Siri search for app- long delay

[ScubaCinci]

I use search on the phone to quickly pull up apps I have hidden or are several screens away. When I pull down and type to search, it takes sometimes 10+ seconds for apps to begin to appear in the search. They used to be almost instantaneous. Example, if I start typing M-A-P, Apple Maps, Google Maps, etc. come up as a result. Is anyone else noticing this massive slowdown?

 

[ScubaCinci]

I'm surprised no one else is having this issue? It only started happening with the update to 16 and has persisted despite hard reboots, etc. Fingers crossed when I get my new phone tomorrow this goes away.

 

[acousticbiker]

Same here. I had initially chalked it up to indexing and thought it would get better but it hasn't yet...

 

[ScubaCinci]

That's exactly what I had thought initially but searching for and selecting an app should add it to the index...or one would think. If I go to the screen where it lists all apps alphabetically, a search there finds it immediately.

 

[johaen8]

Mine does this sometimes. I haven't noticed any sort of pattern to it. Sometimes it searches instantly; sometimes it takes a few seconds.

 

[ScubaCinci]

This is more like 10+ seconds which, if you are used to using this functionality and how fast it was, is intolerable. It's quicker for me to navigate to that app at that point (assuming I can find it).

 

[acousticbiker]

This is more like 10+ seconds which, if you are used to using this functionality and how fast it was, is intolerable. It's quick for me to navigate to that app at that point (assuming I can find it).

Hmm, ok, my delay is more like a second or two (vs what had been pretty much instantaneous previously) so we may be having different issues

 

[steve4.0]

I have the 10 second delay as well. It's very frustrating, I'm going to see if it continues on my 14 pro after install tonight.

 

[ScubaCinci]

I have the 10 second delay as well. It's very frustrating, I'm going to see if it continues on my 14 pro after install tonight.

Got my 14 Pro plus today and same issue. I’m sure it carried over from the back up restore.

 

[steve4.0]

I had something similar once a few OSes ago, I remember having to disable siri search in all my apps. Eventually it was fixed then I reenabled.

 

[ScubaCinci]

I posted a similar thread in iPhone tips, troubleshooting, etc because I realized that was probably a better section but wanted to also post this update here:
Small update...since I was trading in my iP12 anyway, I did an experiment and reset all settings on that phone. That fixed the issue. I may eventually do that on my iP14 to fix it on there too but that will be a lot to go into all settings to and get them back to the way I like them so still searching for a less invasive fix.

 

[luckman212]

I did an experiment and reset all settings on that phone. That fixed the issue.

Reset all settings as in, Settings > General > Transfer or Reset > Reset > Reset All Settings? Just want to make sure this is what you are talking about

 

[ScubaCinci]

Yes, that's the one. I'm trying to find a less invasive way to fix it first but I'm coming up empty.

 

[ScubaCinci]

Well I painstakingly disable search on all apps, rebooted, enabled one (wallet) and issue persists.
I disabled again, changed region to Canada English (saw this tip elsewhere) rebooted, then back to US, rebooted. Tried search again (re-enabling wallet) and same result.
Makes me think this is not due to a specific app. I may end up resetting settings but I’m supposed to leave town on Monday so I may put it off.

 

[steve4.0]

When I setup my 14 pro I deleted a bunch of apps, and merge/cleaned a bunch of contacts. I'm probably 2 seconds faster on the 14. but still slow.

 

[luckman212]

I went ahead with the Reset All Settings. It worked!

Phone feels amazing right now. Everything (not just Spotlight search) seems to be snappier. Some corrupt settings must have really been gumming up the works.

 

[steve4.0]

I just attempted the following on my 13

Reset dictionary (no)
Reset network settings (no)
Reset Location and privacy (no)
Reset home screen layout (no)
Delete eSIMs (no)
Reset All Settings (YES)

Agree it's super snappy, I'm trying to understand what I've lost before I do it on my 14

 

[steve4.0]

Did you lose your eSIM when you reset all settings?

 

[ScubaCinci]

Did you lose your eSIM when you reset all settings?

Good question, there‘s nothing about it on Apple’s support page but i read elsewhere it does not reset it. It does kill all of you wallet cards/passes, wifi passwords, BT connections, deregisters your device from iMessage and FaceTime, etc so not a minor thing.

@luckman212 - glad it worked for you, i was sure it would.

 

[ScubaCinci]

Per my post in another related thread, it ended up resetting settings and that cured it. I’ve been carefully turning off in app content search (because I generally don’t like it, would rather go to the app) and hoping it does not crop up again…at least until they release a fix (if!).

