iPhone Spotlight Search no longer working

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Level 1

11 points

iPhone Spotlight Search no longer working

I have iPhone SE 2020 running iOS 14.8. It seems all of a sudden my spotlight search has stopped working. Not only that, the Settings search, Apple Notes search and App Library search also is not working. Below are some of the options that I have tried.

Restarted the phone several times
Changed language settings and reverted it back
Removed Shortcuts app
Updated my iPhone: When the spotlight search stopped working I was having iOS 14.7. I updated my iPhone to iOS 14.8.
Reset All Settings without erasing my data

Nothing seems to have worked. What else can I try, that does not involve me erasing all my data?

iPhone SE, iOS 14

Posted on Sep 15, 2021 4:44 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ColleenD1

Community Specialist

Sep 17, 2021 8:23 AM in response to naveenm31

naveenm31,

Thanks for the update!

It's possible that you may see some improvements after the next update but you may still need to restore at that point. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your settings and accounts are restored from the iCloud backup you choose. Your purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, photos, and other content will also redownload: Restore or set up your device from an iCloud backup

If you have specific profiles and/or apps from your organization, they should also restore to your device. However, if any of those have issues, you may need to reach out to your IT department for those specific features.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

ColleenD1

Community Specialist

Sep 16, 2021 6:56 AM in response to naveenm31

Hi naveenm31,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having an issue with the search feature on your iPhone. It appears to be affecting more than one app. We'd like to help.

We noticed that you restarted your iPhone. Have you forced restarted it? If not, give that a try: Force restart iPhone

We know you'd like to resolve this without erasing your data. Just in case that needs to happen, we'd recommend that you confirm a current backup too: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Let us know how that goes.

Take care!

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Answer 3

naveenm31 Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 17, 2021 7:34 AM in response to ColleenD1

Force restart of iPhone did not work. It seems my only last option is to take iCloud backup and reset my iPhone. Can you please confirm will iCloud backup also include my organisation's apps and settings? I don't want to go through that entire setup again.

Also, will waiting for iOS 15 to see if that fixes the issue will be a viable solution?

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