Search in the Notes app doesn’t work

Mac OS Memo in 2024 still no fix 🤣 It's just like iOS clipboard permission bug. They've been letting it as fukked as it is for years. I really wonder where Apple is going these days. My guess is that fixing bugs don't get theme any good on their performance review.

I too am a heavy NOTES user until the last 6 months.

My return key no longer returned to the next line & the up & down arrows not longer allowed me to navigate line by line w/ the note…they took be to other NOTES!

You may have just saved me throwing my ipad OUT the window.

THANK YOU!

This is super annoying but I figured out a semi work around. Before you would open the Notes app and swipe down to show the Search feature. This does not work anymore.

You now need to open the SPECIFIC note you want to search > Tap the 3 dots in the upper right corner > Tap Find in Note. From there you can search but only in that specific note.

Very frustrating if you wanted to search all notes on your device like you used to be able to before.

Yeah same issues here I already switched off of the piece of **** known as apple because I’m tired of them gaslighting us into thinking they’re soooo superior. When Samsungs have essentially every feature apple has and more. Plus you’re able to change the UI into pretty much the same setup as an iPhone so it’s not even that big of a learning curve to use.

I chatted with Apple support about this ridiculous problem and was directed to go to Notes in iCloud (meaning I have to take the time to log in and do all those extra log in steps just to get a password from notes). Voila, the search works fine in iCloud.

"Not sure, but one thing I did before upgrading to 17.1 was I went to Settings/Messages/Siri & Search. I then turned off all 7 buttons. I turned off my iPhone for a few minutes. Turned it back on, went back and turned on all of those 7 buttons. It may have been the fix. "

Did not work on IOS 17.5.1

I made a shortcut to Icloud as each update to IOS 17 has not addressed this issue.

NB The search function for apps also has disappeared with the Notes, been many months for me now.

I tried several things related to plists, indexing, etc as mentioned by everyone else also. I noticed that my Notes app wasn't synching properly even after turning the sync on/off in my AppleID settings. I signed out of my AppleID on my computer, restarted, and signed back in. After doing that my Mail, and Notes began indexing again. We'll see if that lasts, but may be worth trying.

BEST ANSWER is from ARPU99 on Nov 1,2023:

"I went to Settings/Messages/Siri & Search. I then turned off all 7 buttons. I turned off my iPhone for a few minutes. Turned it back on, went back and turned on all of those 7 buttons. It may have been the fix."

I also toggled off the buttons under Settings/Notes/Siri & Search. And toggled them back on when I turned my phone back on.

Now search in Notes works like a charm again. Thank you ARPU99!

None of the suggested fixes worked for me (iPhone 14 Pro Max, iOS 17.5.1).

When I search for a single Notes word in the Folders Screen, I get one hit (there should be multiple). When I search within a Note (using the 3 dots, then Find in Note), the text box only allows me to type 3 letters, then it freezes - cannot delete the 3 letters, and Done doesn't respond - all I can do is close the App.

The issue resolves briefly when I restart my phone - then it returns.

Contacted Apple, who were totally useless. Their suggestion was to delete the App and re-install it, which I did. The bug remains.

Absolutely infuriating!

I use Notes for my blog recipes, and I used to be able to search and find all recipes with the word 'loaf', for example. Now I can only do it when I use Notes on my Mac, and then only with Command + F, as the search box is useless.

Any other suggestions for me to try would be very much appreciated.

I wanted to share my experience fixing this issue as I was starting to really get worried I was permanently hosed.

Out of many Mac devices, only my M1 Air was affected.

It was running Ventura 13.x

Notes search was fine, until one day it was not.

And no other Apple devices were impacted.

I tried all the usual tricks like disable Cloud notes, restart, re-enable. I didn't try signing out of iCloud.

Anyway, nothing worked.

So I did this:

Disabled iCloud notes.

Restarted.

Upgraded OS to Sonoma 14.5

re-enabled cloud Notes.

Still not working. (here comes the trick)

Hit Apple-Spacebar to pull up Spotlight search.

Search for a Note and if you see it appear in the Spotlight search results select it.

It brings up the Notes app.

Go to top of notes app tree (e.g. All iCloud)

Try search again from within the app.

Now it should be working. (hurray!)

This worked for me.

I will report back here if I lose the Search again, but for now am happy.

Well…

after each and every build an iOS 17, none of which functioned on iPhone

(but worked perfectly on the computer and iPad)

Well???

*UPDATE*

Now on IOS 18

AND???

ALL FIXED!!!

search function in Notes and Search for Apps…

Going to Settings, Siri & Search, Notes and turning off Suggestions Notifications helped me for the iOS version 16.1.1

Probably your Notes are not in iCloud or on My iPhone

Watch the GIF below

Yes that works but thats an extra step you have to take to find the word you’re looking for. Before we could’ve just searched without clicking the three dots

My search in notes works when I start to type in a keyword. But I am running ios version 16.6.1 and dont have my stuff syncing to icloud?

Thanks