Apple iPhone 17 ProGetty ImagesApple iPhone updates can make your handset feel sluggish for hours or days afterwards. Apple has just published a support document which explains what’s going on and has three ways to shorten the slowcoach effect. Here’s all you need to know. ForbesiPhone 18 Pro Launch: Apple Confirms Keynote, Full Schedule HereBy David PhelanApple iPhone Updates: The Indexing ProcessSpotlight is Apple’s search feature and it “relies on a regularly updated search index of the data stored on your device,” Apple said in a new support document titled “About Spotlight indexing and search results on Apple devices.”It also stressed that it’s confidential: “This is a local, private index that stays on your device and isn’t shared with Apple or your other devices,” it explained.Apple iPhone Updates: How Spotlight Indexing Works“Indexing happens when you first set up your device, after you install a software update or upgrade, and as data changes on your device. For example, the index updates when you install new apps that allow their content to be indexed, or you receive new email or text messages,” Apple said.MORE FOR YOUIf that sounds time-consuming, you’re not wrong. Apple revealed that the main indexing can take hours or even days while incremental updates are much faster.Apple iPhone Updates: Why It Affects So Many iPhonesIf you’ve been trialing the iOS 27 developer or beta updates, you may have encountered extended slowdown while the first indexing is done. But that doesn’t mean that it’s only iOS 27 users who are affected — Apple scrupulously avoids giving any iOS version numbers in its support document.And for iOS 26 users, in order to prevent this kind of slowdown from annoying everyone when they update to iOS 27, Apple has done something in advance.On July 26, Apple released iOS 26.6 (full details here) which “optimizes the Spotlight index to prepare for iOS 27,” the release notes said. Apple could do this easily because every iPhone capable of running iOS 26 will also support iOS 27, which is expected to launch in early September — read this for a full schedule of what’s coming when. And since the iPhone 18 Pro is nearly here, along with the first foldable iPhone, which may have a name nobody has predicted, this was good preparation work. Apple iPhone Updates: How To Speed Things UpApple’s support document helpfully included three tips on how to help the indexing along. First, it completes more quickly when the iPhone is not in use — although, frankly, it’s easier said than done to leave the iPhone alone unless you’re sleeping. Second, it goes quicker when the iPhone is connected to power. And third, being connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet will speed things along, “in case email or other data needs to be downloaded for indexing,” Apple warned.While it’s indexing, you may see a notification in the Settings app that search and Siri are optimizing. These tips may mean that your next Apple iPhone updates see your phone return to normal performance sooner. ForbesApple iPhone 18 Pro Design Latest: 4 New Colors And Updated Case StyleBy David Phelan