My Reminder search on completed items not working with iOS 16

Here's what worked for me on my iPhone 14 -

Turn Reminders 'off' in 'Apps using iCloud' and select 'Delete from my iPhone'.

Turn iPhone off and back on (not sure if this is necessary but good practice anyway.)

Turn Reminders 'on' again to force a reload.

Now all searchable.

Hello JSH1205,

We see that you're having an issue when searching within Reminders. If that is correct, take a look at the resource below on how to help with searching within Reminders.

Search and organize lists in Reminders on iPhone

If you are still having the same issue, please respond with some more details. What happens when you try to search in Reminders? Are you getting an error message? If so, what does the message say?

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

This was broken in 16. Also in 16.0.1, then in 16.0.2, and still broken in today's 16.1. It is embarrassing... :(

Also see Search in reminders in iOS 16.0.1 BROKEN - Apple Community for an alternative way of working around this.

Apple is aware of the problem and Engineers are working on a solution, but there is not estimated time of arrival. The fix is expected with an iOS upgrade, but which one is not known. If you have this problem, I recommend posting on Feedback - Reminders - Apple. If someone does come up with a solution, I hope they would post it here.

Go into iCloud settings on your phone and turn off Reminders.

Wait 10 min or more and then turn it back on.

This fixed the problem for me.

To add a little more context (at least my experience) I have a new iPhone 14 (running 16.0.1) and on that device, searching in reminders does not work as it has in the past. It is only showing uncompleted items and is showing 0 completed even if there are definitely completed items that meet the search criteria. I checked my work phone (iPhone 11 running 15.6.1) and it is working as expected.

I'd like to try this fix, but I get a message saying "all iCloud reminders will be removed from your iPhone." "Search in reminders in iOS 16.0.1 BROKEN" by scyriac suggests converting old reminders into a template and creating a new list. (TunaE)

Could there be another solution to this problem?

The problem is unique to the iPhone 13 because an iPad Air works fine. Placing a period [.] at the end of each reminder has fixed the search problem. Logging in to iCloud from a web browser, clicking next to the reminder text, and then pressing [.] does the trick. Then clicking next to the next reminder text will move the screen up some so another period [.] can be placed. While I have many reminders, placing a period [.] seems to go pretty fast compared to making a template and reorganizing everything including completed reminders. Completed reminders can be reused.

I have an iPhone XR & was having the same issue & was getting the “delete all reminder” warning. You can also add the period on the Reminder App on the Mac laptop…that also fixed it along with doing it via the web.

thanks for the tips all.

I’m having the same problem on an iPhone XS Max. I have hundreds of reminders so I don’t really want to go in and add a period to all of them. I’m wondering about turning off reminders in iCloud. I also get the warning “all iCloud reminders will be removed from your iPhone." Do they come back when you turn it back on after 10 minutes?

I was not able to search through my almost 4,000 completed reminders. Kept getting "0" completed when I typed in the search bar. This fixed the issue for me! Reminders is essential for my small business. Thank you!!

Hi, thank you! How do I get into "iCloud settings on your phone and turn off Reminders" as you mention? Go into Settings and then what?

I am having this same issue (Search function of Reminders not working at all) and it is so frustrating!

I un-completed each item previously completed in my grocery list. Then re-completed. Well all my many other different reminder lists now work when searching. Any items related to a search criteria show up whether completed or not.

I didn’t go into cloud.

btw I have iphone se 2nd gen

Happy to report! This fixed the issue! Thank you!!

• Fellow power user of Reminders