Spotlight Search Not Working on iOS 12.1

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 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.

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.

Hi, i'm also having the exact same issue! I updated my ios to 12.2 but the problem still persist... I can't search for anything. Messages, emails or apps... It's so frustrating. Did you find a solution?

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!

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.

Same problem here (iPhone 7). Done everything wrote in this discussion (except for the hard reset of the iPhone, since I read that some people done it with poor results. I don't want to waste my time) without positive results.

Now I also updated to iOS 13 beta. Guess what? Problem not solved (ok, it is a Beta, but....)

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!

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

As I posted a while ago, I had the exact same issues with the search. It would come and go and only be temporarily fixed after using all of those workarounds.

If it keeps coming back, the only solution that I have seen is to do a full iOS backup, wipe and restore using iTunes. See my message earlier in this thread. I did it a couple of months ago and it has worked great ever since.

robnguyen wrote: "Same problem!"

Rob ~ Let Apple know here:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

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Try following these steps. I had the same problem, and this resolved it for me.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8575180

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.

Navigate to: Settings > Siri & Search

Turn on ‘App’ for each app you want search to find.