# How to find all your photos of a place > Find every photo from Paris or last summer's road trip: plot GPS photos on a map and select an area, filter by place name, or describe what it looked like. Source: https://firelet.media/blog/find-photos-of-a-place Published: 2026-09-15 · Updated: 2026-09-15 Applies to: Windows, macOS, Linux To find photos of a place, use the GPS positions your phone or camera saved in them. Open the map in firelet.media Gallery and draw a box round the place, and the grid shows everything taken inside it. You can also filter by city or country once you've set up a place-name service, or describe what the place looked like and let AI search find it. ## Three ways to find photos of a place Each method covers a gap the others leave, so it's worth knowing all three. | Method | Works on | Needs | |---|---|---| | **Map → Select area** | Photos with GPS | Nothing extra: pins are plotted on your PC | | **Place names** | Photos with GPS | A place-name service you choose, and **Look up places** | | **AI description search** | Any photo, GPS or not | The AI model and **Index library** | Most phone photos have GPS. Many older camera photos and all scans don't. For those, the answer is AI search, or adding a location yourself. ## On the map: Select area The map is the quickest route when your photos carry GPS, and it needs no setup. 1. Click **Map** on the toolbar. The header tells you how many items have a location, for example "Map — 1,240 of 3,815 items have a location". 2. Click **Fit** to zoom to everything plotted. 3. Zoom in on the place you want with the mouse wheel. 4. Click **Select area**. 5. Drag a rectangle round the place. The map closes by itself and the grid shows only the pictures taken inside your rectangle, with a chip on the toolbar to clear the selection when you're done. The toolbar at the top of the map has a few helpful switches. **Photos** shows thumbnails instead of pins, **Cluster** groups nearby pins, **Trail** joins photos in date order (lovely for a road trip) and **Heatmap** shows where you take the most pictures. ![The map showing clustered photo pins on a blank background, with the No map tiles configured notice and the Fit, Select area and Tile provider… buttons](https://firelet.media/help/media/shot-map-no-tiles.webp "Your photos' positions are plotted even before you choose a map background") > [!NOTE] > The map arrives without background imagery, because map tile services restrict use by distributed apps and most need an account and a key. Your pins are plotted locally either way, and you can still select areas. To add streets or satellite imagery, click **Tile provider…** and enter a provider you have rights to. [Map says 'No map tiles configured'](https://firelet.media/help/map-no-tiles-configured) explains the options. On Windows, the map needs the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime, which most Windows 11 PCs already have. [How to see your photos on a map](https://firelet.media/help/see-photos-on-a-map) covers the rest of the map's controls. ## By place name (needs a place-name service you set up) A map box is great for "somewhere around here". Sometimes you want "everything from Lisbon", or every country you've been to. That needs place names, which come from reverse geocoding: turning coordinates into a city and country. firelet.media Gallery has no built-in place-name provider and no offline place database, so this is off until you choose one. 1. Open **Filters** with [[Alt]]+[[2]] and expand **Location**. 2. Click **Service…**. The "Reverse-geocoding service" window opens. 3. Enter the service's web address, with `{lat}` and `{lon}` where the coordinates go. The window lists examples, such as a self-hosted Nominatim, LocationIQ, OpenCage and BigDataCloud. 4. Click **Save**. 5. Click **Look up places**. ![The Reverse-geocoding service window with a URL box using {lat} and {lon}, example services, the request interval and the cell size](https://firelet.media/help/media/shot-geocoder-service.webp "Point it at a place-name service you have access to; it only runs when you press Look up places") The lookup makes one request for each area of roughly 1 km, and remembers the answers, so it's gentle on the service and quick the next time. > [!IMPORTANT] > Looking up place names sends your photos' coordinates, rounded to cells of about 1 km, to the service you chose. Nothing is sent until you set a service up and press **Look up places**. **Clear** forgets the names again. Once the names are in, you have several ways to use them: - Type in **Place contains** under Filters → Location, for example "Lisbon". - Pick from the **Places** list, or browse the **Countries and cities** tree. - Type the city or country into the ordinary search box. It matches place names along with everything else. - In **Advanced query** ([[Alt]]+[[9]]), write `city~lisbon` or `country~portugal`. ## By what it looked like: AI search Scans of old prints, photos from cameras without GPS, and pictures shared by relatives rarely know where they were taken. You probably remember what the place looked like, though, and that's enough. Open the **AI** panel ([[Alt]]+[[3]]) and describe it: "harbour with fishing boats", "Eiffel Tower at night", "red desert canyon" or "snowy mountain lake". The gallery ranks your whole library by how well each picture matches, whether it has GPS or not. It needs the AI model (a one-time 438 MB download) and a run of **Index library** first, and it works best with English descriptions. Combine it with the date range on the toolbar to narrow it to one trip. [How to find a photo by describing what's in it](https://firelet.media/blog/find-a-photo-by-describing-it) has tips for writing good descriptions. ## Photos without GPS: add the location Found the photos by description? Give them a location, and they'll turn up on the map and in place filters from then on. 1. Find the photos that lack one: **Filters** → **Location** → **No location**, or `has!=gps` in Advanced query. 2. Select the pictures taken in the same place. 3. Press [[Ctrl]]+[[Shift]]+[[L]] to open **Location**. 4. Paste a Google Maps or OpenStreetMap link to the spot, or type the coordinates. 5. Click **Set**. If another photo already has the right position, right-click it and choose **Copy location**, then use **Use the copied location** in the Location window. The new location is stored as a correction in the library, and the photo file itself isn't changed. [How to add or change a photo's location](https://firelet.media/help/add-or-change-photo-location) has the details. ## Keep the trip as an album Once you've gathered the photos of a place, keep them together so you never have to search again. 1. With the results showing, press [[Ctrl]]+[[A]] to select them all. 2. Open **Albums & keywords** with [[Alt]]+[[4]]. 3. Type a name, such as "Lisbon 2025", and press [[Enter]]. The album is created with the selected pictures in it. No files are copied, and a picture can be in as many albums as you like. For places you return to often, add a keyword instead, with levels such as `Places > Portugal > Lisbon`. > [!TIP] > If you'll run the same place filter again, save it. In the **Presets** panel ([[Alt]]+[[7]]), use **Save current filters** to keep the combination under a name, and **Load preset** to bring it back. For next time, [turn on photo location now, thank yourself later](https://firelet.media/blog/turn-on-photo-location) explains why a location in every photo pays off. These tools are in the Windows app today, and the macOS and Linux builds, which are being finished, include the map without needing WebView2. ## Questions ### Do place names need internet? Yes. City and country names come from a place-name service you set up yourself, and only when you press Look up places. Pins and coordinates work without it. ### My old photos have no GPS. Can I still find them? Yes. Describe them with AI search, or give them a location with Location… so they appear on the map from then on.