I am experiencing a severe Photos Search/People indexing problem on a Mac Studio running the final release of macOS 27. I first reported this during the macOS 27 beta cycle and have provided extensive diagnostics and updates through Feedback Assistant.
Feedback: FB24521305 Resolution: Open Recent Similar Reports: More than 10
My iCloud Photos library contains approximately 164,000 items and is synchronized between my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The photographs themselves are present on the Mac, and newly taken photographs synchronize normally.
However, Photos Search and People & Pets on the Mac remain severely incomplete. Direct searches of the same synchronized library currently give:
Frequently photographed Person A Mac Photos Search: 3 results Mac People & Pets: 6 images iPhone Photos Search: 2,390 results
The 3 images returned by Mac Search are different from the 6 images in the People & Pets album.
Person B Mac Photos Search: 0 results Mac People & Pets: 2 images iPhone Photos Search: 66 results
Location search — Costa Rica Mac Photos Search: 37 results iPhone Photos Search: 350 results
After installation of macOS 27 final, Mac Photos Search briefly showed substantial rebuilding activity. For example, a search for "2026" increased from 566 results to 4,455, and "Deer" increased from 79 to 908. Searches that had previously displayed an indefinitely spinning progress indicator also began returning results.
However, that apparent rebuilding has not progressed to completion. Nearly two weeks later, People recognition/association remains extremely incomplete, location Search remains incomplete, and the Mac and iPhone return dramatically different results from the same synchronized iCloud Photos library.
I have left Photos running for extended periods to allow background analysis to complete. Previous controlled tests also established that the Mac receives photographs and their correct date/time metadata and can index some newly received assets almost immediately.
At this point the evidence appears to indicate a problem with the Mac Photos analysis/Search/People indexing process rather than iCloud Photos synchronization or missing assets.
Could an Apple engineer please confirm whether FB24521305 has been routed to the appropriate Photos engineering team? I would be happy to provide additional diagnostics or perform specific controlled tests if requested.