Can’t Search Messages since iOS 17 Update!

I hate this new update! I often need to search my text messages for work related questions and NOW I CAN NOT. It shows me message from the day. I need my messages from a month ago. I do not have time to search through all of this! HELLLLPPPPP!

Same here. This is big. I have followed steps of turning off Siri & Search and in iMessages based on old articles I've found and nothing solves this problem. I use search a lot in iMessage for personal and work purposes. iMessage search is basically useless right now.

Happy to say that 17.1 fixes this issue. Here's how it worked for me:

1. I installed 17.1
2. I went to Settings > Messages > Siri & Search, and turned off all the options.
3. I restarted my phone.
4. I went back to Settings > Messages > Siri & Search, and turned back on all the options.

Over the past several hours, the messages have slowly been indexed.

Hope this helps.

This helped me 😀

My apps not working correctly after iOS 1… - Apple Community

Try and Force Restart your iPhone EXACTLY as shown below and see whether that resolves the issue: Press and quickly release Volume UP button. Press and quickly release Volume DOWN button. Press and Hold the SIDE button until an Apple logo appears and then release the Side button (Can take up to 20 seconds.

as far as I can tell, the search technically works but only with messages sent or received on iOS 17 are indexed. This is the case for my launch day iPhone 15 Pro and my 2 year old iPad Pro now running iPadOS 17. This also applies to all the links and photos when you drill down to the contact in the individual chat. Very broken.

Hi, This has been extremely frustrating. I logged a complaint with Apple support and I have an assigned case #. They called me and said Apple is aware of the problem and that it will be fixed in an upcoming update. This was when I updated to 17.0.3. They did not specify whether 17.1 will fix this.

I have not yet updated to 17.1

Has this issue been resolved in 17.1?

Thanks in advance.

I had this issue as well and I was able to fix it! I figured out that for me, it was because not all of my iMessages had downloaded from iCloud. This is how I fixed it:

1. Before bed, I put my phone on the charger and was prepared not to use it for the rest of the night

2. Settings —> Apple ID, iCloud+, Media & Purchases (at the top) —> iCloud —> Show All (under Apps Using iCloud) —> Messages —> toggle off “Sync this iPhone” —> click “Disable and Download Messages” —> wait a minute or so, then toggle back on “Sync this iPhone”

3. Open iMessages app (there should be a message at the bottom of the screen that reads “Syncing with iCloud”)

4. Set my phone down without locking it (still plugged in) and didn’t touch it for the rest of the night (I don’t know if the “without locking it” part was necessary, it may still work if you lock the phone but this is what I did [I had my auto-lock display settings set to “Never”])

5. The next morning, I tried searching a word I know I’ve used a lot over the years and was able to see everything :)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

From what I’ve read, this is fixed in the for 17.1. Some have indicated a manual reset of indexing may also be required once installing the new version. I’d be a bit surprised if that is actually the case especially with a final version released to the public. That said, it blows my mind how this one got past Apple in the first place since it’s a headline feature they completely broke.

I have 35GB of Messages. I had my 15 Pro Max plugged in overnight. Woke up this morning and did another search in messages and I’m very happy to report it I can now see results all the way back to 2010! The indexing worked! I didn’t do anything special, just upgraded to iOS 17.1 and gave it time to index. And another bonus, Notes search now works again too! 👍👏🙌

under the search box in the text message. After toggling the search button a few times and a couple hard resets….. the search option is working now.

I'm sorry to hear that! This year looks like one of those years that Apple has not fully tested all of the features of iOS 17 before launching it. I didn't have the phone warming problem like others have, but that problem made some noise at least. I purchased the iPhone 15 Pro too.