Visual search could not start¶
Symptoms¶
Visual search is greyed out or reported as unavailable; searches by description return nothing while regular search works; the interface says the image-understanding model could not load.
What this usually means¶
- It is your very first session. In the current beta, visual search deliberately skips the first session and turns on automatically from the next launch. This is by design.
- The visual index is still being built. After photos are indexed, building the visual index takes a while on big collections — progress is shown honestly in the interface.
- The model genuinely could not load on this machine. When that happens ArchiveMind says so plainly, and everything else — regular search, browsing, thumbnails, duplicates — keeps working. Even then, similar-image search over the already-built visual index keeps working; only new description queries need the live model.
Safe steps to try¶
- If this is your first-ever session: quit ArchiveMind safely and open it again — visual search enables from the next launch.
- Check the progress panel — if the visual index is still building, waiting is the fix; big photo collections take time.
- Quit and reopen safely (how) and watch whether the model loads this time.
- Note the exact wording the interface uses about the model — it distinguishes "not yet" from "cannot".
What not to delete or change¶
- Do not delete the catalogue database — the visual index and the model are separate from your catalogued files, and regular search is unaffected either way.
- Do not reinstall the app repeatedly as a fix; one clean reinstall is only worth trying if support suggests it.
Information to collect for support¶
- The exact unavailability message shown for visual search.
- Which build you installed: Windows, macOS Intel (
x86_64), or macOS Apple silicon (arm64) — and, if this is an Apple-silicon Mac running the Intel (x86_64) build via Rosetta 2, say so. - Roughly how many photos are catalogued.
- The newest
archivemind.log— see Finding logs.