Spotlight search bug - will restore from backup help?

[Paco II]

My iPhone 6 running 9.2 is afflicted with the Spotlight search bug, where I get no results at all. I've tried the various tricks to get it to start working again, and they work, for about 10 minutes, when it stops working again.

Does anyone have experience with this issue? I'm wondering if restoring the phone then restoring from an iCloud backup will help at all? No idea the source of this issue and can't find anything online about it. Is it bad settings related? A rouge app?

Would love to find a more permanent solution.

 

[sbailey4]

What various tricks? Perhaps a settings>reset>reset all settings will resolve it. That fixes strange issues typically. Of course you have to add back wallpaper and wifi networks as well as go through your settings to set as you prefer. Pretty painless though.

 

[Paco II]

Sadly reset settings did not work. Tried everything I could think of. Ended up restoring and starting fresh.

What various tricks? Perhaps a settings>reset>reset all settings will resolve it. That fixes strange issues typically. Of course you have to add back wallpaper and wifi networks as well as go through your settings to set as you prefer. Pretty painless though.

 

[Paco II]

Sadly, the issue has returned. Spotlight search will work briefly after a reboot, but then eventually stop working again. Is it a memory management issue?

 

[Armen]

Sadly, the issue has returned. Spotlight search will work briefly after a reboot, but then eventually stop working again. Is it a memory management issue?

No. Have you turned off suggestions and such in the spotlight search options in settings? If not, try toggling them and then wait 5 seconds or so before you hit the page again.

 

[Paco II]

I have them all off. Still nothing.

 

[Paco II]

Your suggestion didn't help. But your 'No' seems pretty confident. What do you believe is the cause of this bug? And how is disabling features a fix?

No. Have you turned off suggestions and such in the spotlight search options in settings? If not, try toggling them and then wait 5 seconds or so before you hit the page again.

 

[Paco II]

Guess I'll continue with the email yourself hack fix. Pretty annoying bug.

 

[bripab007]

Guess I'll continue with the email yourself hack fix. Pretty annoying bug.

I, too, have been experiencing this on 9.2. It does indeed get resolved after a reboot, but then turns sour again after a couple days.

What's the email yourself hack fix?

 

[Paco II]

The email hack trick, for me, only makes it work again for like an hour. Than stops working again Really annoying bug this is. The hack fix is simple: send an email to an account set up in your native iOS mail app. When your phone receives it, Spotlight search will start working again for some temporary amount of time.

 

[Armen]

Your suggestion didn't help. But your 'No' seems pretty confident. What do you believe is the cause of this bug? And how is disabling features a fix?

a few more things to try according to our sites.

1. go into the spotlight search settings and toggle everything off. Restart the phone, toggle everything on and wait a few minutes.

2. go to the contacts app, groups, hide all contacts, show all contacts.

 

[Paco II]

Like the email 'fix', all these approaches provide short term relief, but the issue always returns. I've read and tried all these approaches. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a known cause of the issue, and as a result, no lasting fix. Maybe 9.2.1. Fingers crossed

a few more things to try according to our sites.

1. go into the spotlight search settings and toggle everything off. Restart the phone, toggle everything on and wait a few minutes.

2. go to the contacts app, groups, hide all contacts, show all contacts.

 

[Armen]

Like the email 'fix', all these approaches provide short term relief, but the issue always returns. I've read and tried all these approaches. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a known cause of the issue, and as a result, no lasting fix. Maybe 9.2.1. Fingers crossed

good luck man wish I hand a permanent answer.

 

[Woodcrest64]

My issue with spotlight is that when I search for text/sms/imessages I get some results but not everything. I use this all the time for messages sent from clients. Having this broken is a pain. I tried searching with in the messages app but its worse with even less results.

 

[Paco II]

Yeah it's definitely a weird one. Tried many things to isolate cause (removing apps, changing settings) but no success. Here's hoping for 9.2.1

good luck man wish I hand a permanent answer.

 

[bripab007]

The latest iOS 10 beta that was released yesterday seems to have finally fixed the Spotlight Search bug we've been dealing with on iOS 9: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-10-beta-5-bug-fixes-and-changes.1987164/
It feels like it was back on iOS 8--super snappy and hasn't faultered yet!