How to find every video a person appears in

The short answer

Use a tool that detects faces in your photos and video frames, groups the ones that belong to the same person, and lets you pick a group to see every appearance. For home videos, client footage or anything involving private people, choose one that does this on your own device and lets you delete the face data.

Your options

Whatever you pick, be thoughtful: faces are biometric data in many places, and some jurisdictions regulate how it's collected and stored. Only index footage you have a right to use.

• Photo apps. Many photo libraries group faces in still photos. Coverage of video varies, and they usually only see what's in that app's library.
• Cloud media platforms. Some asset-management services offer face search, but your footage and face data are processed on their servers.
• Search by other cues. If you can't use face recognition, search what the person said, their name in the transcript, or their name on a lower-third caption. It's partial, but often good enough.
• On-device face indexing across your own folders of video and photos, which is what MediaFind does.

How to do it in MediaFind

People & Faces is a Pro feature and runs entirely on your computer.

1. Add your folders of video and photos. With Pro, faces are found automatically as files are indexed; the 7-day trial includes it.
2. Open People & Faces to see the people MediaFind has grouped. Well-known public figures are named automatically.
3. Click a face to jump to every appearance, across both videos and photos.
4. Combine it with other searches, e.g. a person together with what was said, or a place described in words, to narrow a long list.
5. If you change your mind, switch face recognition off and delete all stored face and people data in one click.

When faces aren't enough

Face grouping needs a reasonably clear, front-facing view. Tiny faces in wide shots, heavy shadow, masks, profiles and motion blur will be missed or mis-grouped. For someone who is mostly heard, not seen, a podcast guest or narrator, use their voice instead: name the voice once and search by speaker (free), as explained in identifying who is speaking. Name mentions in speech are searchable too, since people, places and organizations are picked out of every transcript.

Privacy and limitations

Nothing about faces leaves your machine, and free libraries are never face-indexed. Still, treat the feature with care: tell family members or clients if you're indexing footage of them, and turn it off for libraries where you don't need it. Results can include look-alikes, so check before you rely on a match for anything important. For older home movies, see family archives; for crews working on long projects, documentary filmmakers.

Frequently asked questions

Can I search videos for a specific person's face?

Yes, with a tool that indexes faces in video frames. In MediaFind (Pro) you click a person's face and get every video and photo where they appear.

Is face data uploaded?

Not with MediaFind. Face detection and grouping run on your device, and you can switch it off and delete all face data in one click.

Does the free plan include face search?

No. People & Faces is part of Pro, and free libraries are never face-indexed. Searching by voice and speaker is free.

Why was someone missed in a clip?

Faces that are small, turned away, blurred or in shadow are hard to detect. Searching by their voice or their name in the transcript can fill the gaps.