Searching for contacts is busted

[JM]

I swear, Apple is doing a terrible job with iOS 15. They can’t even get the basics of cellphone utility correct with contact searching.

Anyone else have contacts refuse to show up in ios 15 universal “drop down” search, or in contacts app itself?

E.g. search for “ABCDEF” in contacts app, and it returns nothing. But scrolling down to the ABCDEF contact and it’s there.

Or, there are two contacts: ABCDEF and ABC, and in drop down universal search search for ABCDEF and it doesn’t appear, and it only shows the contact of ABC.

Is this only happening on my solitary phone? ?

 

[Mr.Blacky]

You are right! If I search for "ABCDEF" it does indeed show nothing in my contacts. ?

 

[Slartibart]

no problem on iPadOS 15.3.1 in universal or app search.

 

[TiggrToo]

I swear, Apple is doing a terrible job with iOS 15. They can’t even get the basics of cellphone utility correct with contact searching.

Anyone else have contacts refuse to show up in ios 15 universal “drop down” search, or in contacts app itself?

E.g. search for “ABCDEF” in contacts app, and it returns nothing. But scrolling down to the ABCDEF contact and it’s there.

Or, there are two contacts: ABCDEF and ABC, and in drop down universal search search for ABCDEF and it doesn’t appear, and it only shows the contact of ABC.

Is this only happening on my solitary phone? ?

Zero issues on my 15.3.1 13 Pro.

 

[chabig]

No problem here. Make sure your phone is updated to the latest OS.

 

[azhava]

Works fine on my phone. It found contacts with even a partial name typed in.

 

[Taz Mangus]

No issue here. IOS 15.3.1 13 Pro Max.

 

[AsherN]

Working on with some of my contacts. For example, searching my last name shows me, my wife and one of my sons. Misses the other son and both sisters.

 

[cynics]

ABCDEF isn't databased for some reason. Have you tried making a new contact to see if it sees it? Typically this is from having random Siri & Search setting disabled. Siri & Search takes the place of Spotlight for our needs. First thing I would do is export all your contacts to a readable (by humans) file on your computer so there is no way they can be lost.

Goto settings > contacts > Siri search. Verify that is all on. If they are already on then toggle them all off and back on. That will effect the universal drop down however it should effect the search field in the contact apps itself.

Goto settings > Apple ID > iCloud > toggle Contacts on....even if you don't have any contacts in iCloud. If its already on then toggle it off select KEEP ON PHONE, give it a couple seconds, then toggle it back on.

Reboot the device using the vol up down and then holding power till you see the Apple logo. When you get back in the app scroll to the top of your contacts and swipe it down like you are trying to go higher up, you'll see the loading spinning wheel thing. Close the app. Reopen the app.

Just need to get spotlight (Siri Search) to want to rebuild the contact database.

Good luck.

PS I've had this problem before. By the time I sat down to try to figure it out it just resolved itself.

 

[BBDDVV]

Similar (same?) issue for me (since 15.x).
A quick fix however is to go to the Groups list in the Contacts app (left upper corner) and toggle off and back on any of the groups. After this the search works fine again for some time...

 

[JM]

ABCDEF isn't databased for some reason. Have you tried making a new contact to see if it sees it? Typically this is from having random Siri & Search setting disabled. Siri & Search takes the place of Spotlight for our needs. First thing I would do is export all your contacts to a readable (by humans) file on your computer so there is no way they can be lost.

Goto settings > contacts > Siri search. Verify that is all on. If they are already on then toggle them all off and back on. That will effect the universal drop down however it should effect the search field in the contact apps itself.

Goto settings > Apple ID > iCloud > toggle Contacts on....even if you don't have any contacts in iCloud. If its already on then toggle it off select KEEP ON PHONE, give it a couple seconds, then toggle it back on.

Reboot the device using the vol up down and then holding power till you see the Apple logo. When you get back in the app scroll to the top of your contacts and swipe it down like you are trying to go higher up, you'll see the loading spinning wheel thing. Close the app. Reopen the app.

Just need to get spotlight (Siri Search) to want to rebuild the contact database.

Good luck.

PS I've had this problem before. By the time I sat down to try to figure it out it just resolved itself.

Similar (same?) issue for me (since 15.x).
A quick fix however is to go to the Groups list in the Contacts app (left upper corner) and toggle off and back on any of the groups. After this the search works fine again for some time...

Thank you I appreciate it. I’ll give this a go and report back.

 

[Abazigal]

What I did was to disable the “show content in search” option is every app, leaving only contacts and 1Password. Now search is faster (because it only needs to search content from two apps), and seems to turn up contacts reliably now. That might be one cause - spotlight having to index content from too many sources and getting overwhelmed from time to time?