If you put a Smart Album inside a folder and there are no other projects in that folder, the smart album will always return nothing. It may not display the expected images that meet its criteria.
This happens because you can use the location of a Smart Album to control where it will search. Additionally, a Smart Album searches actual images, not the file references (or "aliases") that reside in folders. Here's where a Smart Album will search based on its location:
| Smart Album Location | Search Area |
| Top level | All projects, regardless of hierarchical location |
| Inside a project | That project only |
| Inside a folder | All projects that are also in the same folder |