“Find on page” not working since IOS 16 update

Thank you very much. Now it works perfectly again.

Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features > ReadableByte Stream, then turn ON ReadableByte Stream was the Solution.

Small hint: I could work around the problem before, if I held the IPhone in landscape mode, then the search worked without problems.

Solved - iPhone iOS 16

Solution 1 - “Find in Page” is added to the Action Icon (the same icon you’d hit to share, copy, etc.). Works beautifully.

Solution 2 - as before, type what word you want to find in the address bar, scroll down to “Find in Page” and touch & hold the icon to the left . Release after about 3-4 seconds. I don’t know why this is, but it works for me. Touching it momentarily doesn’t do anything.

Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features > ReadableByte Stream

Turn ON ReadableByte Stream

This worked for me:

Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features > ReadableByte Stream, then turn ON ReadableByte Stream

I had this problem. Updating to iOS 16.3.1 fixed it.

More follow up…

I did a factory reset (iPad pro 12” M2 512)

the pdf document1 that previously failed the SEARCH, failed again. But other documents had success (pdf document2 & xls doc1). I thought maybe the pdf document1 was broken.

I closed the xls doc1 with the search dialog opened and a search parameter typed into the field.

When I reopened the pdf document1 the search dialog remained open & the subsequent searches were successful. The document was not broken.

After you have typed the word you are searching and have scrolled down to “on this page”, put your finger on the left side icon with the magnifying glass

Now HOLD your finger on that icon for a good 2-3 seconds, THEN release

The search function should pop up. It did for me

The problem is I can’t type any words. The Search box that used to pop up after selecting the Find on Page dropdown no longer appears. Instead, I get this:You can type all you want, but nothing happens. I finally figured out a ridiculous workaround:

Open a web page in Safari

Click on the Share icon

Select Find on Page

When the above box appears, click on keyboard icon

Select Show Keyboard

Type your word and click Search

The box disappears

Select the Share icon again

Select Find on Page again

Now the Search box appears and you can search for your word

I also end up with a floating keyboard on the page that I can’t get rid of

It wasn't working for me on either web pages or pdfs. iOS 16.5.1, iPhone 12 Pro. I tried turning on Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features > ReadableByte Stream (then restarting Safari) and it still didn't work. I turned that back off and "Find on page" started working! So for me, the feature was restored by toggling ReadableByte Stream on/off.

Solution: On my iPhones, I got it working per what’s been shared previously. Press and hold the Find icon for a few seconds before releasing. Has worked every time for both my phones.

I see I already responded to this just a little while ago. Old age and CRS.

I notice the same behaviour searching certain PDFs while viewing them in safari. But in my case I searched a page number 112 and it found 211 - so I did some trial and error. When I searched for “illness” (a word used many times in the document) I got nothing. When I searched for “ssenlli” it found all occurrences of the word “illness”. It’s the same for anything I search - I have to type the string in reverse. If I search words on the title page it finds them as expected and other entire PDFs work as normal. I hadn’t noticed before today but don’t use this feature for PDFs in safari a lot as I usually download them. I may have had the problem and just moved on and ignored it and forgot about it but since I just upgraded to iPadOS17.1.1 yesterday I assumed it might be a bug related to the new OS. Looking here I’m wondering if it’s older than that. I’d be curious to hear what result others here have if they try searching their string in reverse? Anyone up for an experiment? I’ve included a screenshot of the issue in action below:

It's broken. So far, I see the issue with an updated (16.2) iPhone 11 Pro Max and an iPad Pro Gen 1. It looks broken because the magnifier appears with the text box, but as soon as I type any character, the screen goes black and then the document reappears. No search results appear and tapping the magnifier again doesn't do anything.

Thank you NuttyNightBird! As I describe at length above and in another thread, I could NOT get Find on Page to work on Safari webpages since the upgrade to iOS 16. The link you provided mentions two other options that do work. So for the benefit of any other readers with the same issue I had…press Command and F simultaneously or type the term you are searching for in the URL and select On This Page from the box that drops down.

[Edited by Moderator]

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Hi there Lbauer,

We'd like to help, but we'll need more details to understand what's happening:

1. Are you attempting to find a document you downloaded using Safari, and if yes, is it still showing in your downloads within Safari? This link has more details about this: Download items from the web using Safari on Mac
2. If you're instead having an issue loading websites, here are the next steps to take for that: If Safari on Mac doesn't open a webpage or isn’t working as expected
3. Sometimes unexpected behavior can be resolved with a restart: Restart your iPhone
4. You mentioned updating to iOS 16, but the latest version is iOS 16.1.1. You can verify this within Settings > General > About. In case you needed it, this link shows how to first back up, then Update your iPhone or iPad.

Cheers!