Message Search fixed?

[benkill15]

Hi All,

Is Message search still terrible?

Example: Open Messages, search for term(s), get results then...

1.) If result is recent enough then it'll show it in the results view then you can tap on it and it'll be in the conversation view with what you'd normally expect with search results.

OR

2.) If result is old enough (years?) then it'll find it in results view and if you tap on it then it only displays the latest messages from that conversation but it never gives you the in-line conversation view despite Messages.app finding it in the results view.

I wanted to ask after some time for Messages.app to re-index and I'd be curious of anyone's results and testing. Please and thank you.

 

[citivolus]

Sadly I still have this problem after upgrading to iOS 16...I even tried turning off all of the settings under Settings->Siri & Search->Messages, rebooting, then turning them all back on, then rebooting again in an effort to get it to re-index. No difference

 

[iStorm]

When you say "years" how far back are you talking? It seems to work for me, but it also worked for me in iOS 15 too. Maybe other factors are at play...like how many messages you have, storage space, etc? Or perhaps if you're using "Messages in iCloud" or not? (I am.)

I just did the following (it's my "hack" to get to older messages without having to constantly scroll and reload a conversation thread)...

• Searched for "a".
• See All Conversations (search results)
• Scrolled to the bottom of the search results to my oldest messages
• Tapped on a result from February 2018
• The full conversation view is showing from that time

 

[citivolus]

Did some tests and it seems that the issue may be related to how many texts there are in the thread with that particular person, rather than based on a global "date" as a cutoff. For example, I do the search suggested above and find many threads with different people. When I tap on one of them from five years ago with a person whose thread has a shorter overall history, it comes up. But when I tap on a message from my wife (with whom I have texts going back a total of eight years) from just three years ago, it doesn't come up. So I'm suggesting that the overall volume of texts with an individual (or group thread) may be the determining factor in deciding whether or not the message displays correctly after you tap on it from the search results.