Sharepoint Online: Find an Item box is not finding all items in a list based on keyword search

I am using SharePoint Online.

I have a standard SharePoint list with a "Name" field (single line of text) and a "Description" field (multiple lines of text).  The Find n Item search box is present as expected, and works very sporadically.  For example, I have an item with the word "white" in the Description field.  Searching for "white" doesn't find the item.  I have a number of items with the word "vending" in the Name field.  Searching for vending returns some of the items, but not all of them.  

I have gone into the list settings (Advanced) and reindexed the list.

Here are two screenshots that illustrate the issue.  The first is unfiltered. The second shows a filter on the word "vending".  Note that some are found and some are not.

Filtered

Any idea what's going on?  

  • Changed type David Cater Saturday, January 25, 2014 5:07 PM
January 25th, 2014 4:27pm

How recent are the items that you're trying to create?  I can only think that the items may not have been indexed yet.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 26th, 2014 10:28am

A couple of weeks. Thanks for the reply.

David

  • Edited by David Cater Tuesday, January 28, 2014 12:35 PM
January 26th, 2014 1:30pm

I am also experiencing an issue with the find. If not the same issue David is having, I suspect it is related, so I will describe it here.

I created a list based on the Contacts content type and within a standard list view, entering values in the "Find an item" box will match content of some columns, but not others. The four columns that the find misses are Position(renamed from Job Title), Email Address, Mobile Phone, and Years Of Service (a Numeric column I added to the list). I too have re-indexed the list and retested after several hours.

Full Name and Email Address are both native columns of the Contact content type and both are Single line of text. I am able to filter the list by finding partial matches on Full Name, but not Email Address.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 28th, 2014 8:58pm

Yes, I'm having issues similar to that as well.  The one I posted was just the most egregious and made the most compelling screenshot.

I have found something interesting.  I added a new column called TestSearch, and then copied information from the Name or Description column into TestSearch for a number of rows.  After some period of time, search now works on that column.  It didn't work instantly, and then I didn't test it again for about 6 hours.  But now search appears to work consistently on that column; none of the searches I've done have failed.  Rows that have nothing in TestSearch still usually fail to match.

January 28th, 2014 9:05pm

I have submitted this issue to Microsoft through our Office 365 Support. I will post any determinations back here.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 29th, 2014 2:00pm

Hi, is there any update on this problem. I am also experiencing it and still cannot find a solution.
October 31st, 2014 6:34pm

Have got the same problem.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 3rd, 2014 2:53am

FYI, I have not solved this problem yet either.
November 3rd, 2014 7:28pm

I'm having the same issue.  Find an item doesn't return results for all items in the list.  Seems to be limited to Single Line of Text or Multiple Lines of text data.   For some items I can get a result if I use site search, but that just returns a link to the list, so not very useful. 

The Find an item search is working for most items and for some column that use single line of text.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 26th, 2015 3:59pm

The list was created by importing from Excel.  I noticed that the 2 columns I am having problems searching are called Notes and Description.  I'm not quite sure how the Managed Properties work, but I did notice that there are existing entries in the Managed properties for Notes and Descriptions and that neither have the Searchable box checked.  Could that be the problem??
June 26th, 2015 4:41pm

I went ahead and checked the box to make the Notes and Descriptions Managed Properties Searchable and then did a search crawl.  Didn't seem to make any difference. 

But... While mucking around in the settings, I found that searches for items mapped to a managed property need to include managedpropertname:searchitem.  (For example to search for a note including the word test, you put in notes:test). That works!! Yeah!!!

I may be wrong, but it looks like checking the Searchable box in the Managed property is supposed to remove the need to include the managed property name in the search query. Did I need to do another step after checking the Searchable box, or am I misinterpreting the information below?

Searchable:
Enables querying against the content of the managed property.  The content of this managed property is included in the full-text index. For example, if the property is "author", a simple query for "Smith" returns items containing the word "Smith" and items whose author property contains "Smith".

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 26th, 2015 6:00pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics