Improved methods and systems that assist a user in searching media items on a portable electronic device are disclosed. According to one aspect of the invention, a portable electronic device is provided with a search function that enables a user to search for media items resident on the portable electronic device. The search function can search through different types of media items. Those of the media items that are deemed matching can be ranked in order of relevance and displayed in a list for the user. Thereafter, the user can navigate the list to select one of the listed media items for playback. According to another aspect of the invention, various graphical user interfaces can be presented on a portable electronic device to assist a user in interacting with the portable electronic device to utilize a search function.