iOS 18 Mail Search Results Limited on iPhone 16

Question

Level 1

56 points

iOS 18 Mail Search Results Limited on iPhone 16

iOS 18. iPhone 16. I can receive and send mail normally. No problem.

The issue is when searching for email subjects, there are a little or no results. I know for sure that I have many results for a specific topic especially when dealing with my website.

I'm getting this message:

"Some Results May Not Appear. Mail downloads and organizes messages when iPhone is locked, charging, and connected to Wi-Fi. Large accounts like this may take longer."

I've always been able to search email and get many results all along until recently.

My phone has been locked, charging and connected to Wi-Fi all the time when I'm not taking it outside. Nothing changes.

I've done force restarts and have the latest iOS.

Any advice, please? Thanks!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16

Posted on Oct 3, 2024 8:17 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Valandil2009

Level 1

26 points

Dec 5, 2024 7:10 PM in response to huntfor

As another user posted earlier, simply removing all the email accounts (other than my @icloud.com email) and adding them back in resolved it for me. I have 6 email accounts. Search works perfectly for all of them again.

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Answer 2

huntfor Author

Level 1

56 points

Dec 13, 2024 1:15 PM in response to adfriedman2

Here are the steps to remove your account and then to add it back in.

To reset your Mail account:

Open SETTINGS and scroll down to the bottom to APPS. Tap on Mail.

Tap on Mail accounts.

Select the email account that you want to delete/reset. DO NOT CHOOSE THE iCloud ACCOUNT.

Tap delete and confirm delete.

You don’t have to, but I power off (shut down/reboot) my phone after I make changes like this.

TO ADD A MAIL ACCOUNT BACK IN:

Settings > Apps > Mail > Mail accounts. Tap Add Account.

Select your mail provider ( yahoo Google, etc.) you’ll be prompted to sign in.

Sign in and select or deselect calendar, notes, etc. - whatever you don’t use for that particular mail account.

SAVE. You may have to rename the account unless you just have one account for yahoo or Gmail or whichever one you use.

Also, I went back to the settings and changed archive to trash.

Let me know if you have any questions.

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Answer 3

stan1566

Level 1

32 points

Nov 27, 2024 6:31 PM in response to huntfor

I deleted and reloaded my email accounts into Mail and it fixed mine. They now show what I was searching for, and are in date order, although still have the 'Some results may not appear' message down the bottom.

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Answer 4

huntfor Author

Level 1

56 points

Dec 7, 2024 2:37 PM in response to stan1566

Thank you for the solution! I deleted my two main Email accounts, one at a time, and checked that nothing got messed up.

It was really easy to set them up again because everything was prefilled.

Now I have mail all the way back to 2006 or probably earlier than that, but I was looking for something from iPhone Life magazine and I found it!

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Answer 5

huntfor Author

Level 1

56 points

Dec 6, 2024 12:11 PM in response to stan1566

I deleted the two email boxes that I rely on the most and reconnected them.

I also still have the “some results may not appear” down on the bottom of the last message.

I also changed the setting again from “archive” to “trash”. I have no use for archiving anything. If I want to save it, I have a specific folder for it.

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Answer 6

AlWeir

Level 5

5,085 points

Nov 17, 2024 5:12 AM in response to UrNotFly

Contact Apple

Official Apple Support

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Answer 7

Nov 25, 2024 9:07 AM in response to huntfor

The fix: use outlook app

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Answer 8

Nov 29, 2024 3:49 AM in response to huntfor

This has been widely reported in my workplace by many users. Search has always been very buggy but iOS 18 has made it worse.

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Answer 9

huntfor Author

Level 1

56 points

Dec 6, 2024 12:13 PM in response to Valandil2009

I removed my main two mail accounts and added them back again. The same message is still at the bottom about “some results may not appear“.

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Answer 10

Nov 17, 2024 3:46 AM in response to huntfor

I am encountering the same issue on iPhone 14 Pro Max with 18.1 installed. It is really annoying as I am basically not able to find mails in my inbox anymore. All search results are almost a month old or older. Newer mails are never found.

When will there be a fix??

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Answer 11

hud7800

Level 1

26 points

Nov 20, 2024 1:31 PM in response to huntfor

I have contacted Apple three different times now about this issue and they are essentially clueless. A "senior technician" has called me twice now with zero results and no commitment to any type of fix. He even said this may be "expected behavior" for the new IOS software which is a nightmare answer. Apple has totally lost their focus on the customer and if you cannot search your emails on the phone what is the point of the device!

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Answer 12

stan1566

Level 1

32 points

Nov 28, 2024 2:24 PM in response to huntfor

I set up one (that rhymes with email) and the rest seemed to work. (I have multiple as well). Its still a bit sketchy (may be my iphone11 or home internet causing the reversion) but generally seems to eventually work. Still shouldn't happen. Lots of things getting 'fixed' that don't need fixing in the name of "innovation". (Or they like to call it 'optimization'). If it doesn't work or is harder to use, then its neither optimized nor innovative. Developers need to assess if it is a genuine improvement, and if not, then leave it alone.

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Answer 13

Dec 13, 2024 9:30 AM in response to stan1566

So my phone has delayed updates. It was at 18 now it’s at 18.1.1 but my two iPads are at 18.2 and now they cannot access more than one or two old emails and only recent ones when doing a search. So I opened up my yahoo app and I have no problems whatsoever so it has to be the Mail Apple app? I was wanting to know how to Reset my Mail app?

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