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Spotlight so powerful it can't find my apps

M

MDTyKe

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 24, 2007
313
540
Hawaii, USA
I always type the first one or two letters of an app in Spotlight, eg: "Sp" would bring up Spotify.

Spotlight now seems completely incapable of finding my apps unless I fully type out the name, eg "Spotif" yields no results but "Spotify" does.

I really want this back. If this is a bug this is beyond a sloppy release...
 
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Works for me. I type sp, and get maybe 5 suggestion and right beneath that there's a "widget" that's called apps. All apps listed contained the letters sp, including Spotify as first option. Try restarting your device if you haven't tried that yet.
 
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Just a bug. I assume since you took the time to write in this form that you also reported this to Apple?
 
MDTyKe said:
Reported to Apple throughout several betas. "Bug" exists on iPad as well as iPhone...
Click to expand...

same problem here and this is driving me insane, i dont think this is a bug as this happens on all 5 iOS Devices we have at home, it seems like they changed the way spotlight works and its absolutely terrible
 
Benz63amg said:
same problem here and this is driving me insane, i dont think this is a bug as this happens on all 5 iOS Devices we have at home, it seems like they changed the way spotlight works and its absolutely terrible
Click to expand...
Totally on-topic here (sorry mods):

Do you own a C63 AMG?
 
v0lume4 said:
Totally on-topic here (sorry mods):

Do you own a C63 AMG?
Click to expand...

I used to but no longer unfortunately, Why? I run the largest C63 AMG Page on Facebook to this day As well as the largest AMG Owners Club on Facebook.
 
Family, this is just a bug. An annoying one for sure. Please report it to Apple and you can have a hand in getting it back!
 
ANDJOE said:
Family, this is just a bug. An annoying one for sure. Please report it to Apple and you can have a hand in getting it back!
Click to expand...

How do you know it’s a bug? Maybe that’s how spotlight search works now? (Must type full app name in the search bar)
 
Spotlight needs to do indexing to work. What is indexed is controlled through Settings. Indexing take some time to complete. It should always be complete if the phone is charged overnight. Sometimes something goes wrong and it does not complete (bug.) There are a number of reasons for this but since apple does not provide statuses of the many processes running inside the iPhone so it’s difficult to figure out. A hard reset can restart the indexing. You can also troubleshoot by using Settings to temporarily set the one category you’re looking for and setting all of the others ones off. Apple makes this very difficult to do.

The iPhone is a very complex computer. Imagine the iPhone with a user accessible system status page. Apple would save multi-millions in support costs. Customers would save time.
 
Last edited:
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Solver said:
Spotlight needs to do indexing to work. What is indexed is controlled through Settings. Indexing take some time to complete. It should always be complete if the phone is charged overnight. Sometimes something goes wrong and it does not complete (bug.) There are a number of reasons for this but since apple does not provide statuses of the many processes running inside the iPhone so it’s difficult to figure out. A hard reset can restart the indexing. You can also troubleshoot by using Settings to temporarily set the one category you’re looking for and setting all of the others ones off.
Click to expand...

I don’t have the issue so I can’t test it but that’s traditionally been the easiest way on macOS to reset it. Disable it and switch it back on. Probably work here too.
 
Ah yes, this must be a "new feature". You must type in the entire app name in order to find it on Spotlight.

I reported this bug to Apple a month ago on the beta. It still exists. There is no way to 'reset' Spotlight as far as I can tell.
 
i found a workaround this guys, under SIRI and Search, disable suggestions in search and suggestions in look up, now when you type the first few letters of an app you want to quickly launch its usually right there when you start typing the first few letters
 
MDTyKe said:
Ah yes, this must be a "new feature". You must type in the entire app name in order to find it on Spotlight.
Click to expand...

Works for me. I just typed sp an there it is, Spotify. Not sure what the difference may be between my iPad your devices (possibly a setting I would guess). Have you checked e.g. under Siri&Search to se if something has been disabled ? I also did a clean install when updated to iOS if that makes any difference.
 
Benz63amg said:
i found a workaround this guys, under SIRI and Search, disable suggestions in search and suggestions in look up, now when you type the first few letters of an app you want to quickly launch its usually right there when you start typing the first few letters
Click to expand...
Are you sure you need to disable them? Mine are both enabled, and I have no problems at all searching for apps.
 
ventmore said:
Are you sure you need to disable them? Mine are both enabled, and I have no problems at all searching for apps.
Click to expand...

I would like to keep these 2 features enabled but the only way spotlight search properly works for me is with these 2 settings disabled, I don’t want to type the full name of the app every time I want to quickly launch an app
 
So it’s definitely a bug that only some are experiencing then.

67FD9A08-C8F8-4EAF-B8AE-DDF7C8BA83C5.jpeg 0F61186B-871B-49A7-9F09-53A9AE0BB9A6.jpeg
 
iOS 11.0.1 was just released and this problem is still present, So this is not a BUG as some users above were trying to portray it as, Spotlight search is literally broken
 
Benz63amg said:
iOS 11.0.1 was just released and this problem is still present, So this is not a BUG as some users above were trying to portray it as, Spotlight search is literally broken
Click to expand...
But it works fine for some and not others, so it’s not completely broken......it’s buggy.
 
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Benz63amg said:
iOS 11.0.1 was just released and this problem is still present, So this is not a BUG as some users above were trying to portray it as, Spotlight search is literally broken
Click to expand...

If it was, it would not work for anyone. But that certanly does not seem to be the case. 11.0.1 only fixes one thing and that is an exchange server issue.
 
Benz63amg said:
iOS 11.0.1 was just released and this problem is still present, So this is not a BUG as some users above were trying to portray it as, Spotlight search is literally broken
Click to expand...
Have you turned on both "Suggestions in Search" AND "Siri and Search Suggestions" in the Spotify entry itself in the long list of apps that follows?
 
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