photo organizing co

How to find all the photos on your Mac or Windows PC

Updated

Most computers hold photos in more than one place. There’s the main photo app, the Downloads folder, old folders from a previous computer, and sometimes files that only exist in the cloud. This guide helps you find them all and write down where they are.

The goal is a list, not a clean-up. Find the places, note them, and leave everything where it is.

Before you start

  • Set aside 20 to 30 minutes.
  • Have a notepad or a blank document open to write down each location.
  • Don’t move, rename or delete anything. Photo apps keep track of where their files are, and moving them can break that.

On a Mac

The Photos library

If you use the Photos app, your pictures live in one file called a Photos library. Apple says it’s stored by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac. It usually has a name like Photos Library.

That one item holds thousands of files inside. Leave it closed. To get photos out, use Photos itself: select them, then choose File > Export.

You may also have more than one library. Open Finder, click Pictures, and note every library file you see. Older ones might be called iPhoto Library, from the iPhoto app Apple used before Photos. Write those down too.

Search the whole Mac by kind

  1. Open Finder and press Command-F.
  2. Make sure This Mac is selected under the search bar.
  3. Click the Kind drop-down and choose Image. To find videos, repeat with Movie.
  4. Scroll through the results. Click one and look at the path at the bottom of the window to see which folder it’s in.

You can also type something like kind:image into the Finder search box. Apple documents this in its Finder search guide.

The results will include thousands of tiny files from apps and websites. Focus on the folders that show up again and again.

Other folders worth checking

On Windows

Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. These steps work on both Windows 11 and Windows 10, and the menus are close to identical.

The Pictures folder

  1. Open File Explorer (the folder icon on the taskbar).
  2. Click Pictures in the left-hand list.
  3. Open each subfolder and note what’s in it, such as Camera Roll and Screenshots.

Old computers may also have My Pictures, a folder from older versions of Windows. If you copied a folder over from an older PC, it may be inside Documents or on the desktop.

OneDrive and cloud-only files

If OneDrive is on, there may be a second Pictures folder. Click OneDrive in the left-hand list of File Explorer and look for a Pictures folder there.

OneDrive’s Files On-Demand feature can show a file on your PC that isn’t actually stored on it. Microsoft’s icons mean:

  • A blue cloud: the file is online only and takes no space on this PC.
  • A green tick: the file has been downloaded and is on this PC.
  • A solid green circle with a white tick: the file is always kept on this PC.

Cloud-only photos still count. Write down that they exist. Don’t use Free up space on anything, since it removes the local copy.

Search the whole PC

  1. Open File Explorer and click This PC.
  2. Click in the search box at the top right.
  3. Type kind:=picture and press Enter. This finds image files of every common type, including JPG, PNG and HEIC (iPhone photos), in every folder on the PC.
  4. For videos, search again for kind:=video. If a search seems to miss things, try the file types one at a time: *.jpg, *.heic, *.mov, *.mp4.

Searching a whole drive can take several minutes. Let it finish before you read the results. Expect thousands of small images from Windows and apps too. Look for the folders that keep coming up.

The Photos app and old imports

Open the Photos app and click Folders in the left-hand list. Those are the places Photos is watching. Microsoft says the app includes your Pictures folders by default, so photos in other folders only show up if someone added them.

Older cameras and memory cards imported pictures into folders with dates for names, and some cards use a folder called DCIM. If you see one on an old drive, note it. See photos from an old hard drive for more.

If you’re a Photo Organizing Co client

Send me your list: the places you think photos are, even if you’re not sure. A rough note like “Pictures, an old laptop in the closet, a drive in the desk drawer” is enough. Please don’t move, rename or delete anything first. I’d rather see things as they are, and I’ll work out what’s a duplicate.

Also mention any iCloud, Google or OneDrive accounts. Those can hold photos that aren’t on your computer at all. There are separate guides for downloading iCloud photos and Google Takeout.

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