search Messages iOS8 on iPhone 5s not working right

I'm having this same problem as well. I found this thread which seems to have solved other people's search issues, but mine still remain.

Re: iOS 8 message search not working

Out of curiosity, how much space is Messages taking up on your phone? Mine is over 3 gigs (I don't like deleting old ones when I have plenty capacity to store them haha)

Called Apple support and got a specialist. After restoring the phone to factory default and restoring from backup, the issue is resolved.

Specialist said that doing the OTA update immediately upon release may have caused it. Restoring the phone caused it to re-download the software without issues, since the servers aren't so overloaded.

I have the same problem. I realized that this is only an issue when you are searching for somebody that you haven't texted since you updated. As soon as you send a message to someone it will show up in your search results. I will try the restore and hopefully that works for me as well.

II'm having a slightly different issue. When I do it, it won't even return the result of the 4th conversation from top of list, so it's definitely also affecting post-update conversations for me. Restoring it worked for me just for the night, but it was broken again next morning. I'm in touxh with tech support specialists now, handling it as an emerging issue.

In my case, any messages I replied to YESTERDAY can no longer be searched. So it's 1:31AM where I am now. I can't search messages that have a time stamp of 11:59PM yesterday ( an hour and a half ago) or before that time. Frustrating. Behavior started right after iOS 8 update.

I think I have the same issue as you do. Only the first four records can be found by the search function. I have an iPhone 6. I happened a day or two after I activated the phone. Much appreciated you can share what you heard back from the tech support.

Try changing language.

General- language and region- iphone language

Put it in one you can find your way back out of, or remember how many down each option is.

Then change back to English.

I did this twice and then the search message function worked as it used to.

I cant search my messages too, this is too annoying, so is restoring the phone is the only solution, that is going to take a long time, and I dont have time. So inconvenience, honestly IOS 8 is only been a hassle, dont let me start on the battery drain issues.

Even when I did get it working by restoring and then cycling the languages, the fix reverted itself. In my particular case, the tech support engineers are looking at logs and will hopefully get back to me. I'll post an update if they find anything, in case the language thing doesn't work for anyone else 🙂

I am also having same problem. I have also tried to change languages 3-4 times. But still search deos not showing results.

Hi, I had the same problem. Changing of the language did not help for me. What helped, however, was switching Spotlight search completely off, then trying to search messages (worked immediately) and after while turning Spotlight back on again. Now the search in messages works in both messages and Spotlight from the home screen. Try and let me know if it helped to you, too.