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Q: iOS 9 Spotlight Search not working properly

HI,

 

On my iPhone 5 32gb Spotlight Search is not working and hasn't been since around the time of iOS 8. When I search for keywords that I know have been used in messages from a year ago it only shows results back to the middle of this year. I have read a lot of threads about the issue and have tried the suggestions:

 

-changing the phone language which seems to have worked for some people

-sending myself emails from my iCloud account

-sending myself a text

-I have reset all phone settings

-restoring from backup

 

None of which have worked  I'm loathe to restore as a new phone as deleting all of my texts defeats the purpose of wanting to search my old messages

 

Amy suggestions?

 

Thanks

iPhone 5, iOS 9, null

Posted on Sep 17, 2015 3:53 AM

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Q: iOS 9 Spotlight Search not working properly

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  • by kentronics,

    kentronics kentronics Jun 8, 2016 1:39 AM in response to Brophs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 8, 2016 1:39 AM in response to Brophs

    Hi all,

     

    My spotlight search was not working for me on iPad 3 after updating to iOS 9.32.

    I swiped to the right as per normal but the search feature would not appear.

    Reset the iPad; turned off everything in spotlight and in contacts and then re-enabled but they all failed.

     

    Googled for answers and did not find any solutions. Finally gave up and chose to live with it.

    Just as always after giving up, the solution appeared itself.

     

    Stumbled across the solution watching my daughter making the spotlight search screen appear.

    From there I knew it must work but she didn't know how she did it.

     

    The feature has been changed on the iPad anyways as on my iPhone it still works by swiping to the right on the home screen.

    Thru my iPad I have to swipe down on the home screen to enable the spotlight search feature.

     

    Hope this helps anyone who is having trouble with enabling the spotlight feature on iOS 9+

     

     

  • by jjcs83,

    jjcs83 jjcs83 Jun 18, 2016 11:56 PM in response to Brophs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 18, 2016 11:56 PM in response to Brophs

    This issue has been driving me up the wall for a while. I've just found that clearing the ram fixes the issue (hold power, then hold home button when the lock screen appears). I've no doubt the issue will return, it always does.

  • by jfaughnan,

    jfaughnan jfaughnan Jun 19, 2016 5:53 AM in response to jjcs83
    Level 3 (803 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2016 5:53 AM in response to jjcs83

    Force-quitting background apps also frees up RAM. Sometime faster; by nowI know which apps free up the most memory when force quit.  I have no idea if iOS 10 fixes the bug.

  • by BroCraig,

    BroCraig BroCraig Jun 20, 2016 2:06 PM in response to JakeAir
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Jun 20, 2016 2:06 PM in response to JakeAir

    This helped me!!!!! SO happy. SO glad. SO thankful. Thank you!

  • by jfaughnan,

    jfaughnan jfaughnan Jun 20, 2016 2:42 PM in response to JakeAir
    Level 3 (803 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 20, 2016 2:42 PM in response to JakeAir

    Good summary Jake. Weirdly Apple selected another response as the "recommended answer" -- must be some algorithm of theirs. It was about a measure that helps transiently. Force-quitting is what I do.

  • by SimonGrant,

    SimonGrant SimonGrant Jul 3, 2016 11:20 AM in response to fersoft2009
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 3, 2016 11:20 AM in response to fersoft2009

    Excellent.  just enabled contacts, app store and mail.  This has not worked for years!

  • by Blaine Damage,

    Blaine Damage Blaine Damage Jul 7, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Brophs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 7, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Brophs

    Toggling ALL the apps to "on" in the spotlight search selections worked for me.  I'm not sure why, but it must be an all-or-nothing proposition.   Thanks!  

  • by Randy Stewart,

    Randy Stewart Randy Stewart Jul 7, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Blaine Damage
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jul 7, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Blaine Damage

    This worked for me as well.  Unfortunately, like every other solution, it seems to work for only a small period of time.  At least I can still launch apps via Siri.

  • by Blaine Damage,

    Blaine Damage Blaine Damage Jul 7, 2016 1:00 PM in response to Randy Stewart
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 7, 2016 1:00 PM in response to Randy Stewart

    I Spoke too soon.  Same here it stopped working again....

  • by jfaughnan,

    jfaughnan jfaughnan Jul 9, 2016 8:03 PM in response to Blaine Damage
    Level 3 (803 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 9, 2016 8:03 PM in response to Blaine Damage

    The only known fix for the most common spotlight issue is to buy a 2GB RAM iPhone. Everything else is transient.

     

    Quitting background apps will restore functionality for a time. In my case just quitting Reeder.app will often suffice.

  • by crizo,

    crizo crizo Jul 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Brophs
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 28, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Brophs

    The solution to check all apps under spotlight search fixed it for me.

     

    At one point I thought I'd trim down the list of apps that show in Spotlight Search. As I did this, it got worse and worse. Eventually I had no apps selected in Spotlight settings and when searching for an App it returning either nothing or was painfully slow. I have about 500 apps installed which may be a factor. I definitely didn't expect the software to behave this way (less should be better, right??)

  • by crizo,

    crizo crizo Jul 28, 2016 12:34 PM in response to crizo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 28, 2016 12:34 PM in response to crizo

    Actually, the symptoms I had may not be what the original poster had, but perhaps the solution is the same

  • by jfaughnan,

    jfaughnan jfaughnan Jul 28, 2016 12:46 PM in response to crizo
    Level 3 (803 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 28, 2016 12:46 PM in response to crizo

    For most people enabling "all spotlight search" is only a temporary fix -- similar to rebooting the phone, changing language, etc.

     

    I've worked every easy fix ever proposed. Based on the advice of a colleague who has an experience similar to mine I gave up and did the backup/wipe phone/restore cycle. Spotlight has been working for 3 days. I think that may be a record. If it makes it to 7 days I'll consider that a significant change. Still too early to say.

     

    I am keeping "all spotlight search" though. My guess is that changing settings there doesn't alter what's indexed, it just causes items to be filtered out from display. So any exceptions  can only slow things down...

  • by trinheric,

    trinheric trinheric Sep 18, 2016 2:47 PM in response to jfaughnan
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 18, 2016 2:47 PM in response to jfaughnan

    iPhone 7, iOS 10 and still the same problem after an iCloud restoration.

     

    This is really unacceptable!

     

    Has anyone found a solution?

  • by MacUserAE,

    MacUserAE MacUserAE Sep 18, 2016 8:40 PM in response to trinheric
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 18, 2016 8:40 PM in response to trinheric

    I just got my iPhone 7Plus and can't search my messages.  I checked my wife's 7Plus and she has the same problem.  My daughters iPhone 7 is just fine.  This is really bizarre.  I spoke to Apple, and they were of no help.  I tried all the recommendations listed, turning iCloud off and then on, toggling iMessage, turning the search for messages in Spotlight off and then on, changing the language, restoring the phone and none of it fixes the issue.

     

    I am extremely upset, and Apple behaves as if this is a problem they never heard of.

     

    Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

     

    Thank you.

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