How to search the text inside screenshots

Screenshots are the quickest way to keep something, which is why there are so many of them. A flight confirmation, a chat where a friend recommended a dentist, an error message from a deploy that failed at 2am, a slide from a webinar, a social post you wanted to reply to later. Each one holds a line of text you might need. Very few of them have a filename that says what that line is.

This guide covers how people usually look for a particular screenshot, why they’re hard to find, and how to gather screenshots from your phone and computer into Fabric so you can search the words on screen, use quotes for codes and references, and filter the results.

How people usually find an old screenshot

On a phone, screenshots usually land in the camera roll, mixed in with photos, or in a Screenshots album. Phone photo apps can now recognize text in images, so searching for a word from the screenshot sometimes finds it. That covers the screenshots on that phone.

On a computer, screenshots tend to collect on the desktop or in a Screenshots folder with names built from the date and time. People find them by sorting by date and opening previews one after another. Some move the ones that matter into project folders and delete the rest, which is tidy and takes time each week.

Screenshots also travel. A colleague posts one in Slack, a friend sends one over WhatsApp, and you take one on a work laptop and another on your own phone. By the time you need the reference number in it, the image could be in any of four places, and each has its own search, or none.

Step 1: Route screenshots from every device to Fabric

On iOS and Android, Fabric can import screenshots automatically, so each new one arrives in your library without an extra step. Set this up in the Fabric mobile app. The same app backs up the camera roll if you’d like older screenshots and photos to come across together.

On a computer, drag screenshots into Fabric or click Upload a file to bring in a whole folder at once. The Fabric desktop app mounts Fabric as a drive, so you can set your screenshot tool to save into a folder on that drive. Captures saved there are stored in Fabric, take no space on your computer, and are searchable with everything else. This suits people who take dozens of screenshots a day while debugging, designing or reviewing work.

While browsing, the browser extension can take a screenshot of the page and save it straight to Fabric, along with the page itself if you choose. For an image someone sent you in a messaging app, tap Share and choose Fabric.

Step 2: Search for the text on screen

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows) and type what you remember from the screenshot. Fabric search reads the text inside screenshots and images, so the words in a chat bubble, a receipt total or a dialog box can bring up the image they’re in.

Use quotes for anything that has to match exactly. Error messages, booking references, order numbers and tracking codes are good candidates: “ECONNREFUSED” or “QX7R2B” in quotes returns screenshots containing that exact string, rather than everything about connection errors or flights. Short codes in screenshots are easy to misread, so if a quoted search returns nothing, check for look-alike characters such as a zero and a capital O before trying again.

Without quotes, search matches by meaning as well as keyword, which suits the screenshot you only half remember, such as the chat where someone recommended a dentist near the station. Search also covers the visual content of images, so describing what the screen looked like can help when the words escape you.

Step 3: Filter out everything that isn’t a screenshot

Words from a screenshot often appear in emails, notes and documents too. Filter by kind of item to keep the results to images. If your automatic screenshot import goes to its own folder, the location filter limits the search to it; tags work across folders for screenshots you’ve filed elsewhere.

Each screenshot is processed when it arrives: Fabric writes a summary, extracts attributes such as content type and topics, and suggests tags. Smart collections you set up can then gather screenshots of a certain kind, such as order confirmations or code errors, as they come in.

Step 4: Use the screenshot, or ask about a batch of them

When you find the screenshot, add a comment or tag so it’s quicker to reach next time. If you’re looking for patterns across many, open the folder and ask the AI assistant, for example which order confirmations from last month show a delivery date. It answers from the images in that folder and cites the ones it used.

Once your screenshots are safely in Fabric, you may want to free up room on your phone. How to clear your camera roll without losing photos covers backing up first and then deleting from the device.

Frequently asked questions

Can I search the text in my screenshots?

Yes. Fabric search reads text inside screenshots and other images, so typing words that appeared on screen can return the screenshot.

How do I find a screenshot of an error message?

Search for the error text or code in quotes for an exact match, then filter to images to remove notes and documents that mention it.

Can Fabric import my phone screenshots automatically?

Yes. Fabric can import screenshots automatically from iOS and Android, so new ones arrive in your library as you take them.

Can I search screenshots from my phone and my computer together?

Yes. Once screenshots from both devices are in Fabric, one search covers all of them.

Can I save a screenshot of a web page directly to Fabric?

Yes. The browser extension for Chrome, Safari and Firefox saves a screenshot of the page you’re on, and can save the page itself as well.

Can I search screenshots by what they look like?

Yes. Search covers visual content as well as text, and similarity search finds screenshots that look like one you select.

How do I stop screenshots cluttering my phone?

Import them to Fabric, check they’ve arrived, and then delete them from the device. They stay searchable in Fabric.

Can the AI read my screenshots?

Yes. Ask the AI assistant within a folder of screenshots and it answers from what they show, citing the images. AI use is limited on the free plan; pricing has the details.