Q: Spotlight Search shows no results

How long has it been fixed for? And are you using the same set of apps that you used before?

Since November. I have added apps since then, I'm sure. And I never bother to "close" recent apps. The one time I remember counting how many I had in the recents tray, it was 82.

Normally I just have to close Reeder.app, occasionally I have to close others. I suspect there's many causes for this bug and that it varies between devices. To me it feels like a timing bug. It's interesting that Siri always works for me even when spotlight search returns no results.

I've recently tried changing the phone's language -- that should force a complete spotlight index rebuild. I don't think it will work for long (every phone restart fixes the problem transiently). Following a language switch Spotlight works with Reeder.app running, but I'm already seeing a slower response. It's the same thing I see after a restart.

I think I tried a complete wipe/restore some time ago, but I'll try it again since it has worked persistently for you. Quitting background apps is very annoying.

I suspect Spotlight search result failure has many causes, including ill-behaved applications (or very demanding ones) and iOS 9 bugs. My guess is that the 6s will be resistant, so if you have a 6s you might have had an easier cure.

jfaughnan wrote:

 

I suspect Spotlight search result failure has many causes, including ill-behaved applications (or very demanding ones) and iOS 9 bugs. My guess is that the 6s will be resistant, so if you have a 6s you might have had an easier cure.

I'm inclined to agree that it is one symptom of many different problems. I have an iPhone 6.

I'm on a 6 too, so I'll try the wipe and restore then -- assuming the language change fix is transient.

Otherwise I'm getting accustomed to using Siri, and killing Reeder.app almost always restores my search results.

I do have a large volume of indexable data on my phone.

Well, I tried the 'switch language to rebuild spotlight index' trick. It worked for about 6 hours, during which time spotlight search took longer ... and longer ... to appear. Then it failed. I'm back to force-quitting Reeder.app. Shame I use that app so often.

My next step would be to try a wipe and restore, but I've a hunch that won't work for my particular version of the spotlight problem. It's also easier to learn to force-quit Reeder.app than work through a wipe/restore.

I really don't get the advantage of iOS 9 multitasking. iOS 8 met my background processing needs...

It most definitely is a bug that is somehow linked to ram or faulty apps that started when I upgraded to iOS 9, unfortunately I just don't know much about how iOS works so can't comment much.  I have exactly the same issue jfaughan with my iPhone 6 and now it's happened on my iPad Air 2!  It even made it's way into my 9.3 upgrade too.  I already wiped mine and restored from backup, it worked great for a few days then the blank results came back.  Even tried everything mentioned in above posts.  The only way I've found it starts working again is by killing apps.  I've tried troubleshooting by killing individual apps and checking but it's impossible to know for sure which app/s in particular it may be as it's random.  Nothing has stood out but it usually works after killing a few apps, hence the possible reason for it maybe being a ram issue?  I'm sure I'm mentioned this before, but is it possible that it's also linked to location as Spotlight has different features for people all around the world?  This is highly frustrating as Spotlight is a huge part of the operating system and I have reported this to Apple but have had no feedback.  Surely this is happening for more than a few people in the world?

Maybe one final attempt to get rid of the bug is to wipe the phone then set it up as a new device?  I'm not keen though at this stage as I have loads of apps and it will be a mission setting them all up again.  Has anyone tried this?  Rather than restoring from a backup.

I Think you and I have the no-workaround version of the 9.x spotlight disease. I think the t is worse with 9.3 so we will h more company.

If you have already tried the language switch spotlight index rebuild and a wipe restore I doubt a fresh install will help.

SIri should help with app launching. You may be able to identity apps to routinely force quit.

I suspect this will need iOS 10.

Nastiest ios bug I have personally experienced. .

jfaughnan wrote:

 

Well, I tried the 'switch language to rebuild spotlight index' trick. It worked for about 6 hours, during which time spotlight search took longer ... and longer ... to appear. Then it failed. I'm back to force-quitting Reeder.app. Shame I use that app so often.

It sounds as if your problem is with Reeder. What happens if you delete that app and test? If it works, contact the developers of that app. I don't use it.

Reeder.app is the worst offender, and with 9.2.x it was rare to lose search and need to quite any other app.

With 9.3.0 though I get spotlight fails even when I don't run Reeder.app. That's why I think the bug is worse with iOS 9.3; I now have to background quit more apps.

I have an unusual volume of indexable data on my phone. My Calendar use (mildly) breaks Calendars 5.app, I have thousands of Contacts, and then there's Reeder.app. I think I'm getting the power-user-effect -- a universal bug manifests more often. I suspect devices with 2GB of RAM will be far less impacted, but my i6 has only 1GB.

If I get very bored I might try a full wipe and restore, but I just got a report of someone like me (also on i6) where wipe/restore didn't work. So I'll just keep quitting the background apps and using the Siri workaround (Siri always works).

Maybe the bug will get fixed in iOS 10. I usually wait for 4+ months before doing an iOS update, but if it's fixed in 10 I'll go earlier.

PS. I did contact Reeder.app's dev via email and twitter, but he's notorious for not responding. I wish he'd switch to a rental model and fix issues faster, but it is what it is. There aren't a lot of great RSS clients for iOS.

PPS. Do you know if turning spotlight off for apps alters indexing or just what shows up in search? My hunch is that it only alters results, everything gets indexed regardless of setting...

jfaughnan wrote:

 

With 9.3.0 though I get spotlight fails even when I don't run Reeder.app. That's why I think the bug is worse with iOS 9.3; I now have to background quit more apps.

Given that, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very uncommon problem, I don't think it's a bug in the iOS that Apple is just going to release a fix for. Based on what you're describing, it's probably app related. Restore from new. Test with no third party apps. If everything works as designed, start adding apps back in small groups. This should make it easier to figure out which apps are causing the problem.

I could try that, but it's much easier to live with my workarounds and see if it's fixed in iOS 10. I'm also going to get a 6s with 2GB RAM (daughter owed my i6 and I really want headphone jack) and I think the bigger RAM will help.

I have a history of experiencing OS bugs that are not very common but do get fixed eventually -- both on iOS and OS X. I just do more stuff than most.

I'm sort of glad 9.3 makes it worse. That means more people will see it, so Apple will move a fix up the schedule. I bet they know what's wrong.

jfaughnan wrote:

 

I could try that, but it's much easier to live with my workarounds and see if it's fixed in iOS 10. I'm also going to get a 6s with 2GB RAM (daughter owed my i6 and I really want headphone jack) and I think the bigger RAM will help.

If it's easier for you to keep quitting apps and being annoyed by it and hoping that, maybe, it might be fixed in 6 months or a year, rather than figuring it out, that's entirely your prerogative.

It's unlikely that you "do more" with your iPhone than I do.

We could have a power-user throwdown :-). Seriously, I wonder if you'll start seeing more issues with 9.3. Did you do the beta?

I'll have a 6s in Aug/Sept, so only 4-5 months. I haven't seen any reports of my problem with 6s, I think the 2GB RAM helps a lot. I'm getting used to force-quits, so it's not too bad.

jfaughnan wrote:

 

We could have a power-user throwdown :-). Seriously, I wonder if you'll start seeing more issues with 9.3. Did you do the beta?

I would never put beta software on my everyday device.