Indexing in Progress on iOS 27: how long it takes and how to finish it

Apple rebuilt search from the ground up for iOS 27. The new version understands what you mean, not just the exact words you type, and it is what the new Siri uses to find things in your messages, photos, mail and notes. To make that work, your iPhone has to go through everything stored on it again and build a fresh index. That is the job this banner is tracking.

On a phone with a few years of photos and messages, that is a lot of work. It runs in the background, mostly while the phone is idle and charging, which is why it can seem to take forever if your iPhone is rarely left alone.

Indexing in Progress or Optimizing Search and Siri?

They are the same thing with two names. During the iOS 27 beta, the banner at the top of Settings said Indexing in Progress, with the note: “You can use your iPhone as you normally would. Indexing improves search and can take a while. Longer charging sessions help indexing go faster.”

Apple later renamed it Optimizing Search and Siri, which is what most people see on the released iOS 27. On many iPhones the banner now shows a percentage and a “last updated” time, so you can see it moving. Whatever your banner says, the steps below are the same.

How long does iOS 27 indexing take?

Apple does not give a fixed time. Its guidance is that indexing can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a few days, depending on how much data is on the device. In practice, what you store and how you charge matter most:

• Light use, charged overnight: often done within a day or two.
• Years of photos, videos and chats: several days is common. Tens of thousands of photos and long message histories are the biggest load.
• Rarely left charging, or often on Low Power Mode: a week or longer, because the work mostly happens when the phone is idle and plugged in.
• Older iPhones: slower chips take longer to process the same library.

So if a friend's phone finished in a day and yours is on day five, that does not mean something is wrong. It usually means your phone has more to get through, or less quiet charging time to do it in.

How to make indexing finish faster

Why is my iPhone stuck at 95% (or 33%)?

A percentage that barely moves is the most common worry, and there are good reasons for it.

iOS 27 indexes your most recent data first, so the things you search for most start working early. The last stretch is your oldest content: years-old photos, old email and long message threads. There is a lot of it, and it often lacks the details that make newer items quick to process. So the final 10% can take as long as the first 80%. A number sitting in the high 80s or 90s for a day is expected, not stuck.

Look at the last updated time next to the percentage rather than the number itself. If that time keeps changing, your iPhone is still working. If the percentage and the time have not changed for two or three days, even after full nights on the charger with Wi-Fi, work through the next section.

No percentage showing at all?

Not every iPhone shows a number. Some only show the banner, and on others the percentage appears after the phone has spent some time charging. It does not mean indexing has stalled. Keep charging overnight and check again in the morning. If the banner has disappeared entirely, indexing is finished.

Still not finishing after a week? Try this

Why is my battery draining and my iPhone warm?

Indexing uses the processor for hours, and it runs alongside other catch-up tasks after an update, such as re-analyzing photos, syncing iCloud and downloading new Siri and system files. Apple has said that after an update these background tasks can temporarily affect battery life and make the phone warmer. In Settings › Battery you may see an insight saying an iOS update is still being finished.

Give it about a week. Most post-update battery complaints fade once indexing ends, and many people find battery life is as good as or better than before. If the drain continues after the banner is gone, something else is causing it. Our guide to an iPhone battery that drains fast covers how to find it. If the phone gets too hot to hold, take it out of any case and off the charger for a while, and see why iPhones overheat.

What works differently while indexing is running?

Everything on your iPhone works as usual, with one exception: search results can be incomplete. Until indexing finishes, you may notice:

• Spotlight search missing apps, files or older messages you know are there.
• Searching Photos for people, places or things returning fewer matches than it should.
• Mail and Messages search skipping older conversations.
• Siri being less able to find personal details, such as a message someone sent you last year.

These fill in on their own as the index grows. If you need an old message right now, scroll to it in the conversation instead of searching.

Can you turn off indexing on iOS 27?

No. There is no switch to stop or skip it. Search, Siri and Photos search all depend on the index, so iOS will keep working on it until it is done. The only related controls are per app: open an app in Settings › Apps and look for its Siri and search options to hide that app's content from search. That removes it from your search results, so it is only worth doing for apps you never want to appear there.

What about the Mac Console trick?

During the early beta, some sites showed how to read an exact indexing percentage by connecting your iPhone to a Mac and using the Console app. That method stopped working in later betas. It is also unnecessary now that Settings shows progress on many iPhones.

Is indexing safe? Does Apple see my data?

The search index is built and stored on your iPhone. Apple describes it as a private, local index of the data on your device. Building it does not mean your messages or photos are being uploaded to Apple. iCloud syncing may run at the same time, but that is your normal iCloud backup and sync, which follows your existing iCloud settings.

It also has nothing to do with getting the new Siri. Access to the new Siri features is managed separately, and many people are on a waitlist regardless of their indexing progress. Once you have access, a finished index is what lets Siri find your personal information. If your phone has other issues since the update, see our roundup of iPhone problems after an update.