In this guide, we walk you through features that make it easier to quickly find the right photo or video on your iPhone or iPad. Most of these also work on Mac.

Note that the first few tips below are only available on iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate.

Enable star rating

Just as you can rate movies and Uber rides with 1 to 5 stars, the updated Photos app on iOS 27 and macOS 27 lets you rate your pictures and videos with stars.

Once you have done that to a few photos, you can use this rating system as a filter to see just those images that are marked 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 stars. You can also select multiple star ratings (like all media with 5 and 4 stars) to filter your library and quickly find what you’re looking for.

I mark some of my best photos as 5 stars so I can find them quickly.…