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iPhone Spotlight search not working

S

Slevin

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2007
309
29
New York
After the most recent update spotlight search on it iPhone has stopped working. I tried resetting Siri under settings, I tried changing the language back and fourth to force it to reindex. I have even attempted to fix it by restoring from a back up. None of it worked. I’ll intermittently get spotlight search to work but that’s once out of every 20-30 attempts.

Anyone else have this issue and how did you fix it?
 
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Just mentioning, I am having this issue with my iPad mini 4, with 13.1.3. It works once in a while, but usually not. I came here to find out if there was a solution. Maybe a bug report to Apple is in order.
 
MiniGeek said:
Just mentioning, I am having this issue with my iPad mini 4, with 13.1.3. It works once in a while, but usually not. I came here to find out if there was a solution. Maybe a bug report to Apple is in order.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I’m taking it to the Apple store on Friday to have them look at it
 
Mine has been acting up too. Messing about with a few app settings fixes it sometimes, and only for a little while.

Not enjoying iOS 13.2. This and the RAM exhaustion bug make my iPhone XS frustrating to use.
 
So I went to the Apple store today and got my Siri search fixed. Took all day but that’s cause I have a huge backup.

The Apple technician said he thought there was a corruption in the backup. Not sure how this cleared the corruption in the backup but it worked for me

Step 1) back up everything to either iCloud or your computer

Step 2) erase all content and settings

Step 3) set up as a new iPhone

Step 4) use the new iPhone for about an hour or so (not sure if this is really necessary but I had an hour drive from the Apple store and no WiFi)

Step 5) erase iPhone again

Step 6) restore iPhone from the backup you made in step 1

Also don’t forget to unpair your Apple Watch before you start and I wouldn’t bother pairing your Apple Watch when you set it up as new.

I think the best way to do this is right before bed, this way it’s restoring while you sleep

And I had thought about doing this another way if it was a corruption in the back up. Take screen shots of everything on your home screen, including each page of what’s inside your folders on the springboard and then set it up as new and then re-download all the apps and set it up as you had it before and sync to iCloud.


Hit me up with questions
 
Hopefully it’s fixed for you. I will be interesting to see if it reoccurs after a few days.
 
JupoDupo said:
Hopefully it’s fixed for you. I will be interesting to see if it reoccurs after a few days.
Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that. It actually did occur again. So I took the drastic step and erased the phone and set up as new last night. Will see what happens but so far so good. If this doesn’t work then next step will be a full system re-install and download a new image from Apple and completely wipe the system and try again.
 
I suspect it’s either ram management as for me 13.2 is much worse or an issue indexing certain content and it breaks when it hits that.
 
Just to say post 13.2.2 search is still broken on the home dashboard (pull down the icons)
Anyone finally fixed or have stayed fixed after doing xyz?
 
13.2.3 is out promising search fixes but no luck so far. We will see after it does it’s usual processes after updating.
 
I wound up just wiping and installing fresh. I assume it was an issue with my backup. Restored everything from iCloud but had to manually install apps. Too about two hours but everything is working now
 
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Glad I'm not the only one with the issue. I wonder if its limited to the 11 Pro. I have no problems on a
Slevin said:
I wound up just wiping and installing fresh. I assume it was an issue with my backup. Restored everything from iCloud but had to manually install apps. Too about two hours but everything is working now
Click to expand...

Is search still working for you?
[automerge]1575638589[/automerge]
So frustrating sometimes search will work and 5 minutes later it wasn't working. Its very sporadic when it wants to work. I really don't want to have to setup my phone as brand new. It will take forever as I have lots of apps.
 
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sfwalter said:
Glad I'm not the only one with the issue. I wonder if its limited to the 11 Pro. I have no problems on a


Is search still working for you?
[automerge]1575638589[/automerge]
So frustrating sometimes search will work and 5 minutes later it wasn't working. Its very sporadic when it wants to work. I really don't want to have to setup my phone as brand new. It will take forever as I have lots of apps.
Click to expand...

It been almost a month and no issues.

Search is working like a charm
 
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JupoDupo said:
When you reset did you set it up as a new phone or restore from iCloud?
Click to expand...

So what I did is that I took screen shots of my ho me screen layout. Every page. Including inside folders. Then I made sure those pictures were in my iCloud Photo Library. Then I reset the phone.

Next step I set it up as new and signed into iCloud I only retires from iCloud. I did not select restore from backup. So anything that iCloud stores was synced including messages in the cloud, bookmarks, etc. no apps

Next I pulled out my iPad and looked at each picture I took of my home screen and downloaded each app in the same order. So for example I would download one folder at a time. I have all my utilities in one folder so I’d download all those apps. Using multi select on the home screen drag and drop them all into the same folder and then move on to the next folder of apps.

Doing it that way I was able to download all 200ish apps divided into 15 folders and put them into the same order three were in previously in under two hours. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be
 
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The strangest thing about this whole ordeal is that sometimes search wll work. For some reason it occasionally decides to work and then minutes later it stops working.
 
DeanCorp said:
Let's just hope iOS 13.3 fixes this issue. It is driving me insane!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Fingers crossed. So far not had the problem post 13.3 on my iPhone X but it’s too early to say. The last update before did help but didn’t solve it.
If it doesn’t work I will be wiping and trying a backup and if that still fails I may resort to a clean iPhone wipe.
 
JupoDupo said:
Fingers crossed. So far not had the problem post 13.3 on my iPhone X but it’s too early to say. The last update before did help but didn’t solve it.
If it doesn’t work I will be wiping and trying a backup and if that still fails I may resort to a clean iPhone wipe.
Click to expand...
Mine is still broken.
Can you please confirm whether you have iCloud Photo and or Messages turned on?
If you go to Settings> general> IPhone Storage has your iCloud Library fully loaded or still has progress?
 
DeanCorp said:
Mine is still broken.
Can you please confirm whether you have iCloud Photo and or Messages turned on?
If you go to Settings> general> IPhone Storage has your iCloud Library fully loaded or still has progress?
Click to expand...

Don’t have photo on but do have messages. I will see if mine breaks today and report back.
 
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