 

[Jaspov]

Just did "reset all settings" and indeed it fixed it, however I have some other observations.

Just after resetting all settings search was instant again. I then went on to disable "content search" for a lot of apps as I simply don't use it, and it makes the search results list shorter. It then slowed down again......cursor blinks 2-3 times before apps show up

-so for everyone who fixed this with "reset all settings"- did you also go on to disable "content search" for apps again?
-I can't test it as I already reset all settings, but this may mean that simply ENABLING content search for all apps solves it as well....would be an easier and faster fix. Reset all settings simply does this for you but may not be needed....
-it would also mean this is still bugged - disabling content search slows down search

Would be great if someone with the issue could test: simply enable content search for all your apps - you won't lose a thing and may fix it.

 

[rgev]

"Would be great if someone with the issue could test: simply enable content search for all your apps - you won't lose a thing and may fix it."

It worked! I disabled the spotlight settings for all Apps individually - going from app to app within the Siri & Spotlight settings. And then I ENABLED it again on all spotlight apps - like other suggested here as well.

> So You do not need to reset all settings.

You might think spotlight should be slower then, but it actually became FASTER, nearly instant. So (re-)enabling spotlight search settings for -all- Apps basically FIXED the problem. So it seems to be a bug and not related to the amount of data that has to be indexed. I got 425 apps on my phone and 200GB of data. It took me 2 hours. Still, better than having to reset all settings.

Please, spread these news. Since the bug was driving me crazy (iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 16.1.)

 

[acousticbiker]

"Would be great if someone with the issue could test: simply enable content search for all your apps - you won't lose a thing and may fix it."

It worked! I disabled the spotlight settings for all Apps individually - going from app to app within the Siri & Spotlight settings. And then I ENABLED it again on all spotlight apps - like other suggested here as well.

> So You do not need to reset all settings.

You might think spotlight should be slower then, but it actually became FASTER, nearly instant. So (re-)enabling spotlight search settings for -all- Apps basically FIXED the problem. So it seems to be a bug and not related to the amount of data that has to be indexed. I got 425 apps on my phone and 200GB of data. It took me 2 hours. Still, better than having to reset all settings.

Please, spread these news. Since the bug was driving me crazy (iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 16.1.)

Indeed surprising and counter-intuitive initially but I guess could make sense. That said, I purposely have left only the 'Show Content in Search' option off (while leaving the other options on) with the intent of keeping search results simple (I really only use it to find apps to launch and/or contacts to call). I know we have a different set of apps but curious whether you found that your apps in general add a lot of results to the searches?

 

[rgev]

Indeed surprising and counter-intuitive initially but I guess could make sense. That said, I purposely have left only the 'Show Content in Search' option off (while leaving the other options on) with the intent of keeping search results simple (I really only use it to find apps to launch and/or contacts to call). I know we have a different set of apps but curious whether you found that your apps in general add a lot of results to the searches?

Yes, they do. But am I really happy that the answers are responsive again. I use 90% of my searches to open up an app. And it can be really annoying to wait a few seconds for the apps to even show up. So 90% of my searches "work now". And most of the other cases (e.g. looking up contact data) is now a little bit more tedious since my search results are cluttered now. But I want to wait for Apple to fix this bug or for another workaround. Waiting 5-6 seconds for any result was clearly annoying. And no, I will not start to switch off some results on an app basis if this could break the fix

 

[Jaspov]

"Would be great if someone with the issue could test: simply enable content search for all your apps - you won't lose a thing and may fix it."

It worked! I disabled the spotlight settings for all Apps individually - going from app to app within the Siri & Spotlight settings. And then I ENABLED it again on all spotlight apps - like other suggested here as well.

> So You do not need to reset all settings.

You might think spotlight should be slower then, but it actually became FASTER, nearly instant. So (re-)enabling spotlight search settings for -all- Apps basically FIXED the problem. So it seems to be a bug and not related to the amount of data that has to be indexed. I got 425 apps on my phone and 200GB of data. It took me 2 hours. Still, better than having to reset all settings.

Please, spread these news. Since the bug was driving me crazy (iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 16.1.)

Thanks for confirming my suspicions!

I also went and tested a bit more. As said I used “reset all settings”. I found that disabling content search made spotlight very slow. I then reenabled it for all apps.

After that whenever I searched using spotlight and an app gave me results I disabled content search for that app. This seems to work so far.

It’s surprising that most (all?) apps have the option to disable content search however just a handfull actually return results. Perhaps it’s this that’s causing the bug.

So only disabling content search for apps that show search results in spotlight so far works for me. Keeps the speed and keeps the search result list clean.