Search bar missing

Wow this was really perplexing me also. All the responses I found on the issue being the same. “Swipe down from the middle in the Home screen”. What was not stated is the the swiping action should begin within the screen. Not in the bezel area. I have found that as long as I am in the middle of the screen (horizontally) being anywhere in the screen vertically will allow the Spotlight search bar to appear.

If I swipe down on the screen starting at or above the bezel all I see is notifications.

Swiping down from somewhere in the approximate middle, or anywhere on the screen other than the top, has actually been a thing since iOS 10. My wife is still running iOS 12.4.1 on her iPad and swiping down from the home screen does in fact bring up the search bar. I just think that many iPad users didn’t realize this and they were swiping right to get to the search bar and now that it isn’t possible to do that anymore, it has people confused.

This is from the iOS 11.4 user guide.

“Search with iPad. “Search with iPad. To show Search from the Home screen, swipe down from the center. To show Search from an app, swipe down from the top, then swipe from the left edge of the screen.”

Excerpt From

iPad User Guide for iOS 11.4

Apple Inc.

https://books.apple.com/us/book/ipad-user-guide-for-ios-11-4/id1263310093

This material may be protected by copyright.

It’s there. Terribly difficult to find. If you pull from the center of the page from the top you Will Not find it. If you go to the Center of the page. Don’t touch yet. Wait. Place your finger about an inch or so from the top center, swipe down. You’ll see it.

The best answer: “if you swipe down from the middle on a blank space between any icons, you'll get the search bar”

Swipe down on the home screen on a blank space in between any icon

Yes, swipe down in middle (not from top) of home page, between icons on iPad.

Hello,

From iPad’s Home Screen go to the very center of iPad’s display. imagine there is a crosshairs on the iPad’s display, pull down from the center of the crosshairs to access Search.

How to find the Search Bar on iPads After the Latest IOS update:

Simply place your finger at the center of the page, then pull down to find the search bar.

That simple.

The solution is that you need to swipe from the MIDDLE of the home screen downward to reveal the Spotlight search bar.

It would be very helpful if Apple documented this change!

Thanks so much. Swiping from the middle of the home screen does bring up the search function. I liked it much better when it was just there as I use that a lot.

The new upgrade for iPad 13....

To find the search window drag your finger down on the right below the first icon... It works

That’s right - definitely not where it used to be on the today view, and does not work the way that Apple Support page describes, but swiping down from the middle of the screen brings it up! Mostly I use it to convert metric to inches :)

Hello,

From iPad's Home Screen pull down from the very center of the display, not from the center of iPad's top bezel.

Use Search on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support