iPhone photos and messages not indexing after iOS 17 Update

Per the Apple help desk this is known issue. Even the person troubleshooting my issue had this exact problem. We just need more people to report it so that they prioritize fixing in their next release. Frustrating that this is happening still after several updates.

I restored my data from an iCloud backup from an iPhone 12 Pro Max to an iPhone 15 Pro Max and none of my messages have indexed. I even wiped the iPhone 15 Pro Max back to factory settings and did a restore directly from my iPhone 12 Pro Max - nothing. I was working with a support technician who eventually handed it over to a Senior tech, who inevitably ended up telling me it is a "known issue" and to "keep my phone updated."

Very disappointed. I use the "one year ago" feature daily, and scroll through shared photos with my contacts quite frequently both for work and personal reasons. Now 10+ years of photos sent through messages cannot be accessed unless I sit there and scroll through the texts for hours.

This makes me want to keep my iPhone 12 Pro Max - at least my messages are all indexed on it. So disappointed.

I still have my old iPhone (13). I have updated to iOS 17 and all the recent patches, but my photos are still a mess. When I search for something specific, I get hundreds of incorrect results. I rely heavily on the photo indexing feature, and I went to a lot of trouble in the past to tag my photos.

Please fix this problem ASAP as it is beyond frustrating to those of us who use the indexing feature every day.

17.2 did NOT fix it for me….years and years of iMessage messages, photos, links, & documents not indexed & still unsearchable. Super frustrating we are on a x.2 update with still NO fix. For additional context: I also do not have iCloud messages enabled, so all indexing should be occurring locally anyways…but it doesn’t seem to be doing so!

Similar problem here. Since updating to iOS17 my iPhone library is only partially sync’d. Every search just brings up a percentage (or none)!of what it does on my Mac. I wish there were some way to force synchronisation.

So if you can believe this, mine has been working perfectly since 17.1 …last night I updated the 17.2 and none of my indexing is working… I can’t even search a word that I was able to search yesterday and result over 100 photos now I get zero nothing… This is definitely frustrating because I had some things I needed to search in my photos for some post for the holidays and now again I’m stuck like I was before 😡

I see the 17.1 folks had their issue solved but I updated from 15.2 to 17.4.1 and I’m having this issue now.

I can scroll back and perhaps find photos but who has the time?

Ive tried every troubleshooting answer out there from restarts to logging in and out of iMessage, iCloud, and anything thing else.

Nothing is working. Apple, what are you doing to address this??

Mine hasn’t fixed even after the update. What a shame.

I wasn’t sure if it was a transfer from old phone to iPhone 15 or an iOS 17 issue. I daily look at “Feature” photos and then my “one year ago” photos. It’s not recognizing any in the one year ago. I can even type the date in and it only gives date found in text of photos, even though I can scroll back to the date in the camera roll and find pictures taken on this date there.

I still have my old phone and it’s working properly but I also haven’t upgraded to iOS 17 on it either, that’s why I wasn’t sure which might be causing the issue: new phone or new iOS? But I want it fixed! Temper tantrum over! 😉

Now it’s over a month since your post, and I just restored my data from iCloud to my new iPhone15 Pro Max and have the same issue with photos (as well as some other glitches.) super frustrating and disappointing as I, too, use the photo search function constantly.

I think I have to return this phone.

The senior advisor recommend me to let the phone fully sync (not paused) in a stable network connection. I left my phone over the weekend and everything seems to get back in place, at least no other problem yet. (2 weeks alr)

I have exactly the same problem!!!

iPhone 12 Pro Max, with IOS 17.3.

Hey, Apple guys, don’t you think this is inadmissible??? We are talking about a device that costed 1399€ (not even mention the fellows that bought their iPhones recently…). I’m always praising Apple software above it’s most rival Android, but have to start rethinking this approach.

Hoping that someone at Apple take good care of this problem. Never thought Apple would take so long to solve an issue!!!

Best regards,

Amândio Antunes, a mere Apple enthusiast!

Hi, after trying to find a solution, I read that by simply plugging into your WIFI and leaving your phone for a couple of hours (or perhaps even less, as I resisted the urge to check! ), everything went back to normal.

Later I searched for “ Italy “ and 827 photos appeared. So happy. Hope this works for you too….