Gallery search is way slower after One UI 8

[Kathrin1]

After updating to One UI 8 on my S24, the Gallery search has become painfully slow. Before, I could just search “Amazon,” tap on a result, and instantly open the photo, done. Now, every time I tap on a search result, the app loads for about 3 seconds while it tries to highlight where the keyword (like Amazon) appears in the image.

During that time, you can’t scroll, you can’t tap anything, you just have to wait. It’s so frustrating when you’re trying to quickly find a specific screenshot. It also makes scrolling through the results laggy and wastes a lot of time.

There’s no way to disable this “highlighting” feature, and since Gallery is a system app, you can’t uninstall or downgrade it.

This is what I mean

[RedDogRabbit]

I don't remember if it's been suggested previously, but if you haven't Booted into Recovery & Wiped Cache, I would start with that. 

You could also go to Settings > Apps Search for the Gallery & Click on it & Scroll down to Storage & Clear Cache for the Gallery.

Typically slow downs / lagging performance is often caused by fragmented files. 

Whether you Wipe Cache from Recovery, or Clear the Cache from the Gallery, you will NOT lose anything, Wiping Cache basically clears files that are not accessible anyway. 

[Kathrin1]

Ya, I did that but I'm talking about if I can just remove that whole thing in general

[RobertZ]

The spinning circles go for about a second on my S25.

Strange that it can find results quickly but then take longer to highlight the result.

[Kathrin1]

Lucky! I have to wait like 3 seconds, its so annoying!

[Urmi]

Hi Kathrin1,

We regret to hear that you are experiencing issues with the Gallery search performance following the One UI 8 update. 

Unfortunately, there is currently no option available to downgrade to a previous version of the software. However, as you have already attempted the steps suggested by @RedDodRabbit, we kindly recommend trying the additional troubleshooting steps outlined below to further address the issue.

Here are the formal steps to enable Safe Mode :

1. Press and hold the Power button until the power menu appears on the screen.

2. Tap and hold “Power off” until a prompt appears asking if you want to reboot into Safe Mode.

3. Confirm by tapping “OK” or “Yes.”

   • The device will restart and display “Safe Mode” in the lower corner of the screen.

4. Use the device normally for a few hours to observe its behavior.

   • In Safe Mode, all third-party apps are disabled. Only system apps will run.

5. To exit Safe Mode, simply restart the device normally.

[RobertZ]

Be wary of safe mode. It often changes your settings and defaults.

[Kathrin1]

Ya, im not even gonna bother booting into save mode