iOS Spotlight - Data Issue

The Spotlight seems to have an issue on its own restrictions on scanning applications. I have it disabled in most cases, but now, with the newest iOS v16.4, it went super wild on indexing...

The goal is to disable Spotlight less the application listings... So, when I put a string in Spotlight, it should only show the application hits and then the 3x in app on demand scans (Calendar, Apple Store, Safari). I do this to either open an app quickly or use the Safari on demand link.

The settings used to achieve this is the following Search items in 'Siri and Search' settings:

• Learn from this App [ ]
• Show App in Search [X]
• Show Content in Search [ ]
• Show on Home Screen [ ]
• Suggest App [ ]

// Issue One

An example search now has 10 results when it should only have two. Spotlight string 'one' results in:

• top_hit\OneDrive
• top_hit\OneNote
• siri_suggest\safari_hook\one
• in_app\facebook_messenger\{chat_name}
• in_app\apple_store\"Apple Watch"
• apps\Music
• apps\Calendar\{flight data from 2018}
• hook\calendar
• hook\app
• hook\maps

// Issue One+

Several issues here... several of these hits, do not include the string 'one' in them. Here are some dives into each result.

Calendar had flight data; I did a data scrape and could not find what it finding in the Calendar / Meta data. (Including Names, Addresses, Locations, etm).

The Apple Watch hit is the product page thru the Apple Store app, but I could not find the string 'one' on the page (It's harder to scrape data directly on the device, so didn't bother).

Music just opens Music and does nothing... I do have songs on the device with the 'one' in the title, but it doesn't load a list or anything.

Siri Suggestions are disabled on the device, but it moved the app hook from the bottom of the search to the top?

Facebook Messenger. This one is fun cause I had a chat title called 'RIP: Pour one out for the Homies" and this flags as a search result. I renamed some other chats and spotlight finds them too. This is interesting because "Show Content in Search" is disabled for this app and its still pulling data. #appleSus

// Issue Two

While testing the first issue, I ran into another one... There are huge amounts of garbage data sitting in the cache (up to YEARS ago). These seem to be related to the Family system (I have a kiddo and we use the iOS Family Tools), but the data is getting stuck in cache. Here is an example; Search 'Tale' -- Result:

ask_to_buy_requests\Purrfect Tale

This is a purchase request from 2022. So... wut? (This is unique to me, but any parent should be able to test this with an app their child requested).

// Issue Three

Time to bring things :3

Typing 'you' into the search results in massive results... I have about 40 apps on my phone for development, deliveries and communications. While its cool that iOS can handle the TONS of results its kicking out -- not cool on the content delivery. The biggest issue is the family tools, it just scrolls INDEFINITELY the years and YEARS of requests for Youtube watch time requests from the Screentime. So now we're kind of in 'wtf is happening' territory.

Another issue is you can disable searches for most apps, but the settings. So, if you search 'set' or 'setting', or nearly any word, the settings will have results. Which is hilarious when I type Camera to open the Camera App, the Settings app is the top hit.

// Fixes?

I usually come here first to see if any tricks the community came up with to mitigate this before heading over to the apple feedback. So, if you guys have tips or anything, please let me know. :3

Also, I heard that they are using AI with Siri now, but I can't find anything on this, but if they are, a disable button would be great.

IMO, as an developer/engineer, spotlight is more flawed (based on content delivery to the user). They really should put results in buckets and then put those on key turns for the user in the settings:

Account (Apple ID / iCloud)

- Family

- Health

- Identification

- Settings

- Storage

Apps

- Notifications

- Settings

- Widget

Content

- Browser

- Calendar

- Files

- Messages

- Photos

Siri

- Allow Siri to curate your results

- Allow AI assisted results

//

Before the flood of "why?", the issue is the amount of steps it takes to get to the result. The choice in buying an apple product was it was faster than android (which has this issue combined with being slow or crashing all together when trying to "hurry"). Mobile devices are still behind the desktop in terms of speed. These settings help reduce clutter and speed things up significantly.

In the above case where 'one' resulted in 10 results and can fit on the iPhone Max, typing 'You' to get to youtube results in scrolling through years of cached family data and a f_ton of apps on the device that put 'you' somewhere in their app (for fun I'll reply to this thread with the 'you' results.