diff --git a/apps/client/src/features/search/components/search-spotlight.tsx b/apps/client/src/features/search/components/search-spotlight.tsx
index ee16f08b5..569c85b20 100644
--- a/apps/client/src/features/search/components/search-spotlight.tsx
+++ b/apps/client/src/features/search/components/search-spotlight.tsx
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ export function SearchSpotlight({ spaceId }: SearchSpotlightProps) {
     }
   }, [aiSearchError, t]);
 
+  const isLabelBrowse = (filters.labelIds?.length ?? 0) > 0;
+
   // Determine result type for rendering
   const isAttachmentSearch =
     filters.contentType === "attachment" && hasAttachmentIndexing;
@@ -227,17 +229,19 @@ export function SearchSpotlight({ spaceId }: SearchSpotlightProps) {
             </>
           ) : (
             <>
-              {query.length === 0 && resultItems.length === 0 && (
+              {query.length === 0 && !isLabelBrowse && resultItems.length === 0 && (
                 <Spotlight.Empty>{t("Start typing to search...")}</Spotlight.Empty>
               )}
 
-              {query.length > 0 && !isFetching && resultItems.length === 0 && (
-                <Spotlight.Empty>{t("No results found...")}</Spotlight.Empty>
-              )}
+              {(query.length > 0 || isLabelBrowse) &&
+                !isFetching &&
+                resultItems.length === 0 && (
+                  <Spotlight.Empty>{t("No results found...")}</Spotlight.Empty>
+                )}
 
               {resultItems.length > 0 && <>{resultItems}</>}
 
-              {query.length > 0 && isFetching && (
+              {(query.length > 0 || isLabelBrowse) && isFetching && (
                 <Spotlight.Empty>
                   <Text size="sm" style={{ marginTop: 10 }}>
                     {t("Searching...")}
diff --git a/apps/client/src/features/search/hooks/use-unified-search.ts b/apps/client/src/features/search/hooks/use-unified-search.ts
index 156c711d8..500b2fd60 100644
--- a/apps/client/src/features/search/hooks/use-unified-search.ts
+++ b/apps/client/src/features/search/hooks/use-unified-search.ts
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ export function useUnifiedSearch(
         return await searchPage(backendParams);
       }
     },
-    enabled: !!params.query && enabled,
+    enabled: (!!params.query || (params.labelIds?.length ?? 0) > 0) && enabled,
     // keep previous results only within the same search type; page results
     // rendered as attachments (or vice versa) crash on missing fields
     placeholderData: (previousData, previousQuery) => {
-      if (params.query.length < 1) return undefined;
+      if (!params.query && !params.labelIds?.length) return undefined;
       if (previousQuery && previousQuery.queryKey[1] !== searchType) {
         return undefined;
       }
diff --git a/apps/server/src/core/search/dto/search.dto.ts b/apps/server/src/core/search/dto/search.dto.ts
index d66bc9fd8..89fb1b289 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/core/search/dto/search.dto.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/core/search/dto/search.dto.ts
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ import {
 } from 'class-validator';
 
 export class SearchDTO {
-  @IsNotEmpty()
+  @IsOptional()
   @IsString()
-  query: string;
+  query?: string;
 
   @IsOptional()
   @IsUUID()
diff --git a/apps/server/src/core/search/search.service.ts b/apps/server/src/core/search/search.service.ts
index ceb1468d3..4a0aa2e6e 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/core/search/search.service.ts
+++ b/apps/server/src/core/search/search.service.ts
@@ -29,24 +29,28 @@ export class SearchService {
       workspaceId: string;
     },
   ): Promise<{ items: SearchResponseDto[] }> {
-    const { query } = searchParams;
+    const query = searchParams.query?.trim() ?? '';
+    const labelIds = [...new Set(searchParams.labelIds ?? [])];
+    // selected labels are browsable without a query
+    const browseByLabels = query.length < 1 && labelIds.length > 0;
 
-    if (query.length < 1) {
+    if (query.length < 1 && !browseByLabels) {
       return { items: [] };
     }
-    const searchQuery = tsquery(query.trim() + '*');
-    const labelIds = [...new Set(searchParams.labelIds ?? [])];
+    const searchQuery = tsquery(query + '*');
     const titleOnly = searchParams.titleOnly === true;
-    const titleQuery = query.trim();
+    const titleQuery = query;
 
-    const rankColumn = titleOnly
-      ? sql<number>`word_similarity(lower(f_unaccent(${titleQuery})), lower(f_unaccent(pages.title)))`.as(
-          'rank',
-        )
-      : sql<number>`ts_rank(tsv, to_tsquery('english', f_unaccent(${searchQuery})))`.as(
-          'rank',
-        );
-    const highlightColumn = titleOnly
+    const rankColumn = browseByLabels
+      ? sql<number>`0`.as('rank')
+      : titleOnly
+        ? sql<number>`word_similarity(lower(f_unaccent(${titleQuery})), lower(f_unaccent(pages.title)))`.as(
+            'rank',
+          )
+        : sql<number>`ts_rank(tsv, to_tsquery('english', f_unaccent(${searchQuery})))`.as(
+            'rank',
+          );
+    const highlightColumn = browseByLabels || titleOnly
       ? sql<string>`''`.as('highlight')
       : sql<string>`ts_headline('english', text_content, to_tsquery('english', f_unaccent(${searchQuery})),'MinWords=9, MaxWords=10, MaxFragments=3')`.as(
           'highlight',
@@ -66,14 +70,14 @@ export class SearchService {
         rankColumn,
         highlightColumn,
       ])
-      .$if(!titleOnly, (qb) =>
+      .$if(!browseByLabels && !titleOnly, (qb) =>
         qb.where(
           'tsv',
           '@@',
           sql<string>`to_tsquery('english', f_unaccent(${searchQuery}))`,
         ),
       )
-      .$if(titleOnly, (qb) =>
+      .$if(!browseByLabels && titleOnly, (qb) =>
         qb.where((eb) =>
           eb(
             sql`lower(f_unaccent(pages.title))`,
@@ -102,7 +106,8 @@ export class SearchService {
         ),
       )
       .where('deletedAt', 'is', null)
-      .orderBy('rank', 'desc')
+      .$if(browseByLabels, (qb) => qb.orderBy('updatedAt', 'desc'))
+      .$if(!browseByLabels, (qb) => qb.orderBy('rank', 'desc'))
       .limit(searchParams.limit || 25)
       .offset(searchParams.offset || 0);
 
diff --git a/apps/server/src/ee b/apps/server/src/ee
index 3c198edfa..70976d963 160000
--- a/apps/server/src/ee
+++ b/apps/server/src/ee
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 3c198edfa02569393b954a2a77b9d1e4c1f566db
+Subproject commit 70976d963201cd4e85a8d59dce21edb3e3d287ad