**Please Read Before you answer**
I believe there is an issue with Spotlight search and the search function in the Messaging App. From what I read online the Messaging app and Spotlight search on the iPhone seems to only index 'some' text messages for a period of time but not all of them in your text/message history.
1. ) Find someone you text fairly regularly and go back 3-4 months or longer in a conversation.
2. ) Record a keyword or phrase from that text message and from a few other text messages from months ago.
3.) Then go back to the main screen in the Messages App on your iPhone and scroll to the top where you can search for that phrase or word from those conversations. Remember to try this with Spotlight search as well on your iPhone.
Remember to try this with at least 3 or 4 conversations from different people that you text often.
Spotlight and the Messaging App don't seem to have an issue with finding texts from a few weeks or even months back if you rarely text that person.
It seems to be an issue where you have lots of conversations with people and requiring you to scroll back to the point of 'loading' the next set of texts. You will see this 'loading' message pop up at the top of the Messaging app when you keep scroll back further and further.
4.) If Spotlight is not able to find those conversations via search as well as the Messaging App then answer YES. If you are able to find ALL an ANY conversations from months ago answer NO.
Some people from what I have read on the forums say this problem happens every time they do an iOS update. Any messages prior to the update are no longer searchable but not for me. I'm able to find some message prior to iOS 9.2 but not all of them. I will type in the word 'address' from a client and only some texts will turn up being found. The way around this problem is to manually scroll through all of your texts which is a pain.
Some fixes I've read have been to do a complete reset, change the language of the phone, turn Spotlight off and on and delete network settings. Not sure how the last one would work but it did for one person. Neither one of those solutions worked for me.
Regardless though the issue/bug always comes back for a lot of people.
I believe there is an issue with Spotlight search and the search function in the Messaging App. From what I read online the Messaging app and Spotlight search on the iPhone seems to only index 'some' text messages for a period of time but not all of them in your text/message history.
1. ) Find someone you text fairly regularly and go back 3-4 months or longer in a conversation.
2. ) Record a keyword or phrase from that text message and from a few other text messages from months ago.
3.) Then go back to the main screen in the Messages App on your iPhone and scroll to the top where you can search for that phrase or word from those conversations. Remember to try this with Spotlight search as well on your iPhone.
Remember to try this with at least 3 or 4 conversations from different people that you text often.
Spotlight and the Messaging App don't seem to have an issue with finding texts from a few weeks or even months back if you rarely text that person.
It seems to be an issue where you have lots of conversations with people and requiring you to scroll back to the point of 'loading' the next set of texts. You will see this 'loading' message pop up at the top of the Messaging app when you keep scroll back further and further.
4.) If Spotlight is not able to find those conversations via search as well as the Messaging App then answer YES. If you are able to find ALL an ANY conversations from months ago answer NO.
Some people from what I have read on the forums say this problem happens every time they do an iOS update. Any messages prior to the update are no longer searchable but not for me. I'm able to find some message prior to iOS 9.2 but not all of them. I will type in the word 'address' from a client and only some texts will turn up being found. The way around this problem is to manually scroll through all of your texts which is a pain.
Some fixes I've read have been to do a complete reset, change the language of the phone, turn Spotlight off and on and delete network settings. Not sure how the last one would work but it did for one person. Neither one of those solutions worked for me.
Regardless though the issue/bug always comes back for a lot of people.