My iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 26 still indexing messages

Question

Level 1

94 points

My iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 26 still indexing messages

My wife has an iPhone 16 Pro and 26GB of messages. I moved her to iOS 26 on Tuesday so she has had two nights of charging her phone. This evening when she searches messages it still says it will not show all results because it is still indexing messages. Her iPad that is plugged in all the time is already done but as of today her phone is not.

I feel two night on a 16 Pro should have been enough time. My phone had 8GB and it didn't finish until I plugged my phone in to power tonight. I almost wonder if the wireless chargers aren't doing the trick for some reason. What is the thought? And why don't we have a way to force indexing!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iOS 26 Still indexing messages

Posted on Sep 18, 2025 6:07 PM

Reply

Answer 1

6x6

Level 6

19,239 points

Sep 27, 2025 5:36 PM in response to Joe Dawson

Hi All,

To force the reindexing, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Search, turn off the 2 settings there, force restart the iPhone and turn those settings back. Wait for the index to be rebuilt.

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 2, 2025 5:11 PM in response to 6x6

>>”6x6

User level:

Level 6

19,203 points

Sep 27, 2025 8:36 PM in response to Joe Dawson

Hi All,

To force the reindexing, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Search, turn off the 2 settings there, force restart the iPhone and turn those settings back. Wait for the index to be rebuilt”

I did exactly what was suggested by 6x6 for my iPhone 15 Pro. I turned off both search switches , for messages. Rebooted the device. Turned it back on and 3 to 4 gigs of messages passed in present were index very quickly. Maybe in a few hours. I suspect that when I upgraded to iOS 26 my Wi-Fi connection at hone wasn’t as good or as dynamic as at work and home connection just hung. Now I know.

Thanks for the tip. It solved my problem.

Reply

Answer 3

Joe Dawson Author

Level 1

94 points

Sep 28, 2025 1:41 PM in response to Joe Dawson

After four days mine did finish. But it did take a long time. Make sure your phone is charging at night. And rebooting your phone might be a good idea.

it is unfortunate that you don’t get any progress information to know how far it is before finishing.

Reply

Answer 4

Nov 12, 2025 9:11 AM in response to Joe Dawson

I can't say it definitively worked - let me explain; What I did was leave it on charge overnight with a strong wifi signal, I hit the "Sync" button in the messages app and went to sleep. This was like two weeks ago. The next day it was sync'd; HOWEVER, a few days ago, it wouldn't search because it said it was syncing; and now as of today it works again. So Apple needs to fix this; I suspect there is a bug.

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 2, 2025 7:00 AM in response to Joe Dawson

Mine has been doing the same thing! I tried all the ideas here and still hasn't worked I finally decided to reset and restore from iCloud backup. Some of the indexing occured but it still hasn't finished and doesn't appear like anymore things have came back in lately. Im so sick of reading "More suggestions will be shown once Messages finishes indexing."

Reply