IOS Spotlight searches displays really old contacts as tophits

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I have had this problem a while, especially through the iOS 9 and iOS 10 versions. Every time I pull down for searching from the springboard and type in a name of my contacts, iOS somehow lists my oldest and most unused as "top hits". Eg. if I have two contacts with a similar name, and one I have called 100 times the last month, and the other I haven't called or texted in 5 years, it is only the inactive one that is listed as a Top Hit. I have to scroll much further down to find the person I alway call.

Is there some way to reset the contacts so that people I actively call and text will appear under Top Hit?

I have tried suggestions from New iOS9 Spotlight search not finding contacts but didn't help.

My contacts are synced to iCloud and have been so for some years through multiple upgrades of OS X and iOS versions.

Best Answer

I experienced a similar glitch with iOS 10 as well.

The only way to clear the Spotlight searches without using third party apps is this:

  1. Make sure you're running the latest iOS (Settings > General > Software Update).
  2. Force restart your iPhone (hold the power + home button until the Apple logo appears. iPhone 7 (Plus): hold the power + volume up button).
  3. Disable Spotlight: Go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search. Disable "Siri Suggestions", "Suggestions in Search" and "Suggestions in Look Up" as well as "Contacts", "FaceTime", "Messages" and "Phone".
  4. Go to Settings > iCloud . Disable "Contacts".
  5. Force restart your iPhone once again.
  6. Connect your iPhone to your Computer using a USB cable and create an encrypted backup with iTunes.
  7. Verify that the backup was created successfully. Look for a phrase like "Last backup: 10:23 AM").
  8. Restore your iPhone. Select your device on the left side in iTunes and press "Restore...". You may need to remove "Find my iPhone" first to continue.
  9. Wait for you iPhone to reappear in iTunes.
  10. Select "Restore from backup" and choose the backup you created in step 6.
  11. Wait for iTunes to finish restoring your backup.
  12. Re-enable the settings you disabled in steps 3 and 4.

Please let me know if this works for you.

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