The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
I upgraded to IOS 16 and now I can’t get out of the search screen. I can only swipe down for the time/notifications and settings. I can’t swipe up, tap, or search anything in the search bar. I’ve tried shutting the phone off and also restarting it, but it still shows this. I can get into apps from their notifications, but only the ones I have notifications for.
iPhone 12
I had the same problem. What I did to fix it is to go to the settings, click on Home Screen and then disable search on Home Screen. I used to have to restart my phone every time this happened and I got tired of doing every few days.
I had the same problem. What I did to fix it is to go to the settings, click on Home Screen and then disable search on Home Screen. I used to have to restart my phone every time this happened and I got tired of doing every few days.
Hello Canaman1a,
Since that behavior persists after restarting your iPhone, let’s see if force restarting it helps: Force restart iPhone - Apple Support
If it doesn’t, you'll want to reach out to Apple Support: Contact - Official Apple Support They'd be in the best position to look into this further.
Take care.
I completely shut it down and waited a couple hours, it went back to pretty well normal. When I restarted my phone, the wallpapers were gone from my Lock Screen and Home Screen. Also when I turned my phone back on, I went to my Settings, Home Screen, and turned off the search shown on the Home Screen so that this doesn’t happen again.
Say "Hey Siri, open settings." Once in settings type in the search bar "home screen." Then turn off home screen search. No restart required.
Quick and easy fix, tell Siri to open your settings, scroll down to the “Home Screen” option and then where you see the “search” category just turn it off, and if it’s already off then turn it on and then off again. Should work just fine, no restart required.
Same thing here! I did find that I can ask Siri to open my apps but it can be very frustrating. I’m a visual person and I like to just look for the picture of the app.
Hello Canaman1a,
We're glad to hear things went back to normal after a forced restart. Disabling Home Screen Search was probably a good idea.
If you end up having this issue again, feel free to reach out to Apple directly: Apple Support
They'll need to take it from here.
Wishing you well, take care.
Hi, I have the same issue multiple times.
Workaround 1: if you cannot open settings: reboot
Workaround 2: disabling Home Screen Search
Please research and fix it.
I happens while swipe up from bottom to top to check open or switch Apps.
Best Regards,
Parzi
MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK. I’m tiered of restarting the phone for this
This is occurring less for me now that I removed the search button from the home screen. Didn't use that anyway, since swipe down is also available .
I’m updating the software to hope it’s fixed
my phone also does this every week or so
I’m having the same issue that my screen is stuck in search after the latest update from Apple, nothing seems to work to cancel it
Thank you!! I’m happy now!
Me too!
Stuck in search on iPhone iOS 16.1.1
