Level 1

23 points

Spotlight Search Not Working on iOS 12.1

Hi,

I’ve recently updated to iOS 12.1 on my iPhone 8 Plus, although this issue was also present in iOS 12 (I updated to try and solve the issue).

Basically, whenever I got to spotlight search and search for anything, I get no results - the same issue occurs in settings when I try to search for a setting. I've done some googling and can't seem to find anybody reporting the same issue as me.

I also have an iPhone 6, running on iOS 12, and spotlight search and search in settings works perfectly.

I have attached a screenshot of trying to use spotlight search to find the app Amazon, which I have downloaded on my device. After pressing search, the Siri suggestions stay, and nothing appears. After about 5 seconds, the Siri suggestions completely dissapear and the options to search web, app store, and maps appear about 5-10 seconds later.

I found some suggestions of changing the language region, restarting the device, and then switching it back again. This did not work.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Thanks,

Jake

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 12.1

Posted on Nov 11, 2018 12:38 AM

Top-ranking reply

janericster

Level 1

69 points

Posted on May 6, 2019 9:10 AM

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.

View in context

79 replies

Feb 26, 2019 7:49 PM in response to S-Mu

Did any of you get this resolved?

Do yall have any profile installed? Like itweak or anything? I heard that could affect it

Qubits

Level 1

38 points

Feb 26, 2019 7:50 PM in response to gitarzzan

No profile installed and no, this didn't get resolved. Hopeful for the next update...

Mar 5, 2019 6:43 AM in response to jakerussell1

same problem !

Mar 19, 2019 10:51 AM in response to coldcube31

This worked for me, too.

Apr 6, 2019 2:59 PM in response to jakerussell1

How many people experiencing this problem are using Shortcuts saved to the home screen?

prodanny

Level 1

4 points

Apr 6, 2019 9:03 PM in response to bilal_khan

I do have one shortcut (Google Map url) saved on home screen.

Apr 29, 2019 8:11 AM in response to drstoothoff

Update: Short lived. Working initially, but now the results comes back but it takes about 7 - 10 seconds.

Mariod91

Level 1

4 points

Jun 19, 2019 2:35 PM in response to coldcube31

I’m having the same problem and these steps didn’t help me either.

Mariod91

Level 1

4 points

Jun 19, 2019 2:39 PM in response to ornit2

In response to the “switching Siri suggestions for my apps on” post: I tried this and all of my apps were already switched on.

Jul 21, 2019 3:46 AM in response to caraofthewoods

Upgraded to 13 beta 3. Search got even worse, if possible.

Nov 27, 2018 8:23 AM in response to jakerussell1

I have this problem too, but with an iPhone XS Max. I’ve tried reinstalling the iOS, restoring from an old backup. I’m now in the process of setting it up as a new phone to see if that works. I really can’t believe Apple would do this to us.

Nov 30, 2018 6:24 AM in response to Jeff Collier

Unfortunately the fix was short lived. I am now back to the same state I was in before with no search results. I have since tried to turn everything off, location, background update etc with no luck. I also downloaded apps to see if the CPU and Ram were maxed out and that’s not the case they were only 17% utilized at the most.

So I bounce this back to apple, where do we go from here??? This is ridiculous that we have the “most powerful iPhone” and it can’t even handle a simple search.

brentgrab

Level 2

369 points

Dec 27, 2018 5:06 PM in response to Pipper99

Not me, I have 12.1.2 and this nonsense has been happening since 12.0. How is this not fixed OS wide yet? No one at tech support knows how to fix it and I don't have the time to go through doing a Factory Data Reset / backup / restore / etc.

Majd8

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2018 10:19 PM in response to coldcube31

I have just updated to 12.1.2 and performed the language change with no results. I am not getting proper search results using search anywhere.

I received this iPhone 8 last week and set it up as new.

One53

Level 1

4 points

Dec 30, 2018 8:49 AM in response to Majd8

I’m on an iPhone XS with 12.1.2 and search isn’t working for me either. I’ve tried the simple fixes (changing languages) turning spotlight suggestions on and off and hard restarting phone. Spotlight still doesn’t work. However if I use Siri and talk to my phone to open an app it does it with no problem.

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Spotlight Search Not Working on iOS 12.1