Windows 11 Photos app uses AI to organize your library

Windows 11 is receiving a quietly powerful update in the Photos app that addresses one of the most chaotic corners of modern computing: your disorganized, unlabeled picture stash.

A fresh Auto‑Categorization tool leverages on‑device AI to group images into useful buckets like screenshots, receipts, identity documents, and whiteboard notes—then lets you jump right to what you’re searching for without scrolling through thousands of thumbnails.

What Auto‑Categorization in Windows 11 Photos does

After you turn this on, Photos scans both your local library and any images synced from OneDrive, adding four smart categories to the left‑hand navigation pane: Screenshots, Receipts, Whiteboards, and Identity Documents (names may vary by region).

Click on any of them and you get an AI‑built instant view across folders, which is a more efficient way to locate that warranty receipt or the passport photo you took last month.

The system isn’t dependent on language alone for identifying a document. It assesses the visual structure—edges, stamps, MRZ lines, and layout—so a passport in Hungarian or a receipt in Japanese ends up in the right place. This layout‑first methodology is reminiscent of techniques used in document‑understanding research and helps the model generalize beyond English.

Because the feature is launching on Copilot+ PCs, categorization is executed locally on the device’s neural processing unit to avoid consuming bandwidth and to keep private data on your device. That dovetails with Microsoft’s Copilot+ messaging around doing more AI work on the client rather than in the cloud.

How to try Auto‑Categorization on Windows 11 now

1. Step 1: Use a Copilot+ PC. These systems are equipped with NPUs delivering about 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second). Some of these are powered by the Snapdragon X at heart, such as the Microsoft Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X or ASUS Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ (or whatever other name they choose to give it), and variations that use chips named Snapdragon X Elite or X Plus.
2. Step 2: Enroll in the Windows Insider Program. On your test machine, go to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program, sign in with a Microsoft account, and choose an Insider channel. Dev or Canary tends to get new features faster for pre‑release builds. Do not install Insider builds on production machines; use a secondary PC or VM instead.
3. Step 3: Make sure Windows and the Photos app are up to date. Once you’ve run Windows Update, visit the Microsoft Store, open Library, then click Get updates to download the current Photos build. This feature is rolling out, so you may need to check back over a few days.
4. Step 4: Activate it in Photos. Open the Photos app, tap Settings, and then scroll down to Auto‑Categorization. Toggle it on. The app will start to index; you can continue working as it scans in the background. When the scan is finished, you’ll find those categories in the left‑hand rail.
5. Step 5: Review results. Open each category and spot‑check the accuracy. If something’s misfiled (for example, you have an image that should be in one category), you can remove or move the source image as you normally would; Auto‑Categorization works with your library structure and will rescan for matches over time.

Tips for accuracy and privacy with Photos Auto‑Categorization

Performance scales with library size. Tens of thousands of images will take a while to load the first time, but subsequent updates are faster. During the first scan, keep your device plugged in and make sure that Battery Saver isn’t enabled to avoid throttling.

If you store work files in other protected locations, such as volumes or disk image files, add these folders to Photos under Settings > Sources. If you’re using OneDrive, ensure your desired folders are set to Available offline so on‑device AI can run against them.

Features of Copilot+ are promoted by Microsoft as local by default, which limits uploads. That said, there are enterprise admin and policy controls for the way Photos works, and you can always switch off Auto‑Categorization in Settings if you prefer manual control.

What Auto‑Categorization can and cannot do today

For today’s release we’re concentrating on four out‑of‑the‑box categories. There isn’t yet a system to define custom labels, and the feature will not replace full‑fledged DAM software if you’re working in a studio flow. But for day‑to‑day personal and small‑business use—expense tracking, ID management, classroom notes—it fills a real gap.

Expect occasional edge cases. Cropped receipts, multi‑page scans, or whited‑out photos of whiteboards with strong glare can confuse categorization. Re‑taking a cleaner photo, or saving PDFs of multi‑page documents separately, is more consistent.

Why this new Photos Auto‑Categorization feature matters

According to Keypoint Intelligence, consumers take more than a trillion photos each year worldwide. With our libraries growing on phones, PCs, and cloud drives, automatic lightweight organization is better than the old‑school method of doing your own album maintenance. In Windows Photos, Auto‑Categorization goes beyond just date and folder views—it’s about reliving your moments when sharing with friends, on the go with your phone, or at home using a desktop browser to curate that perfect album.

Together with other Photos updates—content‑aware erase tools, background replacement, and AI‑powered super‑resolution on supported hardware—Windows 11 is consolidating more and more of your daily image tasks in the default app. The kind of small, smart feature that feels instantly indispensable if you’ve ever wasted ten minutes hunting for a single receipt.

How to troubleshoot if you don’t see Auto‑Categorization

Ensure you are on an Insider build and a Copilot+ PC, update the Photos app in Microsoft Store, reboot, and check Apps & Features for Photos > Settings again. Rollouts typically happen in waves; if you don’t feel like waiting, move to a more advanced Insider channel ahead of schedule or wait for the next app update.