How to Search on an iPad

To search everything on an iPad at once, swipe down from the middle of the Home Screen to open Search (Spotlight) and start typing. With a hardware keyboard, press Command-Space instead. To control what appears in results, go to Settings > Search.

You know an email, a note or an app is on your iPad somewhere, and scrolling through screens to find it is taking longer than it should.

Open Search on iPad

Apple’s page on using Spotlight Search on iPhone and iPad gives this route:

1. Go to the Home Screen.
2. Swipe down from the middle of the screen. Starting from the very top edge opens Notification Center or Control Center instead, so begin lower.
3. Tap the Search field and type what you’re looking for. Results update as you type.

4. Tap a result to open it. To see more, tap Show More, or tap Search in App to repeat the search inside a single app.

If your Home Screen shows a Search button at the bottom, tapping it opens the same search.

If your iPad has a keyboard attached, Apple’s iPad keyboard shortcuts list Command-Space to show or hide Spotlight. That works from inside most apps, so you don’t need to go back to the Home Screen first.

You can also ask Siri to open an app or look something up, which helps when your hands are busy. Typing in Search tends to be faster for finding your own content. In iPadOS 27, on an iPad that supports Siri AI, Apple says you can also access Siri AI when you swipe down.

What Search Finds

Apple describes Spotlight on iPad as showing results from the internet, media, other content on your iPad and your apps. In practice that covers app names, contacts, messages, mail, notes, files, settings and web suggestions.

On iPadOS 17 and later, Apple says some results let you act right away. Search for a contact and you can call, message or start a FaceTime call from the result. Search for a setting such as Airplane Mode and you can switch it from the results.

Here’s an example. Ferdinand wants the note with his landlord’s gate code. He swipes down, types “gate” and sees the note under Notes. If the list is long, he taps Search in App beside Notes to see only matches there. For the same task on an iPhone, using Spotlight Search on iPhone works nearly identically.

Find an App

Typing an app’s name into Search is usually the fastest way to open it, even if it’s buried in a folder.

The App Library is the other route. It sits after the last Home Screen page and has its own search field at the top. On a keyboard with a Globe key, Apple lists Globe-Shift-A to show or hide the App Library, and Globe-H to go to the Home Screen.

If an app doesn’t show up either way, check whether it’s hidden. Apple notes that a hidden app doesn’t appear in search results until you unhide it. On iPadOS 18 and later, a hidden app sits in a locked Hidden folder at the bottom of the App Library, as explained in how to find hidden apps on an iPad.

Search the Web From Safari

Spotlight shows web suggestions, but for a full web search open Safari:

1. Tap the address and search field at the top of Safari.
2. Type your search and tap a suggestion, or tap Go on the keyboard.

Safari sends the search to your default search engine. To switch engines, see changing the Safari search engine on iPhone or iPad.

To find a word on the page you’re already reading, look for Find on Page. Depending on your iPadOS version, it may be in the Share menu or in the page menu beside the address field. You can also type the word into the address field and look for an On This Page match below the suggestions.

Search Inside Apps

Spotlight is broad. When you already know which app holds the item, the app’s own search is usually more precise. Most Apple apps have a Search field or a magnifying glass button:

• Mail: look for the Search field at the top of the message list (you may need to pull the list down to reveal it).
• Messages: the Search field sits above the conversation list.
• Notes: search across notes from the field above the notes list.
• Photos: search for things such as places, dates or what’s in a photo. Browsing by date is covered in viewing pictures by date on iPad.
• Files: the Search field searches by file name across your locations. For saved downloads in particular, see finding downloads on an iPad.
• Settings: a Search field near the top finds any setting by name.

Exact placement can change between iPadOS versions, so if a field isn’t where you expect, scroll to the top of the list or look for the magnifying glass.

Choose What Shows Up in Search

Apple puts these controls under Settings > Search. (Older instructions say Siri & Search, which is outdated.)

• Per app: tap an app and switch options such as Show App in Search, Show Content in Search, Suggest App and Suggest Notifications. Turning off Show Content in Search keeps that app’s data out of results.

• Show Related Content: turn this off to hide web-based results.
• Show Recent Searches: turn this off so past searches don’t appear when you open Search.

Suggestion alerts are managed separately under Settings > Notifications > Suggestion Notifications, where you can turn them all off or switch off single apps.

When Search Can’t Find Something

• The app is hidden: unhide it, then search again.
• The app is switched off in Settings > Search: turn Show App in Search or Show Content in Search back on.
• The item is old: Apple says results might be limited by how far back an app synced with iCloud, so older mail or messages may not appear. Search inside the app instead.
• The item just arrived: new content can take a moment to show up. Try again shortly.
• Results still look wrong: restart the iPad, then search again.

iPad Search Questions

Next time you start scrolling through Home Screens, swipe down and type the first few letters instead, then set Settings > Search so the results lean toward the apps you actually use.