search doesn't work in photos

How often do you reboot your Mac? It's advantageous for performance purposes to reboot frequently, 2-3 times a week. This cleans our temporary system and application cache and swap files. Then around once a month boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and then reboot normally.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

What format is the external drive?

Can you find what you're looking for via a smart album?

I have the same problem but with smart albums I can find parts of words no matter where they are in the file name or description (caption).

Works here. What happens when you try?

Where is you library stored? If on an external, what format is it?