For the longest time, a Spotlight-related bug was my favorite ‘feature’ on iPadOS. Apple has now patched it, and I miss it.
You Can No Longer Access Spotlight Search Anywhere without a Keyboard On iPad, Apple has Patched the ‘Bug’
Spotlight search is my go-to place for a lot of things, especially launching apps. If Apple changes how it works, I’ll probably panic, because it’s perfect.
Launching Spotlight search using Magic Keyboard or any Bluetooth keyboard is easy. Just press the Command and Space keys together, and there it is in the center of the screen.
Or, if you’re at the Home Screen, just down on the screen, and Spotlight will instantly show up.
However, if you don’t have any keyboard connected, then there’s no way to launch Spotlight inside an app, or anywhere at all apart from the Home Screen. But a bug allowed you to do that.
Just pull down the Notification Center partially and swipe down on the visible part.
Boom, Spotlight search anywhere.
I even did a video on it highlighting how it works, and it’s actually quite useful.
However, the fun has come to an end and Apple has patched this bug once and for all in a recent iPadOS 18 update. What this means is, without the keyboard I can’t launch Spotlight search wherever I like.
I’m not going to ask Apple to bring a bug back, that would be terrible, but it’s one of those things that actually made using iPad without a keyboard very convenient. Who knows? Apple might just introduce a gesture for summoning Spotlight search anywhere in a future iPadOS update.
