded tag metadata inside the photos.

To actually get a tag-filtered list, you need those photos indexed somewhere Windows will index. A couple of options:

• Offline Files: right-click the mapped folder and choose Always available offline, then add Offline Files to Indexing Options. Windows keeps a local copy it can index, and tag search starts working. Downside — it copies the data locally.
• Symlink trick: in an admin Command Prompt, run mklink /D C:\PhotosLink \\YourNAS\SharedFolder, then add C:\PhotosLink in Control Panel > Indexing Options. That makes the indexer treat it as local.

Once it's indexed, you can search by tag in File Explorer using tags:Smith (swap in the family-member tag), then select all results and copy them to your memory stick.

If you'd rather not fuss with indexing, the simplest fallback is to copy the whole folder to a local drive first, let Windows index it, then do the tag search and copy out what you need. A bit clunky, but it sidesteps the NAS limitation entirely.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".  

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.