Spotlight Search Not Working on iOS 12.1

UPDATE (FIXED FOR ME):

So after talking with Apple Support, I tried one last thing: a FULL factory reset, then plug the phone into my Mac and restore by downloading the iOS 12 software through iTunes and THEN do a full restore from the backup.

After 4 days of use, the search is fully functional (which has never happened since I got the phone).

Note that doing a factory reset and restore using the iPhone by itself did NOT work. Rather, you have to restore from iTunes so that it downloads a fresh copy of the iOS software and reinstall it.

I can now finally swipe down and type one letter and the search immediately displays all apps on my phone beginning with that letter as it should have all along.

Search in Mail also finally works.

NOTE regarding backup: I did an encrypted backup to my MacBook Pro to make it go faster AND to save all of my passwords to save time. This also restored my MDM profile for work which eliminates the need to reinstall that. The entire process to backup, restore phone to factory preset, download iOS and restore from encrypted backup took about 2 hours. Well worth getting my full search back in my opinion.

I had this issue for a few weeks, until now, on my iphone.

I tried everything except a total reset: switching languages, disabling random stuff in the Siri options, upgrading (I'm in the beta program). Everything to no avail.

Then I enabled the console logs, and I've noticed that one of the last things before the searchd started behaving kind of weirdly was a problem with getting a SB (springboard?) icon:

Feb 25 16:41:27 nameofmyphone searchd(SpotlightServices)[13663] <Notice>: loaded canned models

Feb 25 16:41:28 nameofmyphone searchd(AppPredictionInternal)[13663] <Error>: Could not get SB icon state

I then used iTools 4.0 (the free version) ---> Toolbox ---> icon fixer and... magic! Right now search works and is super fast. It's only been 15 minutes, but I haven't had such a fast search in some time. Hopefully it will last.

OK, I went through this painful process of 'Erase All Content and Settings' and restore. I did the iCloud restore though.

It will take a week probably until the faces of my 30K iCloud photo library will be scanned, but so far, since 24 hours, the spotlight problem has been fixed for me.

Thanks!

I might have found a work around to the Spotlight search not working problem. However, I haven't nailed down the the exact cause yet. Here are the steps I took to get my Spotlight search working again (at least partially).

My thinking about this problem is that "searchd" process is running out of memory (see my last post) so I think disabling everything spotlight related might cut down the memory consumption. The first thing I did was to remove apps i don't really need. I started with about 600+ apps install and now down to 500.

1. Disabled keyboard "Predictive" and "Checking Spelling". under Settings -> General -> Keyboard.
2. Removed all the dictionaries under Settings -> General -> Dictionary
3. This step is tedious considering I had hundreds of app. Under Settings -> Siri & Search, for each app listed, turn off "Siri & Suggestions".
4. Reboot.

I was able to now do Spotlight search and launch apps by typing. I let the phone run for couple of days to make sure that this solution holds up, and it did. Then i re-enable apps one-by-one that I must use Spotlight search: Notes, Contact, Mail, etc. Remember to just enable few app to try out of the spotlight still runs after a day or two. If spotlight stops working, then you can nail down to which app spotlight has problem indexing.

So far, I have re-enabled spotlight for all Apple apps except Photos and spotlight is still working. I have 80,000+ photos in my iCloud library and i don't need to search for photo often so I just leave it at that. I worry that a large photo library would create an index too big for Spotlight to run in memory. Other largish apps including Evernote (6000+ notes) are suspicious too so I haven't reenabled spotlight for them.

I follow the directions here and restarting and resetting and etc. This seems to work for the initial restart but the problem comes back afterward. I think I found the solution to my problem. My apple mail app is pulling in my Gmail and Yahoo mail as well. I think the spotlight search is going through the mail threads as well. After I disable the external mail account with the apple mail app the spotlight search is working once again.

All - I've had this issue for months as well. I was about to do the erase and restore, but read one of the comments about Siri shortcuts. I didn't think I had any but when I looked there was one. I removed this and it works! I locked and tried again, it still works!

I will continue to try this and if it stops I'll report back here.

Good luck everyone!

I had to do the exact same thing.

Backup to iTunes

Erase content and settings,

Restore from iTunes

First time restoring a device in my 8 years as an iPhone user.

Yesss!!! Software update to iOS 12.4 fixed it!! Hallelujah.

Try changing the language to English (UK). Test it. If it works change back to English (US). Should still work.

worked for me anyway.

apple were unable to assist. Yesterday I finally took the hard way. Erased all my settings and set the phone as new and restored with backup. The search is working fine now

It also work for me after i erase all contents and settings. Seems like it's the only way. Changing the language & changing back again doesn't work...

Has been fixed for the last 4 or days after I did an 'Erase All Content and Settings' after backing up via Itunes. After the phone was reset back to factory settings, I restored and problem seems to be fixed. A major pain to have to do this.

I erased and set up as a new phone. Search was working perfectly till i started creating shortcuts on my home screen. I haven’t taken the time to repeat the process again to prove it without doubt, but i’m suspecting that has something to do with it.

This problem come and goes. Still cant pinpoint what is the main cause of breaking the search but now after update to 12.4 spotlight search is working again.

IIRC i got this problem 3 times on my iphone xs max . First solved by language change, second time switched all siri suggestion off one by one, third one updated to 12.4 and it magically healed itself.

not sure what will trigger it to break again but hope it will not come back again

Me too.. changing language or rebooting my phone fixes it temporary. Pretty annoying