Hello! I recently bought a new Win11 HP tower (Version 21H2, Build 22000.527) and have spent over a month getting all the software, including Microsoft 365, onto it. Before loading half a terabyte of documents onto it, I decided to test searching on it first and I'm glad I did.
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I created files of types .doc, .docx, .pptx, .pdf, and .txt with a few words in them.
When I search the folder they're in, I find all but the .doc and docx unless the word that I'm searching for is also in the filename; then it finds it.
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I've tried repeatedly and get the same result; no .doc or docx contents ever make the item show up.
This is keeping me from making the big leap to my new computer; I search for contents a lot to find old documents.
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I've looked around online a lot in trying to solve this so below is a list of what I've already tried. Looking for some real help for other things that could be behind this. Please don't recommend alternate products; File Explorer should work and I love it for everything else it does well!
Thank you!
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1) Make sure the file type is set to index both title and contents:
Step 1: Open Control Panel and choose to view by Small icons.
Step 2: Find and click the Indexing Options item.
Step 3: In the pop-up window, click Advanced button.
Step 4: Switch to File Types tab in the Advanced Options window and check Index Properties and File Contents, and then click OK.
My Result: Was already set correctly; nothing for me to change.
In case it's helpful, here are the filter descriptions:
.xls and .doc is set to "Microsoft Office Filter"
.txt is set to "Plain Text Filter"
.docx and .xlsx currently set to "Office Open XML Format Word Filter"
If any of those are wrong, help!
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2) Make Sure Windows Search Service Is Enabled
"The problem might appear if the Windows Search service is disabled. So, you need to make sure the service is enabled and here’s how to do it."
Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run window.
Step 2: Input services.msc in the box and click OK to open the Services app.
Step 3: Locate Windows Search service in the Name column. Double-click the service to open its Properties window.
Step 4: Make sure the Startup type is Automatic. If not, choose Automatic from the drop-down menu. The Service status should be Running. Otherwise, click Start button to run the service.
My Result: Was already set correctly; nothing for me to change.
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3) Rebuild Search Index with the Indexing Options/Advanced/Rebuild
My Result: Have done so many times with no improvement.
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4) Reboot to make sure you have a fresh copy of File Explorer
My Result: Has been rebooted many times since problem started and never works, even immediately after reboot.
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5) Restart File Explorer
If you encounter File Explorer search not responding, the first thing you can do is restarting your File Explorer.
To do that, just press Windows + X and select Task Manager from the menu. In the pop-up windows, find and select Windows Explorer process, and click Restart button.
My Result: No change.
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6) Make sure that "File contents" is checked in the "search options" of File Explorer.
My Result: It is, so that's not it.
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7) Restart the Windows process SearchUI.exe
"...some users have fixed the issue by restart the Windows process SearchUI.exe that controls the search element. Just go to Details tab in Task Manager, right-click the process and click End task. Then, this process will be restarted automatically."
My Result: I see no such process on the Details list and besides, wouldn't rebooting accomplish the same thing anyway?
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8) Verify that you're actually indexing what you're supposed to under "Indexing Options"
My Result: The three indexed locations are:
1) Microsoft Outlook 2) Start Menu 3) Users
So that third one should take care of making sure the place where my documents are is indexed because both my local documents area and OneDrive are under Users/milo .
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So those are the things I've tried. Any other guidance would be so appreciated, especially if it turns out to be an Win11 bug and not a setting, but I expect if it were a bug this would have come up a lot already in postings. Thank you all in advance!!!