1. Open Photos → Screenshot Manager. Enable the source that contains the capture, such as the macOS screenshot folder, a custom folder, or the System Photos Library. Start a scan.
  2. In the results, choose Index screenshot text for search. The progress indicator shows how many screenshots have been processed. You can pause recognition or retry skipped screenshots.
  3. Open search and enter a distinctive word from the image, such as a product name or part of an error message. Open a matching preview to check the surrounding text.

If a search is empty

First look in All Screenshots without the search term. If the image is there, check recognition progress and try a shorter word visible in the image. If it is missing, check the enabled sources. For a video capture, open Screen Recordings. Text recognition indexes still screenshots.

Clear recognized text

Use Clear recognized text… in the screenshot text cache controls to remove saved recognition results. Your captures stay in place. Run recognition again if you want to search their contents later.