The search bar in the Select Assets step of one-time moderation does more than find assets by name. You can type a search expression - for example, every PNG wider than 3000 pixels, or every asset with a given tag - and then moderate everything it finds. This article lists the expressions you can use and what to check when a search finds nothing.

When to use this

You want to moderate a specific group of assets, such as one campaign's tag, one folder, or one date range.
Your search returns No assets found and you're not sure why.

How the search bar reads what you type

Plain text is matched against each asset's display name, file name, and public ID. Words inside a name count, so p15 finds vec-p15-2. Add * to match the start of a word: p1* also finds p12 and p17.
An expression is anything that contains :, =, <, >, !, or the words AND / OR. It's sent as a Cloudinary search expression instead of a name search.
The search always stays inside the Images or Videos tab you're on, and the folder selected in All folders.

The count above the grid shows how many assets match. To moderate all of them, click Run on all assets - the number on the button is the number of assets your search found. To moderate only some, select them and click Select assets.

Expressions you can use

Name and location

display_name:"summer-hero" - assets with this display name.
filename=IMG_2041 - assets uploaded from this original file name.
folder:"marketing/2026/summer" - assets in this exact folder. Use the full folder path.
folder:marketing/* - assets in this folder and all its subfolders.
public_id:products/* - assets whose public ID starts with products/.

Tags and metadata

tags=spring-campaign - assets with this tag.
NOT tags=archived - assets without this tag.
metadata.campaign=spring - assets whose structured metadata field has this value. Use the field's external ID, not its display label.
metadata.shoot_date>2026-07-01 - date and number fields can be compared with > and <.

File properties

format=png - assets in this file format.
width>3000 AND height>2000 - assets above these dimensions, in pixels.
pixels>4000000 - assets with more than 4 megapixels.
aspect_ratio>1 - landscape images (wider than they're tall).
bytes>5mb - files larger than 5 MB.
duration>60 - videos longer than 60 seconds (on the Videos tab).

Dates

created_at>2026-10-01 - assets created after this date.
created_at:[2026-10-01 TO 2026-10-31] - assets created within this date range.

Combine conditions

Join conditions with AND, OR, and NOT, and group them with parentheses. For example: (format:png OR format:jpg) AND width>3000, or tags=spring-campaign AND NOT tags=approved.

Good to know: the search bar uses Cloudinary's search expression syntax. See Search Expressions in the Cloudinary documentation for every field and operator.

If your search finds nothing

A mistyped expression doesn't show an error - it simply returns No assets found. Check these first:

Write AND, OR, and NOT in capital letters. In lowercase they're read as words to search for, and the results won't be what you expect.
Match the exact spelling and case of values. Tags and metadata values are case-sensitive: tags=BrandGuidelines finds assets that tags=brandguidelines doesn't.
Put quotes around values with spaces or slashes, for example folder:"marketing/summer 2026".
Use the full folder path, or add /* to include subfolders. You can also pick the folder from All folders instead of typing it.
Use the metadata field's external ID after metadata. - the label you see in the Media Library may be different.
Use * only at the end of a value. folder:marketing/* works; on its own, tags:* doesn't.
Check the tab and folder. A search on the Images tab never returns videos, and a selected folder narrows every search.
Prefer exact dates such as created_at>2026-10-01 over relative ones.

For the rest of the run setup, see "Run one-time moderation".

Search for assets with expressions