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You are here: Home / Not working? / iOS: Contact Search Not Working on iPhone or iPad?

iOS: Contact Search Not Working on iPhone or iPad?

Last updated on February 19, 2019 By Serhat Kurt 16 Comments

Several users have reported problems with the iOS Contacts app. Some users have reported an issue in which iPhone or iPad’s contact app freezes during a contact search.  Others have stated that conducting a search always yields “No Results”. Furthermore, some users stated that they started having this problem after updating their iOS software to the latest version.

See also: Spotlight Search problems?

This article explains what to do when Contact search is not working properly. These include, but is not limited to:

  • Contact search does not work as expected
  • Contact search does not show any results
  • Contact search freezes and becomes unresponsive

Contact Search no Results

If you are experiencing issues with your Contacts application, here is how you can troubleshoot:

Fix Contact search

See also: Messages Showing Numbers, Not Contact Names? Fix

Please after performing each step, please check to see if the issue is resolved.

1. Restart your device. You can do so by going to Settings > General > Shut Down

2. Force restart your device. Different models require different steps to do this:

  • Phone 6s and earlier, iPad, or iPod touch:Press and hold the sleep/wake button and home button together until you see the Apple logo.
  • iPhone 7 models: Press and hold the Side and Volume Down buttons together until you see the Apple logo.
  • Other iPhone models (iPhone 8, X, Xr etc): Press and release the Volume Up button and then Volume Down button, and then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.

3.Launch the Contacts app, tap Groups, uncheck all contacts and re-check and tap Done.

Group Contacts

4. Close the Contacts app and restart it. To do this, double press the home button quickly, swipe up on the Contacts app’s preview to close it. Then relaunch it.

Related: iOS Message Notifications: Contact Names Missing

Filed Under: Not working? Tagged With: iOS 9

Comments

  1. Mark French says

    August 17, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    Only #3 worked for me

    Reply
  2. M says

    June 1, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    The 3 step
    Solution above worked for me-
    Thank you!

    Reply
  3. JoeInTheUK says

    July 15, 2019 at 3:21 pm

    point 3 fixed it for me, somehow just one group had become selected so it was only searching in that group.

    Reply
  4. Janet Castle says

    March 26, 2019 at 3:32 am

    Sadly none of these suggestions worked for me. I am an SE owner. Upwards swipe of Contacts app does not work at all. Previous potential fixes were unsuccessful. Any other suggestions.

    Reply
  5. Hiro Adrian Jaya says

    January 27, 2017 at 6:40 am

    A simple restart worked for me..

    Reply
  6. Mohammed says

    December 19, 2016 at 7:57 am

    Just switch off your phone for 60 seconds and turn on it will work.

    Reply
  7. Kamran says

    December 15, 2016 at 10:01 am

    Rebooting worked for me !

    Reply
  8. Ameer Humayun says

    December 6, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Wow amazing, it works
    Thank you very much.

    Reply
  9. Habibur Rahman says

    December 5, 2016 at 3:14 am

    I am facing same problem by using iPhone 6pluse iOS 10.1.1. 128GB. Can’t search contacts from my contact list. But from other apps like whatsapp, viber, imo. I can search contact.

    Please give me the solution

    Reply
  10. Shivam Aggarwal says

    November 30, 2016 at 4:47 am

    Thank you…it worked when i pressed both the home button and sleep button….but how it worked by this?

    Reply
  11. baz says

    November 29, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    I tired all and it did not work except following

    Disable Contacts syncing with icloud and remove all the contacts in your mobile
    Reboot iphone
    Sync contact back to iphone from icloud

    Reply
  12. Ameya says

    November 26, 2016 at 3:24 am

    I am facing the same problem. Using Iphone 6 with ios 10.1.1
    None of the solutions mentioned above seem to work for me. Really disappointing.

    Reply
  13. baubec says

    November 20, 2016 at 11:07 am

    Same is happening to me. This is creating big discomforts.

    Reply
  14. Praseed says

    November 8, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    I tried all these but not working. It works once I switch off and on the phone, that too for a short time later it goes back to the same old condition . I emergency situation difficult when the search in contact is not functional.

    Reply
  15. David Entermann says

    March 25, 2016 at 12:40 am

    My solution in brief …

    iPhone 6 128GB persistently freezing when attempting to search 1852 contact cards.

    This issue appeared to be related to an update from iOS 8 and was not remedied with successive iOS updates or clean installs and rebuilds.

    I remedied and experimentally replicated issue of app freezing being associated with one contact containing a very large note (173,274 characters – 31,928 words)

    This huge ‘note’ had evolved with successive duplicates of this card being cloned … and subsequently merged.

    The offending note was relatively easy and quick to find.

    Posted in https://discussions.apple.com/message/29968294#29968294

    Reply
    • Sreedevi says

      May 12, 2020 at 7:03 am

      How did you go about finding the note

      Reply

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