Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for searching for a multimedia file, a terminal device, and a server. The method for searching for a multimedia file includes: acquiring, from a server, encrypted summary information of a first multimedia file in at least one multimedia file, where encrypted summary information of the at least one multimedia file corresponds to encrypted content of the at least one multimedia file; decrypting, by a terminal device, the encrypted summary information of the first multimedia file, to obtain summary information of the first multimedia file; when determining that the summary information of the first multimedia file corresponds to a target multimedia file, acquiring, by the terminal device from the server, encrypted content of the first multimedia file corresponding to the summary information of the first multimedia file. According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, a target multimedia file can be quickly found.