I was setting up a new iPhone 6s for a client today and I noticed something strange… After restoring from the iTunes backup of her “old” iPhone and activating her SIM card, I went to test that the Phone and Messages apps were working as expected. So I opened the Phone app on her iPhone, tapped on Contacts and started typing MY name so that I could make a test call to myself from her phone. But searching came up with 0 results, even when I just typed the letter “L.” So I went back to the Home Screen and opened up the full Contacts app and tried searching for myself from there. Again, no results. Typing any letter at all still gave no results, but I could clearly see there were hundreds of contacts there in the list (including me).
My first thought was that something was corrupt in the backup I restored the new phone from, which was an older iPhone, still running iOS 7.x. Still, I went through some standard troubleshooting steps before I did anything drastic like restoring the phone to factory settings and manually reconfiguring everything. First, I rebooted the phone. That didn’t work. Then I added a new contact and searched for it. That didn’t work. I was on the verge of trying “Reset All Settings” to see if that helped, but I knew the client really didn’t have the time for me to go through and adjust all her settings back the way she likes them. So I decided to ignore the issue for the moment and test the phone by calling it instead of having it call me. So I grabbed my own iPhone (also a 6s, which I updated to iOS9.1 last night) and searched for my client’s name and – you guessed it – no results!
Aha! It’s not a problem with her iPhone. It’s a problem with IOS 9.1. A quick Googling revealed that others have experienced the same issue in the past 24 hours and the fix for most of them was incredibly simple. To fix the issue, try this:
- Open the Contacts app from your iPhone’s home screen
- Then click on the word “Groups” in the upper left corner of the main contacts screen
- Then click the word “Done” in the upper right corner, which will take you back to the main Contacts list.
- Now REPEAT those steps in the Contacts section of the Phone app (yes, I had to do it in both places, on both of our phones in order for it to stick.)
That’s it. No need to check any groups on or off, since the groups you want to see contacts from should already be set the way you’ve always had them. Although if they’re not, go ahead and make your adjustments while you’re there.
If you’re seeing the same bug and this fix doesn’t work for you, let me know and I’ll offer some other suggestions!
I have 2 iPhones (personal, work). Both updated to 9.1 last night, and noticed I couldn’t search either today. This fix worked perfectly for my personal phone. Thank you! My work phone however it didn’t work. I don’t have “groups” in the upper left corner of either screen. Instead there is what I’m assuming is a refresh button (circle with arrow head). Hitting that button didn’t do much and still couldn’t search. Thoughts?
This bug was driving my husband nuts but it wasn’t happening to my phone. So while the two of us were having dinner, I google search the question and your post was at the top of the list. Thank you! It’s fixed and he’s a much happier guy.
I’m so glad to hear it worked for you! Happy husbands = happy wives. I speak from experience 🙂
This didn’t work for me. Is there an alternate solution?
Hi Deepak – you shouldn’t still be running iOS 9.1, which is the only version this bug was present in. The permanent fix is to update your version of iOS. iOS 9.x is at 9.3.5 if your device doesn’t support iOS 10.x (which is now at 10.1)
Hey Brian. Glad this worked for your personal device. Is your work phone a “managed” device? Do you have the ability to toggle Contacts off and back in in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > your account? You might try that. Also, if you don’t have more than one account that syncs contacts on that phone, and you don’t have any actual groups in that one account, then Groups doesn’t appear as an option, because there are no groups. The answer might be as simple as creating a subset group of contacts in that account (just a test group for these purposes with just one or two contacts). If you create that group (might be called a Category in certain address book clients – you don’t say what kind of account this is) on your laptop/desktop, it should sync to the phone and then Groups would be a visible option.
Ah brilliant!!! I activated the contacts from an additional gmail account which got me the groups option. Hit groups, done, now 100% searchable. Deactivated that additional gmail contacts list in settings. Still searchable. Thank you so much for figuring this out. Very strange bug.
Thanks man, you saved my time
Thank you! Thank you! Fixed it for me too!
Thanks. It can fix the issue, but after reboot my phone, I can’t search contact again, and need to repeat the fix. Did you tried reboot? .
Mine have stuck through numerous reboots. Not sure why some of yours don’t. If I come across one personally that doesn’t, I’ll investigate further, but I’m unable to reproduce that failure so far.
I might find why it didn’t stick. I have iCloud and Exchange account, and I only chose iCloud in contacts group. In this case the issue will happen again after reboot. However, if I choose all my iCloud and Exchange account in contacts group, search can work even after reboot.
Brilliant!! Thanks a lot!!
Great.. Thanks a lot.. Works fine ..
Your fix works for a couple of my searches but then no dice again without even reboot. I think Apple needs to fix this. Any other ideas for making the fix stick? I have 5c. The prob started right after I installed 9.1
Just wanted to update my very recent post. After posting I went back in and went one step further. Now that it’s working I’m afraid to go back in to figure out exactly what I did. I remember clicking on groups and another screen came up. I don’t think I clicked on anything in that screen. But then I went back in and the working has stuck now. Thanks
Thanks.. It fixed for me as well. Apple should fix this bug.
Yay!! Thank you so much for sharing! It worked right away for me!
Works until I end the phone process and restart it again.
Those of you who are finding that the fix ceases to work after you restart your iPhone – I wish I could reproduce the failure, but so far it works and sticks through multiple reboots on every iPhone I’ve had my hands on for the last 2 weeks (over a dozen client phones, plus my own devices). I wish I knew what the common thread was for those of you who aren’t “sticking.”
Really grateful. That was bothering me no end…
Stops working as soon as you force close the app in the multitasking window…
Again, I can’t reproduce that failure — but there’s also truly no reason that you should be regularly force-closing any apps like Contacts or Phone. There’s truly no benefit to doing that. You’re not saving any battery life, etc. (quite the opposite, in fact)
Followed your fix & it worked till I rebooted the iPhone.
Apple Care said it’s an identified issue with iOS 9.1 & will be resolved in the next update which is coming soon.
I don’t do that. But some times the iPhone closes apps by himself to free up RAM memory
Thanks Macsamurai your article helped me to search my contacts back…. I am facing this issue since a 2 weeks and managing like that…. It is very helpful. Thank you
Thank you! This has been an issue for some time now. So frustrating. Happy to have a fix.
I have had the same problem. I have found that if I go to groups and then hit done it works until I close the phone app. It’s aggravating to say the least. I have turned off my contacts, rebooted and turned them back on. No luck.
Amazing, man, thanks, this was annoying me for a longtime! cheers
In Groups I do have selected iCloud. I have to deselect and reselect it again and then it works. But I have to do it every single time I open Contacts or Phone. It’s a pain.