in the Notes app, searching for a note doesn’t always work. for example it comes up on the iPhone but Not on the iPad AND vice versa. So doesn’t seem to be a device specific problem. Since IOS 12 as far as I can tell.
How does it work? is there an index created that I can force? Does the search option go online (Notes are synced to cloud) ?
VIN, iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)
Somewhere else it was suggested to create a new Notes folder, and move all the notes from one folder to the new one (and back if you want):
Now you can either wait until the Notes are moved and then work with this new folder (which includes the rebuild of the index), or chose to move them back in the original folder the same way (which also includes a rebuild of the search index).
Please note that the new search does not work instantly. I had several hundred notes, and it took a while until the search finally worked. Initially it seemed as nothing has changed - I could not even search and find the first note that was at the top of the list. But after about 15 minutes, the search worked and was covering the whole app. I guess it works in the background for a while.
Also note that I did fix this in combinations of the other methods suggested - so it's not 100% proven which solution works best, but why not try all?
Somewhere else it was suggested to create a new Notes folder, and move all the notes from one folder to the new one (and back if you want):
Now you can either wait until the Notes are moved and then work with this new folder (which includes the rebuild of the index), or chose to move them back in the original folder the same way (which also includes a rebuild of the search index).
Please note that the new search does not work instantly. I had several hundred notes, and it took a while until the search finally worked. Initially it seemed as nothing has changed - I could not even search and find the first note that was at the top of the list. But after about 15 minutes, the search worked and was covering the whole app. I guess it works in the background for a while.
Also note that I did fix this in combinations of the other methods suggested - so it's not 100% proven which solution works best, but why not try all?
The solution given to me by Apple support is simple, and works.
Double click Home Button
Swipe up at each app individually to clear off screen
Go to Settings
Select Siri and Search
Scroll down to Notes app and select it
Slide to off position both ‘Siri and Suggestions’ and ‘Allow on Lock Screen’
Exit Settings
Reset iPad by pressing Home Screen button and On-Off button simultaneously until it closes down, and then press On button.
Go back to Settings and select Siri and Search again
Scroll down to Notes, select it, and now slide back on ‘Siri and Suggestions’ and ‘Allow on Lock Screen’ to on position
Return to Notes, and it should now have repopulated search.
Sometimes I’ve had to do this twice in a run, as first attempt only brings a selection of Notes up, but not all of them, but on second attempt, they all are there again.
Hope this helps someone.
The steps to get my search field in my notes app have not worked since my last couple of iOS upgrades. I do not want to close my notes app because I have tons of notes and don’t want to risk losing them. I want Apple to Tx this issue in the next iOS upgrade please.
OMG! I don’t ever use Siri but i just turned it off and turned it off and i think it has solved my problem a search reveals many more hits now. I think you found the fix Thank You.
As for Apple Thanks for nothing. How do they get away with these bugs that impact so many customers for so long without being on to them. They are so oblivious to the annoyance caused. And if they identified it and fixed it immediately they wouldn’t have so much support time used up! Look at the time of people in this thread that they have wasted. (Amazingly you still don’t have a function that enables you to search for a word within a note ... but that’s a whole other story)
LIFT YOUR GAME APPLE!
I had this issue with my iPhone XR. Turning the Search & Siri Suggestions in Notes off and back on solved the problem.
Thank you!
I had this on my iPhone. Here's how I fixed it:
Your notes will repopulate and be searchable again.
This problem has been making me crazy for months. I finally decided to dedicate some time to fixing it. Talked to Apple support and they had no fixes in mind. Finally found this thread and good news, turning Siri Search off and on worked. Now let's see if this problem stays fixed.
I have the same issue on an iPhone 7 since iOS 12.0 - up to current version 12.1.2. Some notes are not found.
I have over 3100 notes LOCALLY (not iCloud), started in 2009. Turning Siri/Search for notes off and on again does indeed create a new index.
However it does NOT solve the problem, because everytime some different notes are missing (not found) when searching.
I already turned off/on search about 20 times to recreate the index and then it finds notes it didn't find before, but then notes it did find before are now missing in the search results. Date does not seem an issue, it randomly does not find notes of any date.
VERY frustrating! When will this finally be fixed??
Creating a new folder for notes on my iPhone and copying the notes from the existing folder to the new folder and then back temporarily solves the problem for not more than 24 hours. It’s the same situation for turning off iCloud for notes and then turning it back on.
After doing the intervention, I’m suddenly able to search on my notes and find everything. If I wait a few hours later though, I can still search many of my notes, but I get less search results than I did before. If I do it a day later, the problem is the same as if I had never done any of the interventions.
When I got with Apple Tech Support, the service was awful. They had me do a lot of time-consuming things such as reset the phone to factory settings and then reload everything and try to see if that worked which it didn’t. Finally, I was able to get a replacement phone to try to fix the issue but no difference. The phone I was using was iPhone 6s. When the replacement phone didn’t work properly for this and for other issues, and Tech Support at all levels couldn’t help me, I was given another replacement phone Apple iPhone 8S, which has the same exact problem. A different issue also is it system memory takes up approximately half of the storage capacity even in a phone that has over 200 GB of memory, but this is a separate issue from the Notes searching function.
I’m used to having an iPhone and my wife has one also which makes me reluctant to change quickly. But it seems that I am always using something with limited functionality because so many different functions don’t seem to work properly and I end up on forums like this trying to research it on my own.
This is seriously irritating. the "siri & search" works for a couple searches. every time i have to search, I have to do this. unbelievable. Samsung is looking better and better
There are ways to move all notes to a new folder and turn off 'Siri search'.
However, both methods do not last long.
None of these solutions fixed mine. I am a big Notes user. This is very frustrating. My search has always been able to find old notes with the search component, but not recent. I have had an iphone since the first version and I’ve been praying for afix since then. This bug finally seemed to be fixed abt 4-6 weeks ago. I was jumping up and down for joy. I’m back to no joy! It hasn’t been working for the past 2 weeks again. Ugh!
Thank you becky_s22 your advice fixed my problem, it was doing my head in not being able to search my notes by name as I have 932 and didn’t want to trawler through them all one by one. I am truly grateful for your help 😃
I did this on my iphone 6s and then replacement 8s (replacement sent after apple/verizon/asurian tech support unable to fix note problem). In the case of both phones, it only temporarily fixes the note search function. Wait a few hours and it is back to not working again. Factory reset, switching notes from folder to folder, turning off and on icloud for note app, either don't work at all for me (factory reset), or only solve the problem for a day at most.
Search in the Notes app doesn’t always work
