Spotlight Search Not Working on iOS 12.1

I am using a iPhone xs max 256GB and I recently encountered the same problem: spotlight search returns empty result after my phone runs for 2-8 hours. I have tried all suggestions and none seems to cure the problem, so I've decided to dig a little deeper. I don't have a solution yet but wanna share my findings here.

1. I have a huge iCloud photo library (83000+ items) and have 500+ installed apps. I thought disabling siri suggestion for photo would fix it. It didn't. I then disabled ALL apps from using siri suggestion. It didn't fix the problem either.
2. I hooking up my iPhone with mac running Xcode and looked at the console log to see why spotlight search dint' return anything. I found out that the "searchd" process is kicked off every time i type in spotlight search text box, but the "searchd" process was crashing (exited) due to low memory. It then respawn itself but got killed again, and again. Rebooting the iPhone would revive spotlight search for a while but eventually "searchd" will get into the state of not having enough memory to start.

My theory is that: "searchd" is using sqlite as db (I think) and my accumulated spotlight search index has became too big to be used. I can't find any way to remove the spotlight index on iOS so I am stuck. I tried reinstalling 12.1.4 hoping the installation process would clean the spotlight index and make it anew. It didn't.

Right now my options are: 1) wait for 12.2 to come out and hope either this bug is fix or 2) erase my iPhone and reinstall (not restore) all apps from scratch. It is painful and time consuming so I ain't doing it at the moment.

I am hoping Apple is reading this forum and give some suggestions.

Good! Once you get the the Spotlight Search and Setting search working with a minimal set of app enabled for “Siri and Search”, you can then try to re-enable search for those apps one by one, starting with apps that are important to your daily usage.

I ended with up many apps I don’t use often with “Siri and Search” disabled. So far my Spotlight Search has been working since then.

hope this helps.

I contacted apple a number of times. Earlier this week again. The only solution they suggest is restore iphone which I haven’t done yet. So apple is aware of this issue.

Deleting shortcuts on my home screen fixed it

It’s crazy that we’re on 12.2 and it’s still not fixed. Can you guys see this bug report?

https://bugreport.apple.com/web/?problemID=49888396

If so it would be good to add your weight to it.

Same issue. After I restart the search starts working. Once the phone gets locked and a passcode is needed the search problem comes back. Contacted apple support a number of times and they suggest to reset and restore. Don’t have the time to do so. Apple should know better

What is iTools 4.0. Did the problem come back after u lock and unlock the phone?

on my phone if I disable the passcode then the search function keeps working. Although you have to restart the phone once.

This has NEVER worked for me since I upgraded my iPhone X to the XS Max, with all versions of iOS 12 (12, 12.1 and 12.2). It worked fine with the SAME iCloud backup/restore on my previous phone.

I have posted this bug on both the general Apple bug reporter as well as my Apple Beta account.

Like others, my spotlight search and mail search are completely broken, but I can dictate "Hey Siri, open AppName" with no problem. Some of the workarounds described in this thread (and others) will sometimes work for one or two attempts but eventually it returns to having no results show up.

My system:

• • XS Max 256 GB model (with about 200 GB free)
  • One MDM profile installed (MaaS360) for my work (which is required for me to keep installed)
  • 5 email accounts (work, iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, and Cox)
  • 30K+ photos (5 GB); 700 videos
  • 329 apps

What I have done so far that has NOT worked:

1. 1. Did the language swap (US to UK and back)...this sometimes fixes it for one or two sessions and then breaks again.
   2. Soft resets
   3. Removed all shortcuts stored on the home screen
   4. Full factory reset and restore from iCloud backup
   5. Disabled Siri from most of the apps
   6. Disabled both search options under Mail's preferences

Spotlight Search on my iPhone 8 stopped working since I installed iOS 12. I did all fix suggestions from restart, change the language ... to factory reset. Nothing helped!!! This is definite software bug and many users are reporting the same issue. On top of that I started to have search issues on my MacBook too.

It seems that with each new version of iOS things are getting worse. Possible we are at the beginning of the end of Apple era. This has been going on since iOS 12 was introduced and it is absolutely unacceptable from Apple to ignore the bug that long. Even suggestions like "erasing everything, setting the phone up as new and then erasing again and restoring it" do not work and are just misdirecting.

If this issue persists a I will be forced to switch to android and/or windows devices as basic search function is essential!!!!

Thanks! That’s a good tip to keep in mind if i run into that same problem later.

My procedure (see my post earlier) fixed the search bug and i have been proceeding rather carefully keep any new apps. Yeah, i had way too many apps (500+apps from US App Store, Hong Kong App Store, and China App Store) installed so Spotlight failed due to memory starvation.

I have an iPhone 8 running iOS 12.3.1

I was unable to search for apps or contacts with spotlight.

The post from janericster was helpful in restoring this functionality although it did take some time.

However, search is still not working within the Settings app. I tried the tip on changing the language and changing it back to no avail

Thanks again to janericster for the help!

Same problem. Restarting the phone fixes it for a short time for me then it gets stuck again. 12.1.2, iPhone X.

Please fix that Apple!!!

I had the Spotlight Search and Settings Search not working at all issue. This fixed it for me. I also force closed all apps before reboot and after reboot.

iPhone language shall be from the list of set preferred languages. This may solve the problem. Worked for me...

steps from the link above... this worked for me:

1. Go to Settings: General: Language
2. Change your Language to English (UK)
3. Force close the Settings app
4. Go to Settings: General: Language again
5. Change your Language back to English (US). Enjoy your Settings Search fully functional again! 🙂