Learn what to do if your iPhone or iPad running iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 is stuck on the “Indexing in Progress” status, and you notice an overall system slowness.
I updated my iPhone and iPad Pro to the new iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 developer beta on day one. Soon after updating, I started seeing an “Indexing in Progress” banner at the top of the Settings app. It reads:
Indexing in Progress
You can use your iPhone as you normally would. Indexing improves search and can take a while. Longer charging sessions help indexing go faster. Learn more…
Tapping “Learn more…” takes you to an (unhelpful) Apple Support page that’s about rebuilding the Spotlight index on Mac.
On top of that, I noticed that a simple search, like finding a contact in the Phone app, took longer than it should. I assume this happened because my device was still indexing the files.
If you’re facing the same set of problems, this is what can help.
Leave it charging overnight
This is the most effective and the official solution that even Apple mentions in the banner itself.
Simply plug your iPhone into a charger and leave it unused overnight so indexing can happen smoothly. You may have to repeat this for a few days.
Don’t force restart your iPhone
Force restarting your iPhone may cause the entire indexing process to reinitiate. So don’t do that unless, of course, your device has frozen or becomes unresponsive. Normal restarting should not be an issue.
Clean up your photo library, Mail app, etc.
iOS 27 indexing will take a long time if you have several thousand photos & videos, texts, and emails across multiple email accounts in the Apple Mail app.
You can help accelerate the process by deleting media you don’t need. Another tip is to remove email accounts you don’t use but have added to the Mail app. You can just re-add the account later.
Check the exact status of your indexing process
Even though the iOS 27 Settings app doesn’t clearly say how far along the indexing process is, you can use your Mac to determine that. We have outlined everything in the full step-by-step tutorial here: How to see iPhone ‘Indexing in Progress’ status in iOS 27
Update to iOS 27 beta 2
The second iteration of iOS 27 beta is already available now.
Both my iPhone and iPad finished indexing before beta 2, and I have no way to confirm. But some user reports on X (Twitter) suggest that Apple is no longer showing the “Indexing in Progress” banner at the top of the Settings app. They seem to have hidden it so the user is not left confused — and let indexing continue in the background, as it has always done, even before iOS 27.
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